Motivation - Pushing farther

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

flystorms — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 07:06:35 GMT

Do you mean, making your goal 15 minutes instead of 25? :)

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

Gary P — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 12:45:46 GMT

When my motivation started to wain, I joined the local masters team. A couple workouts a week with some other like-minded individuals helped. Having somebody (the coach) offer a variety of workout ideas I would have never thought of myself helped. I still workout 2-3 times a week by myself, but I look forward to team practice more.

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

flystorms — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 10:51:12 GMT

You may be getting bored if you're just doing the 20 laps straight through. Try mixing things up a bit and if you are a USMS member, you have access to all kinds of workouts on this forum. Use them. But you should try to break up the workout by playing with the clock. For example, start out with 200 yards just to warm up. Then do 4x50's, each one getting a bit faster. Then mix things up a bit by doing some 75's where you kick 25 yards , then swim 50. Then try to do something else in a certain amount of time. Next thing you know, you've gone further than you have before and actually probably are getting a better workout than by just drudging along straight through.

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

Bill Sive — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 10:11:36 GMT

9714 (Self)Motivation - is mental, with a little bit of physical thrown in.

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

srcoyote — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 08:15:55 GMT

My motivation can wane when I don't have an event towards which I'm training. There are shorter open water events you can enter (a mile or shorter). I find that once I click submit on registration for an event, motivation kicks in immediately. I also recommend varying workouts rather than just swimming freestyle laps. I only enter open water events, but I train on all four strokes, add kick and pull sets, and I even include some sprint sets (which actually have improved my distance pace).

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

Lyn — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 05:32:19 GMT

Maybe it would help if you shift your motivation for being in the pool from swimming due to a back issue to swimming to be the best swimmer you can be. There are so many individual bits to think about to have a decent stroke, a good kick, be streamlined, etc. Maybe if you focus on one or two things that you're trying to improve with each lap, you'll be so busy you won't get bored.

RE: Motivation - Pushing farther

fatboy — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 04:35:02 GMT

all the above suggestions are good. You can try not counting laps at all - just swim continuously for x number of minutes. You know how long it takes to do 20 laps. Add 5 minutes to that and make that your goal. Look at the clock before you start and figure out the stop time. Start swimming and don't worry about counting laps. Look at the clock occasionally and keep swimming until you meet your time goal. Say you are now swimming 20 laps in 20 minutes. Make your goal 25 minutes. Start at 5:30 and swim until clock is at 5:55.