When/how to transition from "lap" swimming to workouts?

When I came back to swimming 12 years ago, I did the same thing. I mainly swam laps - sets of 200's with easy 25's between. Then I decided to make the leap to workouts and used the workouts on this forum. Which workouts you use should depend on your goals. Are you trying to work your way back into meet swimming? Sprints? Distance? Open water? I swim open water so I began using some of the open water workouts. However, I plateaued doing that so I started working in some sprint workouts and saw improvement. My recommendation is to jump right in with workouts, but not necessarily all of them in order. If that is your preference, do so, but feel free to modify the workout based on your needs and how you feel. Sometimes, I take what is largely a free workout and turn it into more IM for the variety. I swim enough straight free training for open water. Other times, I'll decide I want to modify distance or rep. I skip around the forums and the dates based on my schedule. About once every two weeks, I even throw in one of the New/Expectant Mother Workouts. They are a nice change of pace and offer some great stroke work. I wouldn't worry about trying to follow a single workout thread in order until your goals are defined and your now needing to shave time.

A few times in my decades of swimming there have been instances wherein I had to "return" to swimming after a layoff of many weeks, or even months, due to an injury/surgery, and recovery, or...a military deployment. What works for me...to "get back into it"...when I first start going back to the pool I first just do long, slow yardage like you've been doing up to this point. At some point I will begin to break up some of the longer portions into segments/intervals...doing the same yardage, same pace...just broken into smaller segments, and on a timed interval. I feel like that helps get me back into the mentality of doing intervals and sets. After a couple of sessions like that I begin to gradually increase intensity on the smaller segments, then on the longer ones, until I feel comfortable that I've conditioned myself back into "a workout" shape. Good luck. Dan

Just jump in at whatever point is your preference. Everything is adjustable anyway (reps, times, distances). As soon as you get comfortable start making the intervals faster and keep progressing. Continue working hard but most importantly, have fun.

Congrats on deciding to get back into swimming! I would only recommend plunging directly into workouts if you can say with confidence that you have a perfect stroke technique - and this is pretty difficult to do especially if you've been out of the pool for awhile. I would suggest finding a coach who can analyze your stroke technique and your specific needs. You might have, for example, a weaker side of the body, or need to adjust the timing of your stroke, etc. Knowing your technical needs will allow you to have more efficient workouts since you will be able to adjust them such that you are both developing strength and fine-tuning your technique,which is a very important consideration. Making sure your technique is sound will also help you avoid injuries as your build up strength and conditioning. And since you are going to be a solo swimmer, which can be challenging, I would recommend Elaine K's article with six suggestions for the solo swimmer: www.swimspire.com/.../ Elaine also started a forum thread on this topic which you might find interesting: forums.usms.org/showthread.php All the best of luck to you on your new swimming journey!

Which workouts you use should depend on your goals. Are you trying to work your way back into meet swimming? Sprints? Distance? Open water? No set goals for any events that are swimming related - I've blown past my weight loss goal, but still have a little work to do to get my standing heart rate down to the arbitrary number I've picked. One of my kids is a AAAA swimmer in a few events, so that takes up a whole lot of the free time I would have. So the notion of doing any competitions myself is not really feasible at present. In the future, perhaps, but not right now. But I generally do better when I have something a bit more concrete to try to accomplish. For example, I started out making 300 yard sets, and only about 1500 yards. So I've worked my way up too 500 yard sets and up to 4000 yards per workout. So my stamina has improved significantly, I'd now like to try to improve my strength a bit, so I think some of the shorter/faster sets with fins/paddles will probably help with that. But I WOULD like to get back to being able to do Butterfly, which was "my" stroke as a kid. I am inclined to go with just the basic training for now? Thanks everyone for the quick feedback.

Congrats on deciding to get back into swimming! I would only recommend plunging directly into workouts if you can say with confidence that you have a perfect stroke technique - and this is pretty difficult to do especially if you've been out of the pool for awhile. I would suggest finding a coach who can analyze your stroke technique and your specific needs. You might have, for example, a weaker side of the body, or need to adjust the timing of your stroke, etc. Knowing your technical needs will allow you to have more efficient workouts since you will be able to adjust them such that you are both developing strength and fine-tuning your technique,which is a very important consideration. Making sure your technique is sound will also help you avoid injuries as your build up strength and conditioning. And since you are going to be a solo swimmer, which can be challenging, I would recommend Elaine K's article with six suggestions for the solo swimmer: www.swimspire.com/.../ Elaine also started a forum thread on this topic which you might find interesting: forums.usms.org/showthread.php All the best of luck to you on your new swimming journey! Thanks for the shout-out, Julia! :D +1 on your advice to 67. May I add to it? One of the reasons to work on perfect stroke technique is to avoid repetitive stress injuries. If you plunge into workouts and ramp up your swimming without proper stroke technique, you can end up with all sorts of physical problems you would be best to avoid. At the very least, have somebody shoot video of your stroke, upload it to YouTube, and post the link here on the forums. Your fellow Forumites would be happy to provide stroke technique feedback. :agree:

But I WOULD like to get back to being able to do Butterfly, which was "my" stroke as a kid. I wish you well on this. I was a flyer in my youth. I still enjoy it, but decreased core flexibility at 47 limits my stamina in the stroke. I'm good for a 100 or a 400 IM here and there. I think my 200 days are over.

There is no question you are more than ready for interval workouts. Pick some from the forum or blog posts that appeal. I think you'll see the benefits quickly. If you feel uncomfortable with a full interval workout, transition from your current workouts by adding shorter and faster sets at your own pace like 5-10x50 or 5x100 and eliminating some of the sets you are currently swimming. You'll need a pace clock or watch. Pick swim intervals that you know you can make to start with or swim the reps starting out on a rest interval until you figure out what swim interval you can make an ratchet down. Add more intervals, stroke work, and drill as you progress. Enjoy.

Wow, Elaine, that's a great article. I never thought about volunteering but it's something I'll definitely consider. For me, just getting in the pool these days is a workout, so I envy those of you here on the boards who consider just doing a slow 1500 a warm up. Thanks, Denise! :D

Wow, Elaine, that's a great article. I never thought about volunteering but it's something I'll definitely consider. For me, just getting in the pool these days is a workout, so I envy those of you here on the boards who consider just doing a slow 1500 a warm up.