Possible to improve 30min distance w/only 30min sessions?

You come up with a program that could get a typical geezer to do a mile in 18 minutes? Please let me know. Thanks. For the original pooster? I would consider alternating three workouts. 1) Push as ahrd as you can for 30 minutes. 2) Short warmup. do a 400 fast, take a couple relaxed laps, do another 400 fast, (maybe a 3rd one?) short wind down. 3) Short warmup. 100 yard sprints (or maybe 3 lengths, which might be 110, if I understand your pool diminsions correctly) with short rests, until you have maybe 4 minutes left, then a wind down. Of course you time would get a whole loty better if you did longer workouts for a month or two. Then 30 minutes a day would slow the inevitable decline. Ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit telling about 18 min. At the beginning I didn't realize he's in his 50s. Anyway a mile in 30min means there's a room for improvement of the technique. Paul 1953, I wonder what is your heart rate staight after you swim a mile and after a minute? I don't consider 1 program would be enough a good planning is required. Since a mile is a long distance I would suggest to make a planning for half a year: 1) 2 months you need to work on basic endurance and technique. That means you need to swim not faster than 60% of MHR concentrating on technique. I am not sure what kind of gaps you have in your technique - the good idea would be to ask some coach to see it. Then knowing what to work on you can select exercises to fix that problems. Swim sets which contain exercises alternating with full stroke, like 8x200 - 50 exercise / 50 full stroke. or 4x400 or 2x800 in the same manner. Once a week you may swim entire mile but don't rush, try to keep heart rate not more than 60-70%. 2) next 2 months you add threshold work. I will not write how to define anaerobic threshold, if you don't know - there are plenty articles. half of the tasks you do should be still aerobic - 60% MHR and exercises. but now you also swim 1-2 a week interval sets like 8x200 or 16x100 on 80-85% of the MHR(depending on you threshold) Rest 10-15 sec. Try to keep the same time each 100 - 200. If you fade then you took high rhythm - next time decrease it a bit. The beginning should feel very easy but it will get hard but you should be able to maintain same time. 3) next 2 months. Here 1st of these 2 months you add some some lactate production and lactate tolerance sets (could be same 8x200 but on 90-95% of the MHR) and 2nd month some speed sets like 16x100 - 25 all out / 75 easy Here you also can do what Mick advised "Short warmup. do a 400 fast, take a couple relaxed laps, do another 400 fast, (maybe a 3rd one?) short wind down." Last 2 weeks decrease intensity and rest. At the end of these 2 weeks swim a mile. Record time. Each half a year your time should improve. Mile or 1.5K is a serious work and requires serious approach and planning. Later you may use this schema to prepare for competitions with slight changes. For sprinters it's easier, personally I swim 50 and 100 so I can split my season into smaller - 3 months cycles. After certain level you will feel that 30 min is not enough to improve. Here's a nice overview of the swimming planning phases - www.brianmac.co.uk/.../swimplan.htm Also I would advice to get a book "Serious Training for Endurance Athletes" by Rob Sleamaker and Ray Browning - great book which describes in details preparation process for triathlon events and can be used by endurance swimmers. Amazon.com: Serious Training for Endurance Athletes 2nd (9780873226448): Rob Sleamaker, Ray Browning: Books

You come up with a program that could get a typical geezer to do a mile in 18 minutes? Please let me know. Thanks. For the original pooster? I would consider alternating three workouts. 1) Push as ahrd as you can for 30 minutes. 2) Short warmup. do a 400 fast, take a couple relaxed laps, do another 400 fast, (maybe a 3rd one?) short wind down. 3) Short warmup. 100 yard sprints (or maybe 3 lengths, which might be 110, if I understand your pool diminsions correctly) with short rests, until you have maybe 4 minutes left, then a wind down. Of course you time would get a whole loty better if you did longer workouts for a month or two. Then 30 minutes a day would slow the inevitable decline. Ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit telling about 18 min. At the beginning I didn't realize he's in his 50s. Anyway a mile in 30min means there's a room for improvement of the technique. Paul 1953, I wonder what is your heart rate staight after you swim a mile and after a minute? I don't consider 1 program would be enough a good planning is required. Since a mile is a long distance I would suggest to make a planning for half a year: 1) 2 months you need to work on basic endurance and technique. That means you need to swim not faster than 60% of MHR concentrating on technique. I am not sure what kind of gaps you have in your technique - the good idea would be to ask some coach to see it. Then knowing what to work on you can select exercises to fix that problems. Swim sets which contain exercises alternating with full stroke, like 8x200 - 50 exercise / 50 full stroke. or 4x400 or 2x800 in the same manner. Once a week you may swim entire mile but don't rush, try to keep heart rate not more than 60-70%. 2) next 2 months you add threshold work. I will not write how to define anaerobic threshold, if you don't know - there are plenty articles. half of the tasks you do should be still aerobic - 60% MHR and exercises. but now you also swim 1-2 a week interval sets like 8x200 or 16x100 on 80-85% of the MHR(depending on you threshold) Rest 10-15 sec. Try to keep the same time each 100 - 200. If you fade then you took high rhythm - next time decrease it a bit. The beginning should feel very easy but it will get hard but you should be able to maintain same time. 3) next 2 months. Here 1st of these 2 months you add some some lactate production and lactate tolerance sets (could be same 8x200 but on 90-95% of the MHR) and 2nd month some speed sets like 16x100 - 25 all out / 75 easy Here you also can do what Mick advised "Short warmup. do a 400 fast, take a couple relaxed laps, do another 400 fast, (maybe a 3rd one?) short wind down." Last 2 weeks decrease intensity and rest. At the end of these 2 weeks swim a mile. Record time. Each half a year your time should improve. Mile or 1.5K is a serious work and requires serious approach and planning. Later you may use this schema to prepare for competitions with slight changes. For sprinters it's easier, personally I swim 50 and 100 so I can split my season into smaller - 3 months cycles. After certain level you will feel that 30 min is not enough to improve. Here's a nice overview of the swimming planning phases - www.brianmac.co.uk/.../swimplan.htm Also I would advice to get a book "Serious Training for Endurance Athletes" by Rob Sleamaker and Ray Browning - great book which describes in details preparation process for triathlon events and can be used by endurance swimmers. Amazon.com: Serious Training for Endurance Athletes 2nd (9780873226448): Rob Sleamaker, Ray Browning: Books