Like many others, I've made the transition to outdoor LCM swimming for the summer. I love it in many ways. But I have noticed that the "garbage yards" problem creeps in when I swim long course. I work on my stroke, which is good, but my tempo and overall intensity drop. I swim with fitness lap swimmers for the most part, or alone. The other day I swam some 100s alternating between easy and hard, and made some progress on the hard ones. But I notice that I anticipate my pool time less because it feels like I'm mailing it in.
Does anybody else have this problem? If so, do you have suggestions for how to introduce more variation and intensity into long course swimming?
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Former Member
Excellent idea about the 100 fly! Not only is your swimming-in-general fitting around your current work schedule, but it seems you have found an event that works as well, with a reasonable time frame leading up to the race! I think just having this goal will put more umph into your speed, and you will look forward to swimming because you have a purpose.
I suggest going through Tall Paul/Fort/Ande stuff;fly thread, sprint thread, and don't forget Rich A's words of wisdom! I am anxiously awaiting his next segment in the Colorado masters newsletter. You can search for the first two (not sure off hand what their website is, but i'm sure you can find it under a "colorado masters swimming" search. The 1st was in 4Q 2010 and the next one is in 1Q 2011. Qbrain cut & paste a great message from Rich into a post, but I can't remember which thread.
Yesterday I swam 5 x 50 fly long course with lots of junk in between, and I found myself thinking, "What the hell am I thinking, LCM 100 fly???" So will take your suggestion and go do my homework. Maybe I will discover a magic tip that makes this possible! Thanks for the recommendations.
Excellent idea about the 100 fly! Not only is your swimming-in-general fitting around your current work schedule, but it seems you have found an event that works as well, with a reasonable time frame leading up to the race! I think just having this goal will put more umph into your speed, and you will look forward to swimming because you have a purpose.
I suggest going through Tall Paul/Fort/Ande stuff;fly thread, sprint thread, and don't forget Rich A's words of wisdom! I am anxiously awaiting his next segment in the Colorado masters newsletter. You can search for the first two (not sure off hand what their website is, but i'm sure you can find it under a "colorado masters swimming" search. The 1st was in 4Q 2010 and the next one is in 1Q 2011. Qbrain cut & paste a great message from Rich into a post, but I can't remember which thread.
Yesterday I swam 5 x 50 fly long course with lots of junk in between, and I found myself thinking, "What the hell am I thinking, LCM 100 fly???" So will take your suggestion and go do my homework. Maybe I will discover a magic tip that makes this possible! Thanks for the recommendations.
