Swimming

Hi I am 66 so my pacing is not for you but my suggestion is the same as I do with my running I run a known distance record my time how I felt and that becomes my baseline. I then factor in how much faster I would like to be each month and then run the same distance and check new times.
My swimming is a bit different I swim for one hour and do not count laps per say sometimes I am faster sometimes not so fast so the time dictates the length of my swim. Yesterday was a pretty good day and I swam about 30 RT or 60 laps or 1500 meters in an hour. Since everyone is different you have to be able to pace yourself. I had a young lady on one side who lapped me every few laps and that was her pace, I gave up trying to keep up with younger swimmers long ago lol
Hope that helps get you started to improve.
I generally incorporate higher speeds into my swim every 6 or so laps I will do a semi sprint lap changing my breathing from every 4 strokes to a 2 stroke breathing pattern for the sprint lap, then a recovery lap and back to normal pace

I used to swim competitively and i'd dread those long sustained swims lol


if it was me i'd be doing sprints for time. nothing above 200 for me.

say your best 100 time is 60 sec (which is pretty ****ing good) get a stop watch and give yourself 1:30 or so and if you are early your rest, late you go.

could also do pyramids 50-100-200-100-50 or whatever. stick some IMs in there. lots of different approches

There is a great website for swimming workouts that range from 2-3k yards/meters.
http://ruthkazez.com/50swimworkouts.html

I use these 2-3X a week. Generally the 2k takes about 40-60 min and the 3k takes about 60-90 minutes depending on the strokes. This website has great variety so you won't get bored and the long and short workout gives you something to work towards. I started only doing the short workout and after 3 months have built myself up to doing only the long ones. Hope this helps you because it has helped me stay excited about swimming!

My first suggestion would be to join a USMS affiliated swim group. The coaches will provide a variety of different workouts to challenge you in different ways.

Swim workouts are usually structured as warmup, drills, main set, cool down. Sometimes a secondary set will be added between the main set and the cool down.

In choosing workouts and setting goals it is good to know what is your sustainable workout swim pace, usually expressed in terms of your 100 yard time. For instance, if you swim your workouts at a 2:00/100yd pace, that means you can, for instance, swim 500 yards in, say, 9m30s, take a 30 second rest, and then do it again. Doing this 3 or 4 times would be a distance-oriented main set.

Often a USMS group will have several pace groups doing similar patterned workouts, with adjustments for time or distance based on that pace group's speed.

My group had what sounded like a cool workout today (I missed it but will swim it myself as soon as I can).
50 yards as fast as you can, then 150 yards easy recovery pace - 4 minutes total (you can rest a bit if you finish less than 4 min)
100 yards as fast as you can, then 150 easy/recovery - 6 minutes total
150 max, 200 easy @ 8 min
100 max, 150 easy @ 6 min
50 max, 100 easy @ 4 min
There was also a slower group option, using the same time intervals but half the distances.

Another thing that's great about having a coach is to have someone with a non-hypoxic brain who's keeping track of the times and distances for you.

Generally if you want to push yourself and improve you will want to do all of your workouts on the clock.

Hope this helps!