750m 30mins

Sorry about the stye, panda Those hurt!!
Noel, don't ever leave this group, lol. Your humor and perspective are much needed. I was back before class yesterday. Thursday is my "long swim." By any standard, other than the fact that I could barely complete a lap when I began swimming, this is not a long swim. However, Thursday is my "get a mile in before class begins" day, and so I did. It wasn't super terrific, but not bad, considering I've been so congested and missed swims lately.

Two observations came to me: 1) a mile is plenty long for me for now. Yes, my original goal has been met, but really, I want to be able to continue this. I am not yet willing to give up my other water fitness class. The instructor has a PT background and she's doing a careful program of progressive overload that is helping my strength, balance and cardio, which is benefiting all of the other activities I love to do.

2) by the end of my aforementioned mile, I'm really getting into my swing. So, it is hard to stop and get out. Maybe Thursdays I'll try to get to the pool 15 minutes earlier than my usual time (which just fits a mile in before class) and I'll get at least 15 minutes of "post mile terrific swim."

Great time getting in a mile both yesterday and today. I had a lane to myself for the last fifteenish minutes each day. How freeing and fabulous that is !!

2300m

200 warmup

4x50 kick as 25 fast 25 easy

3x100 free as 25 fast 25 easy on 2.00

2x the following
2x75 pull
4x25 br on 40
100 free
100 back

12x50 on 60 as 2x the following
Fly, br, free, fly, back, free

100 easy

400m, 20 mins

Welcome back Emma...

45 mins. No idea on distance but presumably over 1k.

A good swim - with less fiddling with the Waterproof earphones...and I could have kept going (but I need to grade / pace my effort)... pleased !

Monday (yesterday): 2.5 km in about 59 min.
Pool was packed with people swimming widthwise and couldn't get any sort of rythm going. A few crashes too!

Today: 1 hour of various intervals and drills with the school kids, and boy was it a complete revelation.
I am faster than the kids in terms of sprint speeds.
However when it comes to kick sets they can do 2 lengths (and possibly more) in the time it takes me to do one.

This means two things:
1) It confirms conventional wisdom that majority of swim speed comes from the upper body - how else could I be faster than them when swimming normally, yet move at less than half their speed when doing kick sets.

2) It means my lower body and kicking is very weak and below par, and I am giving away a lot of swim speed (especially in shorter sprints) by not having a good enough kick! There's just no power coming from down there, even over very short distances.

I have spent majority of last year working on my stroke and particularly the pull and it shows - my pull is really stellar in relation to the rest.
But it's now time to focus a but more on my kicking and strength in those leg muscles.
I'll probably try and incorporate a kick set after all my long swims, and I presume they'll continue to feature in the interval training.

A new challenge to keep things interesting!!!

Very slow workout last night after donating blood earlier in the day. When they say "no strenuous activity for twelve hours" what they really mean is "you CAN'T do strenuous activity". It was as if I was transported back eight months as far as my speed and stamina.

As for kicking, I'm with AQ. Most everyone passes me at any time, though

60sPanda wrote: »

?.. (all my sprints now incorporate tumble turns as I never used to bother with them)...

That is a big switch - but an important one. Must be tiring!!!

UG77 wrote: »

1000m 60min, all freestyle.

Forcing myself to not rotate to other less demanding strokes for "resting" had a couple of notable impacts this morning. Obviously, I didn't get in as many laps. What I consider more important though is that I improved my technique a lot during the laps I did do. There's much to be said in the exhaustion/desperation that comes from just pushing on ahead in that it really makes you aware of where you're wasting energy and thus oxygen. My posture improved, my kicking improved, and my breathing control greatly improved. Now to just start out with that on Friday.

Very very true UG. Maintaining form even when tired and there is he temptation to just do something else is very important. Good stuff!

mpeters1965 wrote: »

I'm still lacking in enthusiasm for swimming but I swam about 45 minutes, mixed sets this morning. Did 6 timed 50-yard sets in the middle of it all trying to get faster each time. That never seems to work but I started at 1:08 on the first and stayed around 1:04ish for the remaining 5. I didn't have it in me to all-out sprint this morning and that's what it takes to get me under a minute. That and a faster pool. I didn't used to believe there was a difference but I seem to have better times in our other pool and at the few other Y's I have visited in the state.

Good job everybody! I still like to read what you all are doing even though I haven't felt like doing much myself.

Hang in there mpeters.
I think deeper pools are faster, or vice versa!

60sPanda wrote: »

I am out of the water for a few days at the moment. I have developed my first ever stye in my eye - and unfortunately for me it is right where my goggles sit so I can't wear them (too painful). Hopefully it clears up quickly!

I used to get styes all the time, although haven't had one for awhile.
Painful and irritating things!

aliciamariaq wrote: »

3.3 km in 90 minutes
400 warm up
8 x (50 + 100) on 1:40 for 100m 50s for 50m
3 x 200 on 3:20 (the 1st and 3rd 200 broken up into 4x50)
4 x 100 kick with fins, sprint last 25m
4x100 IM on 2min
300m cool down.

I was really pleased with this workout because it was really really tough and wanted to give up a couple of times but didn't. Also, there were a few people in my lane that I struggled to keep up with a couple of months ago and last night I was in front of them. Getting stronger....

Good job not giving up! And you're getting speedier to!

NoelFigart1 wrote: »

1550 42:50

This was an awful swim. But then, in another way, it wasn't.

My shoulders were tighter than a tentrope in the rain, I had to share a lane with a women, who while a lovely person, is flat-out the clumsiest swimmer I have ever seen in my life. Nuttin wrong with being a clumsy swimmer, mind. It's just that swimming by her meant I had to watch out for her crossing the middle of the lane, random sideways kicks and so on.

But, hey, she paid as much to be in the pool as I did, so... I'm not going to be That Person, yaknow?

Anyway, my shoulders are tight, I am tenser than usual when I started swimming and I was feeling cranky and kind of clumsy, myself, in the water.

But I still did the best I was capable of in that moment (even if it was hardly brilliant). And I know come June, whether or not TODAY was a brilliant swim won't mean a thing.

That I got in, did my planned distance and stuck with it? Oh yeah, that's going to matter a great deal.

Lol good job avoiding the kicks and getting another swim for the bean jar!!!

Bruceapple wrote: »

1 MILE @ 67 MINUTES

Always good to see you Bruce. How's the arms doing? You seem to have pushed up the distance abit again!

emmab0902 wrote: »

Funny AQ I'm the opposite. Fastest in my lane for swimming and kick, but slowest at pull! Which makes even less sense!

So if you worked on that pull your times would be even more amazing than they already are! Wow!

nuffer wrote: »

Very slow workout last night after donating blood earlier in the day. When they say "no strenuous activity for twelve hours" what they really mean is "you CAN'T do strenuous activity". It was as if I was transported back eight months as far as my speed and stamina.

As for kicking, I'm with AQ. Most everyone passes me at any time, though

Yep! Don't even know how you managed to swim. After donating I get very weak!

juliet3455 wrote: »

Both of the senior swim coach's at the local pool say that men are famous for having a weak kick, and mine is the definition of weak. Like AQ everyone pass's me when doing kick sets. Of course most of them pass me when doing an all out swim.
Missed lessons tonight as I was travelling for work. 700 km ( ~420 miles ) of driving today.
Went to the late lanes - I was the only one in the pool.
Knocked off a timed 750m swim for my fall triathlon pace time. 17:24. A full minute faster than last years time. Completed some drills to get a total 1500 meters in.

Nice consolation to know I'm not the only man out there with a weak kick
Getting a full minute off your time is great progress!!!

Still out of the pool - the stye is getting better and hopefully by saturday will be gone.

@aquatic quests - i also have an extremely weak kick. When I do crawl with fins I am a good 50% faster!!! Plus my butterfly kick is so slow that if I just do fly legs I will actually come to a stop in the middle of the pool becuase there is no propulsion.... I am with you on needing to get better but I hate kick drills so rarely do them