The new Master's coach philosophy is to do lower yardage and more IM. Lots of kicks (strengthen the core), lots of drills, and lots of toys (snorkel, skull finger paddles, regular paddles, zoomers, regular fins, *** stoke fins, finis tempo trainer, light weight kick board...) (disclaimer...I have not bought any of this stuff, just have the normal toys). I am in my 60's, have swum forever, many years in masters, raised age-group kids through college swimming, and am very confused.
I am used to 10 x 100 or 5 x 200's or couple 500's, IM once in a while, option to swim IM or free, kicks as a set in a workout, you know what I'm talkin' bout.
Now I am exhausted doing 90 minutes of kicks and sprints and only going 2000 yards. Flipping at the end of every set, using weight balls in the water, doing 6 x 100 *** stroke kick no hands, doing tandem training, example: swimming arm in arm with the other 60 year old doing fly kicks then holding his legs while I kick and he strokes, then vise versa. Now it is not always exhausting, but it seems always to be frustrating.
Working hard is not the problem, but working hard doing fly kicks in 50 meter pools is frustrating. And my distance flog is suffering. Not just 4 x 50 fly kicks, but 10 x 50 fly kicks.
It has been 4 months with new coach. Others say that they workouts are making them stronger for races and allowing them to be tougher. I worry about hurting my back, my shoulders, and not getting in my yardage.
Fitness swimming should be challenging and fun; I am a wimp? Should I give it more time? I like my team!
I would say it could take anywhere between a couple weeks to a couple months to adjust to adjust to a big workout change like that, so it sounds like you've done that. If you're worried about hurting yourself, tell the coach! He/she should be able to explain what the adjustments are for various levels. Although, if you've been swimming for quite some time, you're probably quite capable of the challenges but may need modifications to work up to a couple things. Pulling a teammate was a common age group drill but now, I'm not that strong and it would be asking for an injury.
But the rest of it sounds like my idea of fun. I do understand your complaint as around here there are a lot of triathletes and people who just cross train swimming and the two teams I've tried out in the past seem to cater to them with lots of freestyle and 10 x 100 or 5x 200 type sets. They love this style workout. I found it frustrating to even try to train stroke with them because of trying to deal with send-offs when everyone else was swimming freestyle - I wouldn't want to do the entire workout the same stroke, so when I finally wanted to do freestyle, it would mess up who goes first, etc. But I digress a bit.
I think as a fitness swimmer - especially if you are a fitness swimmer who avoids any weights or dryland - the multi stroke and resistance approach is well rounded to help decrease chance of injury and reduce muscle loss from aging. Maybe you could mix it up a bit and get in some yards after practice or do a self coached workout one or two days a week instead of team practice. It also may not feel fun right now because it sooooo hard to change things up. When it starts feeling not so hard, you may start feeling like it's more fun. Ultimately it needs to be fun, so I hope you find that balance.
Edited: because I asked a question that had already been answered.
I would say it could take anywhere between a couple weeks to a couple months to adjust to adjust to a big workout change like that, so it sounds like you've done that. If you're worried about hurting yourself, tell the coach! He/she should be able to explain what the adjustments are for various levels. Although, if you've been swimming for quite some time, you're probably quite capable of the challenges but may need modifications to work up to a couple things. Pulling a teammate was a common age group drill but now, I'm not that strong and it would be asking for an injury.
But the rest of it sounds like my idea of fun. I do understand your complaint as around here there are a lot of triathletes and people who just cross train swimming and the two teams I've tried out in the past seem to cater to them with lots of freestyle and 10 x 100 or 5x 200 type sets. They love this style workout. I found it frustrating to even try to train stroke with them because of trying to deal with send-offs when everyone else was swimming freestyle - I wouldn't want to do the entire workout the same stroke, so when I finally wanted to do freestyle, it would mess up who goes first, etc. But I digress a bit.
I think as a fitness swimmer - especially if you are a fitness swimmer who avoids any weights or dryland - the multi stroke and resistance approach is well rounded to help decrease chance of injury and reduce muscle loss from aging. Maybe you could mix it up a bit and get in some yards after practice or do a self coached workout one or two days a week instead of team practice. It also may not feel fun right now because it sooooo hard to change things up. When it starts feeling not so hard, you may start feeling like it's more fun. Ultimately it needs to be fun, so I hope you find that balance.
Edited: because I asked a question that had already been answered.
