Hello Fellow Swimmers,
About two months ago I joined my local Masters swim team. I found it challenging and rewarding. However, recently I have
been finding it difficult to attend sessions because of the tediousness and repetition involved. My yardage increased dramatically in the first 4 to 6 weeks of practice. I went from swimming less that 500 yards about twice a week for a couple of months to swimming just over 3600 yards per practice.
I'd be interested in hearing any advice on how to stick with swimming for the long term.
Thank you in advance for any help/suggestions.
.....But we're in freestyle open water season so this might explain the emphasis on one stroke recently.
It also might explain the monotony. I went from 7-8 500 yard sets to following the workouts posted here (just the basic training ones), and the workouts immediately got more interesting. Doing interval sets is a whole lot less monotonous than just doing lap after lap after lap of the same thing. Forty 50's on 20 seconds rest may sound pretty monotonous, but it is far from it. The only time I feel any monotony is when I'm doing UDK's with fins when there is a long rest interval.
Thanks 67King. I'll check out the workouts here at USMS. I may need to swim my own workouts to transition back into the Masters practice because of an injury.
By the way, does UDK stand for Underwater Dolphin Kick?
Yes. I still follow the workouts posted for 2017. I found they were a better fit for me than the ones posted this year. @SwimDogs, who authored them, usually has 400 yards of UDK's in his sets. They are either 16 25's with fins, 8 50's swim first lap underwater, second lap on surface on back, or 16 15M's sans fins, easy free to the wall. Work the core very, very well, as well as conditioning to brief hypoxic conditions.
Thanks 67King. I'll check out the workouts here at USMS. I may need to swim my own workouts to transition back into the Masters practice because of an injury.
By the way, does UDK stand for Underwater Dolphin Kick?
67King - Thanks. That's some great yardage for the UDKs. I'm still learning this method of kicking and that seems like a great approach. I'll try to work in more of these types of drill sets and intervals.
Sumorunner - that's an interesting change - switching to lake with lots of swimmers. I walk a lot too walking a dog and I'm starting to bike a bit more. Summer is great for exercise.
