I am wondering if there are commonly used metrics for use by fitness swimmers to measure their progress. As we all know it is easier to maintain motivation if one feels one is improving. What I am looking for are things the non-competitive swimmer can use to measure their progress in the pool. Metrics that could be measured in club workouts would be ideal.
Some of things that come to mind are distance in a given time (T60, T30, T20, T15, T10, T5) and time for distance (400m, 1000m, 1500m, 5km). Also some sort of stroke count metric might be good, 50m time plus stroke count being the most commonly cited.
My goal is to embed these into an online log that people can use to track their progress.
Any suggestions?
Parents
Former Member
I think that maximal swims require a lot of mental effort, and if you aren't sufficiently motivated you could get the wrong idea from one. I would recommend swimming a moderate pace 200 at the beginning of a workout, and recording your time and heart rate. Then make a table of times and heart rates to check your progress. You'll be looking for speed improvements at a constant heartrate, or heartrate drops with a constant speed. Unlike an all-out swim, this is something you can do every day. That allows you to accumulate a lot of data points to more reliably track general trends.
I think that maximal swims require a lot of mental effort, and if you aren't sufficiently motivated you could get the wrong idea from one. I would recommend swimming a moderate pace 200 at the beginning of a workout, and recording your time and heart rate. Then make a table of times and heart rates to check your progress. You'll be looking for speed improvements at a constant heartrate, or heartrate drops with a constant speed. Unlike an all-out swim, this is something you can do every day. That allows you to accumulate a lot of data points to more reliably track general trends.
