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?
Alright, did another. A few thoughts on it.
- The UDK comment from earlier was in reference to doiing them with fins. Without, not as bad. Which probably means I'm doiing them wrong, since my core isn't (though I'm sure 67Queen would insist that I get my diaphragm plenty of work being full of hot air and all that!).:yawn:
- Guessing at where 15M is by putting fins on the wall isn't very effective, as you can't really see them. No red stripes or anythign. Maybe I'll put them o the bottom of the pool next time?
- When the whole workout references one's "100 pace," makes it kind of hard to do when you don't have a clue what that would be! :doh:
- Guessing what it is probably isn't the best idea
- However, guessing that it is "Focus: 100 Free @ 55.0" is not a good target for a newbie actually is a pretty good guess!
- You know....it is really hard to do flip turns when there is no X on the wall. At least to new swimmers. Or new old swimmers. Or whatever it is when you start doing it again later in life. And along those lines, I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the world to injure a shoulder doing a flip turn......but the chances of me meeting the OTHER guy who has done it are pretty small. :blush:
- I am convinced that the people that designed the drills were swiss watch makers. Sure they aren't as taxing as a lot of other things, but my lord! I'm not coordinated enough to do those (these were freestyle drills - catch up wasn't too bad, but the whole fingertip drag and hinge thing)? :confused:
- Fingertip drag thing I think exists solely so people won't complain about water ingestion during breathing being only a backstroke thing.:rant3:
- Went at a different time today, much later, as I had an early eye doctor's appointment. So I saw some new people. I'll preface this by saying i swim at a Gold's Gym. And so everyone in there looks like Randy from a Christmas Story when his mother puts the winter coat on him (you know.....arms won't go down). So......I got to swim with Dolf Lundgren today! Well.....I think that's who it was. He was pretty intimidating. :afraid:But swimming didn't appear to be his strong suit. :cool:
- Lung Busters. Maybe "ego busters" is more applicable?
- We need a little "RTFM" emoticon. Stands for "Read the :censor: manual" 'Cuz I need to do some more of that.
- Trying to do sets with time using an analog watch (with foggy goggles) is a bit like an ornamental pear - just plain fruitless.
- But! When I got home, a new Garmin Swim watch was waiting for me! :santa3:
Alright, joking aside......I really have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to "relative to XXXXX pace." I probably erred on teh side of going too fast. My stroke count was way out of whack, it is usually about 18, but it was pretty consistently 22. I guess I"d expect a little higher, but not that much higher. Of couse, I was using my arms, then going "Hey, don't forget to kick!" at which point I forgot about my arms. So I had to have been pretty amusing to watch there!
Oh yeah.......I don't think I'll ever give my kid grief for breathing inside the flags, again!
Alright, did another. A few thoughts on it.
- The UDK comment from earlier was in reference to doiing them with fins. Without, not as bad. Which probably means I'm doiing them wrong, since my core isn't (though I'm sure 67Queen would insist that I get my diaphragm plenty of work being full of hot air and all that!).:yawn:
- Guessing at where 15M is by putting fins on the wall isn't very effective, as you can't really see them. No red stripes or anythign. Maybe I'll put them o the bottom of the pool next time?
- When the whole workout references one's "100 pace," makes it kind of hard to do when you don't have a clue what that would be! :doh:
- Guessing what it is probably isn't the best idea
- However, guessing that it is "Focus: 100 Free @ 55.0" is not a good target for a newbie actually is a pretty good guess!
- You know....it is really hard to do flip turns when there is no X on the wall. At least to new swimmers. Or new old swimmers. Or whatever it is when you start doing it again later in life. And along those lines, I'm sure that I'm not the only person in the world to injure a shoulder doing a flip turn......but the chances of me meeting the OTHER guy who has done it are pretty small. :blush:
- I am convinced that the people that designed the drills were swiss watch makers. Sure they aren't as taxing as a lot of other things, but my lord! I'm not coordinated enough to do those (these were freestyle drills - catch up wasn't too bad, but the whole fingertip drag and hinge thing)? :confused:
- Fingertip drag thing I think exists solely so people won't complain about water ingestion during breathing being only a backstroke thing.:rant3:
- Went at a different time today, much later, as I had an early eye doctor's appointment. So I saw some new people. I'll preface this by saying i swim at a Gold's Gym. And so everyone in there looks like Randy from a Christmas Story when his mother puts the winter coat on him (you know.....arms won't go down). So......I got to swim with Dolf Lundgren today! Well.....I think that's who it was. He was pretty intimidating. :afraid:But swimming didn't appear to be his strong suit. :cool:
- Lung Busters. Maybe "ego busters" is more applicable?
- We need a little "RTFM" emoticon. Stands for "Read the :censor: manual" 'Cuz I need to do some more of that.
- Trying to do sets with time using an analog watch (with foggy goggles) is a bit like an ornamental pear - just plain fruitless.
- But! When I got home, a new Garmin Swim watch was waiting for me! :santa3:
Alright, joking aside......I really have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to "relative to XXXXX pace." I probably erred on teh side of going too fast. My stroke count was way out of whack, it is usually about 18, but it was pretty consistently 22. I guess I"d expect a little higher, but not that much higher. Of couse, I was using my arms, then going "Hey, don't forget to kick!" at which point I forgot about my arms. So I had to have been pretty amusing to watch there!
Oh yeah.......I don't think I'll ever give my kid grief for breathing inside the flags, again!
