When do you swim?

I currently swim during lunch sometimes, and during the evening Tuesdays and thursdays with a masters group. I am working on trying to get out of bed early enough on Saturdays to make the 8 am workouts with the masters team. I'd love to be at a point where I can get up early enough to swim in the morning, I used to LOVE It when I was in high school, but I can't seem to drag myself out of bed! lol... eventually. J.

For years of swimming with masters teams, I always swam in the evenings. I kept telling everyone else and myself that I just wasn't a morning person, etc. About 2 years ago, the evening workout was going to be cancelled for a week in January...and after doing without for much of the Christmas break, I thought I'd go in the morning for that week. I never went back to evening practices. Yes, you do have to put up with going to bed early, being tired during the day at first, etc.... but suddenly I had all this 'extra' time in the evenings to get home at a decent hour, have dinner, relax, whatever. Currently I work very close to where I swim. If I drove to work leaving my house at 7am it would take nearly an hour with all of the traffic. However, leaving at 5:30, I get to the pool for the 6am workout. Once that is over, it is just a 5 minute drive to work. That alone is worth it to me.

Originally posted by Mary Also, any advice on how to get up in the morning? Get a dog!!! Dogs get on a schedule very easily. As soon as my dogs hear the alarm at 4:00 a.m. they start barking to go outside and then I have to get up. I swim Monday-Friday at 5 a.m. It took me about a month to get used to going to bed early and waking up essentially in the middle of the night. I definitely have to have CAFFEINE in the middle of the afternoon to get through my work day. The plus side is that I feel so energized throughout the morning and RELIEVED knowing that my workout is OVER...

Well, Mary, that's a good question. I'm legally blind and enjoy swimming as it has a really important role in my life. Weekdays: I swim at the University pool, Tues. and Thurs. from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm and am home by 8:30. Weekends: I swim at a military base long-course on Saturday mornings from 8:00 am to 9:30 am and I'm usually home by 11:00 am. I would like to get in a little more time, but for now, this is good.

I swim Mon.-Fri. from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. and Saturdays whenever I can get there. For about four weeks before Christmas, I was doing two-a-days on Mon, Wed, Fri, but that reminded me too much of age group/college swimming. I swim for fun now and just can't seem to get back into doubles. Funny thing is that I'm not too far off of my times from when I did actually swim 20 hours a week. Why on earth did I ever spend that much time in the pool to start with!!!

Mary- I used to be a night swimmer. I swam from 7-9 for most of my high school life and only endured morning practices on Saturdays and then proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day. Since I joined masters and our team swims from 5:15-7:30, there is no choice but have become a morning swimmer. Needless to say that I am in bed by 8:30! It was really hard at first, but its been about 8 months and I am completely used to it. I try to sleep past 4:45 and my biological clock just wakes me up!!

I prefer to swim in the evening, but I finally worked up the courage to join Masters and the team practices from 5:45-7:00 a.m. I am not a morning person and that hour is brutal. I'm usually good about making it Monday mornings but have trouble with oversleeping the rest of the week. One of my goals for the weekend is to buy a new alarm clock... something with a truly obnoxious buzzer so that I can't possibly ignore it. My current alarm clock plays music, and at that hour of the morning it's far too easy to sleep right through it.

I swim whenever I can. I would love a routine, but two kids and a third on the way. A full time job and a part time home business..... Anyway, whenever I have an hour I swim. My best time to swim is from 8:00 am to about 1:00 pm. That's when my best swims are.

Originally posted by Mary I was just curious what the break down of amers/lunch timers/pmers was. Also, any advice on how to get up in the morning? I'm both - Mon & Wed I swim in the evening after work. Fridays, I go late morning (after the water aerobics class is out). Oddly enough, I don't swim with the Masters team here because their morning workout is too late for me: I'm at work by 6:30 am, meaning the 6-7 am workout doesn't fit. I work a 10-hour day (4 days/ week) and the only thing that made getting up every day at 5:30 was repitition.:D After about a year (yes, a year) of draggin my a$$ out of bed to get to work, it started to become routine. I haven't tried swimming early in the morning for a loooong time. I'm lucky enough that I go home and can fall over after a workout. On Fridays, I can take my time at the pool, run errands afterwards and take a nap in the afternoon. So I can't help with the pep-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-day issue. However, I would suggest laying your work clothes out the night before ;) Kae

I've been marooned on a 2:00 PM - 10:00 PM shift for longer than I care to remember. I usually don't get to bed until after midnight so the thought of early morning swim practice doesn't have too much appeal. Luckily for me, the masters group started an 11:30 AM practice at my YMCA. It works great! I'll have to either retire or find another job before I can start attending the morning practices.