Started swimming again this year in an effort to get in better shape. Haven't done it since college (I'm 43), and that was just for exercise. Did it as a kid, now my kids also swim. At any rate, I'm just doing laps right now. Usually 6 sets of 500, occasionally only 5 and occasionally 7 or 8. ~5 days a week when life doesn't get in the way (so about 15,000 yards per week). About 25% ***, 25% back, and 50% free. I have occasionally thrown some fly in there, but I just can't do it without it fatiguing me to the point where the remainder of the set is very suboptimal.
At any rate, I am wondering at what point I should start looking to transition to doing workouts, rather than just laps. There is no Masters program that will work for me, so I'd just be following the posted workouts from the forums. Should I just jump right in? Should I start from "week 1," or just hit it right in the middle? Also, should I just be looking mostly at the general workouts, of mixing it up with the IM workouts to get more strokes, or start with general and slowly work my way towards the IM stuff?
Anything y'all need to know to help guide me the right way?
:lmao:Stay with us on the Forums, 67, because I have missed your kind of humor!
You asked about my location. Sun City Peachtree is located in the northern part of Griffin, actually in northern Spalding County. I am VERY familiar with the Tara Tarpons, because I have trained off and on at the Steve Lundquist Aquatic Center since moving to Georgia in 2009. My former part-time coach and training partner (he's too busy for private coaching now) is the coach of the S.M.A.R.T. swim team, the other kids swim team that trains at the pool.
Was Tracy Collett one of your Forest Park Tarpon teammates?
One last comment... I love your effective use of Smilies, too. Those little buggers make me smile! :D
Thanks for the compliments! Hey, if we can't make fun of ourselves, who can?
I was at Tara about the time Steve Lundquist was setting the WR at that 84 Olympics......but the only folks I recall from the team, other than the coach, Bob Bugg (who I believe lives in Griffin, now), were my fellow Griffinites.......yep, I'm from there, originally. Grew up on the south side, though, between College and Maple St's. Not far from the city pool where the Summer team (Gators) swam in my day (may still?). I think I may have swum there from 83-85 or so? I didn't last long.....I really never knew how to push myself to practice hard until I was older doing different sports. But hey, I did set myself up nicely to get the "Most Improved" award. Lots easier to drop 5 seconds when you are 10 seconds off the pace than when you are at the front, you know!?
I'm like you on the pool temperature. Way too hot. This pool clearly is designed with them in mind. Kept probably at 85 degrees or so, the stairs go down into a lane, making it a pretty useless lane for anything other than freestyle (there is about 3' of usable space beside it). There are no T's at the ends of the lanes.......so that was another thing I couldn't figure out, trying to judge my distance to the wall doing flip turns!!!! The middle lane has a water jet thing right where you push off.
The other pool I use, when I can train while my kids are at practice, is much better. A good 5 degrees cooler, everyone I've seen there is a lap swimmer. T's on the ends, recessed water jets, the stairs in a "L" section. Hopefully this Summer I'll be able to do all of my swimming there.
:lmao:Stay with us on the Forums, 67, because I have missed your kind of humor!
You asked about my location. Sun City Peachtree is located in the northern part of Griffin, actually in northern Spalding County. I am VERY familiar with the Tara Tarpons, because I have trained off and on at the Steve Lundquist Aquatic Center since moving to Georgia in 2009. My former part-time coach and training partner (he's too busy for private coaching now) is the coach of the S.M.A.R.T. swim team, the other kids swim team that trains at the pool.
Was Tracy Collett one of your Forest Park Tarpon teammates?
One last comment... I love your effective use of Smilies, too. Those little buggers make me smile! :D
Thanks for the compliments! Hey, if we can't make fun of ourselves, who can?
I was at Tara about the time Steve Lundquist was setting the WR at that 84 Olympics......but the only folks I recall from the team, other than the coach, Bob Bugg (who I believe lives in Griffin, now), were my fellow Griffinites.......yep, I'm from there, originally. Grew up on the south side, though, between College and Maple St's. Not far from the city pool where the Summer team (Gators) swam in my day (may still?). I think I may have swum there from 83-85 or so? I didn't last long.....I really never knew how to push myself to practice hard until I was older doing different sports. But hey, I did set myself up nicely to get the "Most Improved" award. Lots easier to drop 5 seconds when you are 10 seconds off the pace than when you are at the front, you know!?
I'm like you on the pool temperature. Way too hot. This pool clearly is designed with them in mind. Kept probably at 85 degrees or so, the stairs go down into a lane, making it a pretty useless lane for anything other than freestyle (there is about 3' of usable space beside it). There are no T's at the ends of the lanes.......so that was another thing I couldn't figure out, trying to judge my distance to the wall doing flip turns!!!! The middle lane has a water jet thing right where you push off.
The other pool I use, when I can train while my kids are at practice, is much better. A good 5 degrees cooler, everyone I've seen there is a lap swimmer. T's on the ends, recessed water jets, the stairs in a "L" section. Hopefully this Summer I'll be able to do all of my swimming there.
