So I'm 50, swimming a few years, had a little coaching. Turn 50 yd laps at around 55 seconds, and can sustain that pace for 15 laps or so at a time.
Goal = 30 minute mile (35 laps at 51.5, I think).
So I understand the strong core and relaxed arms, but I wonder if I'm too relaxed. So, to my question: When I played basketball, we were told that, if we wanted to leap as high as possible, jump at an 8 or 8.5 on an effort scale with 10 as maximum effort, so that we didn't tense up. Is it about the same with freestyle--especially with arm motion?
I can sprint a 40 second lap, but even swimming an hour a day, I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to pull off the 30 minute mile?
Thanks for any advice on technique or workouts, in addition to my primary question about how "hard" to swim.
I don't know anything about basketball but in swimming, you should be swimming the fastest pace you can swim to complete a specific distance (your "best average pace"). Don't pick a pace and see how far you can swim on that pace. If you do, the results will always be the same. Instead, pick a distance, swim that distance, and note your time. This will be your best pace for that distance. The next time you swim that distance, make your goal to swim that distance faster (giving you a new best pace for that distance).
There are lots of ways to improve your pace and make it faster. For example, swimming lots and lots of shorter sprints (50s), swimming builds, swimming broken mile descends, etc. When doing sprints, you want to swim as fast as you can without sacrificing your technique. If you find your technique starting to slide while your swimming a sprint set, slow down to the fastest speed that also allows you to remain focused on your technique. In fact, it's not uncommon for swimmers to have to stop their sprint set completely, do some drills for a few minutes to get refocused on their technique, and then resume their sprint set. For builds, do a middle distance interval and start the interval at a comfortable pace, such as at a 60% effort, and then gradually increase your pace until you finish at 100% effort. For example, you may swim a "3 x 500 build with a 1:00 rest interval" in which you swim the first 100 at 60% effort, the second 100 at 70% effort, the third 100 at an 80% effort, the fourth at a 90% effort, and then the last 100 at 100% effort. Rest for one minute and then repeat the interval two more times. For a broken mile descend, you swim 11 lengths of the pool (275 yards) and rest for 15-30 seconds, swim 10 lengths and rest for 15-30 seconds, swim 9 lengths and rest for 15-30 seconds, etc. etc. until you're done. Each distance should be faster than the previous (hence, the term "descend") so by the time you're down to the last 4 lengths (from 100, 75, 50, 25) you should be sprinting. You could even make it a broken mile build AND descend in which each interval within the set is a build and the whole set is a descend. Doing a build and descend broken mile is really tough so you might want hold off on it and stick with the descend only for now but doing broken mile build and descends will get you tons of experience learning about the relationship between your pace and your effort which will tell you whether youre swimming too hard or not hard enough (more than likely, you'll be swimming too hard until you get more practice at "feeling" the relationship between your pace and effort).
Hope that helps!
I don't know anything about basketball but in swimming, you should be swimming the fastest pace you can swim to complete a specific distance (your "best average pace"). Don't pick a pace and see how far you can swim on that pace. If you do, the results will always be the same. Instead, pick a distance, swim that distance, and note your time. This will be your best pace for that distance. The next time you swim that distance, make your goal to swim that distance faster (giving you a new best pace for that distance).
There are lots of ways to improve your pace and make it faster. For example, swimming lots and lots of shorter sprints (50s), swimming builds, swimming broken mile descends, etc. When doing sprints, you want to swim as fast as you can without sacrificing your technique. If you find your technique starting to slide while your swimming a sprint set, slow down to the fastest speed that also allows you to remain focused on your technique. In fact, it's not uncommon for swimmers to have to stop their sprint set completely, do some drills for a few minutes to get refocused on their technique, and then resume their sprint set. For builds, do a middle distance interval and start the interval at a comfortable pace, such as at a 60% effort, and then gradually increase your pace until you finish at 100% effort. For example, you may swim a "3 x 500 build with a 1:00 rest interval" in which you swim the first 100 at 60% effort, the second 100 at 70% effort, the third 100 at an 80% effort, the fourth at a 90% effort, and then the last 100 at 100% effort. Rest for one minute and then repeat the interval two more times. For a broken mile descend, you swim 11 lengths of the pool (275 yards) and rest for 15-30 seconds, swim 10 lengths and rest for 15-30 seconds, swim 9 lengths and rest for 15-30 seconds, etc. etc. until you're done. Each distance should be faster than the previous (hence, the term "descend") so by the time you're down to the last 4 lengths (from 100, 75, 50, 25) you should be sprinting. You could even make it a broken mile build AND descend in which each interval within the set is a build and the whole set is a descend. Doing a build and descend broken mile is really tough so you might want hold off on it and stick with the descend only for now but doing broken mile build and descends will get you tons of experience learning about the relationship between your pace and your effort which will tell you whether youre swimming too hard or not hard enough (more than likely, you'll be swimming too hard until you get more practice at "feeling" the relationship between your pace and effort).
Hope that helps!
