I have tonnes of goals (wee bit obsessive, us swimmers can be) they include

•100km per month
Swim right through winter in the ocean
Ten km Ocean Swims (under three hours)
•Six Hour Cold Water Swim
•Rottnest Channel 19.6km in under seven hours
•English Channel (not fussed on time need to complete). August 2nd-8th 2014.

No speed goals. Maybe that will come as I build upper body strength. Right now I'm happy with 1 minute laps.

More endurance.

Working toward a 10km single swim.
I have met the 10km in a day. 2 swims.
Current month cumulative is above 60 miles.

No speed goals. Maybe that will come as I build upper body strength. Right now I'm happy with 1 minute laps.

More endurance.

Working toward a 10km single swim.
I have met the 10km in a day. 2 swims.
Current month cumulative is above 60 miles.

Correction. Currently monthly average is 60+ miles. For the year, as of May 31 is >305 miles. Goal is >600 for the year. Looks like I'll make that and may have to up the target.
Not competing and no plans to compete against anything but my last longest swim.
Lots of faster swimmer at the Y. But they haven't caught me on distance :bigsmile:

I've tried to keep it simple since I only started swimming regularly at all again a couple of years ago and at the moment it's hard for me to get to the pool more than once a week at most usually due to work and life.

I'm a total wimp compared to all the serious swimmers, but I thought it might be worth mentioning for some of us more casual swimmers, at least for me, my goals boil down to time spent swimming and reps rather than speed or distance:

Here are my swim goals for example:

#1 Is just to get in both classes whenever possible.. (including the harder cold water one) on the day I'm usually off work that they both usually happen. (This is when I'm up to both, sometimes I only do the 2nd easier/soothing warm water one.)

#2 Make myself do laps after classes if possible (I tend to stay out of the serious swimmers' way and skip laps if the lanes are busy) and how many laps can I do? Try for at least 10. I note how long it takes me and try to keep consistent, but I work to have good form and grace moving through the water moreso than speed. I admit I loathe crawl stroke and never do it, preferring sidestroke mixed with various backstrokes. A long term goal has been to maybe attempt it again sometime but I'm not there yet.

#3 Get in at least 2 full minutes of treading water. This I find easy and love, just feels good to get it in.

In recent years whenever I travel I have also made it a general goal to look up the local aqua center if there is one and go check it out. I've had some interesting adventures that way.

I am a new swimmer, too. My daily goal is an hour of swimming as strong as I can. I don't count laps at this point.

Counting laps for an hour in my head is too much. That is why I bought a finger ring style digital counter. Once I got past 36 laps I had to do something to keep track:bigsmile:

I am a new swimmer, too. My daily goal is an hour of swimming as strong as I can. I don't count laps at this point.

Counting laps for an hour in my head is too much. That is why I bought a finger ring style digital counter. Once I got past 36 laps I had to do something to keep track:bigsmile:

I wear swim gloves. Would a lap counter work?

My goals are certainly in the modest camp:


~ Keep going (!)

~ Improving on my 750 m regular swim ( 30 mins - about half is drills, across all 4 strokes)

~ Doing 1K more often - and hopefully in time this being my regular 30 min distance



So a mix of speed and distance, but I cannot imagine ever being a proper long distance fiend.



ABOUT a year or so ago a typical swim was 550m (roughly half drills) in half an hour so it is improving - slowly and gently!



By the way, I don't count laps the usual way - I have a pattern I follow based on spellings . My current one, in honour of my new pool GLASSMILLS starts with 50 m General crawl, then a Legs drill, then Arms, then a Swift and a Slow for each main stroke type etc etc. keeps it varied, easy to remember what I' ve dome and what next. And it amuses me...!

Update on my endurance goal: I'm actually hitting 400 m per stroke in 10 minutes. Think I need to double that, and then work it back down. Medleys are still 15 minutes for the same distance. (Don't ask, I couldn't tell you - but I'm thinking the slow down is in the butterfly. Still having issues with timing on that one.)

8 laps in 10 minutes is a good pace. I'm around 1 minute per lap. Varies across the swim somewhat since I sometimes lose concentration of technique and my stroke per length count goes up. When I'm well focused I'm around 21 to 23 strokes per length in a 25 yrd pool. When i get off track it goes up to 25 or 26.
Personally, I stick with front crawl. In part because it is what my left shoulder can tolerate well. And because I am working toward that distance goal. Once I hit that I will likely change things up more.
Maybe I'm just to obsessed with hitting that 10km :bigsmile:

Any goal worth hitting takes quite a bit of concentration, and possibly a little obsession, so I wouldn't worry about it. Now, if you were looking at swimming around the WORLD, then there may be a problem! But, 10K is perfectly doable. So is just about anything that leads to a channel crossing. ::Grins::

And, part of the reason I am thinking of upping my endurance swims is because I love seeing the big burns. I may change the calories burned when I'm logging it from the actual burn to just 1 cal per exercise because I use the TDEE method, and I am arguing with macros, but it's still fun to keep up the challenge with a couple of my friends on who burned more. (And, I feel like a sluggard when I don't have at LEAST a 500 calorie burn for the day.)

Keep on pushing like you are, and you'll make your goal. Not to mention, help that shoulder since you aren't over doing your activity.