First Masters Swim experience from a newbie (no prior competitive experience)
Former Member
Hi everyone, I would like to share my first masters swim experience, from an absolute newbie point of view.
I can swim, but it's pathetically slow. I can do breaststroke for a long time, without getting too tired, but my freestyle is just absolutely pathetic, it moves, but it's just really slow. I'll tell you how slow in a little bit.
This is a GREAT experience, and everyone here is right, people are just very nice and welcome me in right away! The coach was super nice, he assure me that everyone can fit in and join them, if i need to rest at any point of a drill, I can do so.
So, the coach first told me to swim in the fast lane (they group them by fast, faster, and fastest!). There were 3 of us, the other two swimmers are no where near my slowness. They are also ex-swimmers from college.
First, he said to swim 4x100 freestyle. I was shocked, coz I can barely swim 25yards at 24hr fitness. Anyways, I swam slowly, and made the first 100, taking a bit longer break than others Then I forced myself to complete the drill. I was huffing and puffing, and wonder what we have to do next. Oh man, the coach said to repeat what we did.
We also had to do a 50 meters moderate speed and to time ourselves. lane mates did it for approximately 50 seconds, me? - a pathetic 1 minute and 20 sec. I was SO embarassed. I have no idea what i can do to get faster.
Then there are numerous other type of drills that we did, probably with a total of 2000 meters, I had to stop some point, and not able to finish every single drill, but i prob swam a total of 1600 meters. A HUGE accomplishment for me. Had it not been the masters swim, I would never thought I could do this.
I really wish I had done the following though-
1. Told my lane mates not to wait for me for further instructions, because it makes me feel really bad.
2. Ask the coach to look at my stroke after class to see if I'm doing something wrong so i can improve my technique. Perhaps i could become a more efficient swimmer!! :)
3 Put on some heavy duty water proof sunblock !!!
Thanks for reading this, hopefully this will help any newbie who is nervous about masters class!!
Congratulations!
Don't worry about your times or whether or not the other swimmers in your lane are waiting. They probably understand what you are going through because they are probably not that far removed from their first practice.
Completing 1600 meters is AWESOME!
Pretty much everybody does something wrong and can improve technique and at some point you should just mention to your coach to keep an eye on your technique and ask him to comment when he feels you need it. You will get faster no matter what because you will get stronger and you will better understand what makes you swim faster through drills, experimentation, and repetition.
It is surprising how much the sun can get to you while you are swimming.
It sounds like you have the right frame of mind, so just realize that it will take time and keep up the great work.
Good luck.
I'm a masters' newbie myself. I first joined a group that was just starting up so the coach didn't time us right away, and it's a good thing b/c I don't think I would have liked what I saw.
I'm still the slowest thing in my present group, but I don't really worry about that b/c whatever my speed, I get a lot from doing the workouts. I originally joined out of curiosity. I'm a runner, and that's my main sport, but I have discovered that the swimming complements the running beautifully. I don't get injured as much as I used to and can run better--and my swimming has progressed too. Again, no miracles, but I don't worry about that. I'm training for life, not the Olympics.
Also, it's a lot of fun! Oh yeah, sometimes I'm thinking, I have no breath left for this set! But what a friendly, welcoming group, and somehow I make it through each set, and it's a good feeling.
Your speed is about where I was when I first started(maybe faster!). 1600 is awesome for the first time. Don't discount that. Just keep coming back and back and back and back. It will improve, I promise, been there done that!
A few ideas for adjusting a workout designed for faster swimmers:
- Remember, you are responsible for your own workout and your own body. You're an adult; you are permitted to modify sets. Indeed, if something is unsafe for you, or would aggravate a medical condition, or you hate something so much you'd quit the team rather than do it very often, it is your responsibility to NOT do something. The only ground rule is modify in such a way that you minimize interfering with your lane mates doing the set as designed. ("Do what you wanna. Do what you will, but don't mess up your neighbor's thrill." Frank Zappa)
- Figure out what is the purpose of the set. The major categories are:
-- Warm-up/stroke drills. Swum at a moderate pace with enough rest to feel comfortable. You DON't want to be pushing yourself too hard. The idea is to be focusing on stroke mechanics, and not how fast you are going.
-- Aerobic endurance. Long swims, very little rest, swum fast enough to be challenging. You're working on building the capacity of your heart and lungs. You're not going fast enough for lactate acid to build up in your muscles. Note: triathletes would like to swim the whole workout this way. Their mentality is swim every lap as fast as possible, at the fastest interval possible. Don't bother me with stroke tips, man, I gotta keep up! It can drive you a little nuts if you're on a team with too many of them.
-- Lactate endurance: fast swimming on a longer interval. If you make the interval too short, you will slip into aerobic swimming described above (this is often called the "aerobic threshold"). The idea is you need just a bit more rest to allow you to sprint a little. You are building up lactate acid faster than your system can flush it, and the idea is to teach you body to function while carrying some of it.
-- Lactate tolerace: fastest swims, at or near race pace, lots of rest in between. Actually competing in a meet is one way to do this. You are pushing the envelope of how much lactate build up you body can handle, then resting long enough to purge it all before you do it again.
- Adjust the set to meet its purpose. Once you know what you are supposed to get out of the set, you know how much rest to program into it. If I see a set that is going to be problematic, I will ask the coach how much rest should I be getting? You could try to swim as much as you can of each and every set, i.e. try to "keep up" as best as possible, but that would make every set aerobic endurance for you, and be counterproductive. This is particularly not helpful if you are supposed to be doing stroke drills.
- Ways to adjust the set:
-- Skip a 50 (in a 25 yd or meter pool). Let your faster lane mates get ahead of you, and then at one wall, just stop and wait for them to catch you. Fall in line behind them. If you are doing a set with mixed strokes, this is a way to manage your worst stroke so it does not put you hopelessly out of synch.
-- Swim a different stroke than what is specified.
-- Adjust the interval to something slower, then not swim the last repeat of the set (or every 4th repeat, or whatever fits you in with the rest of the lane).
-- Use pool toys, but in moderation. As discussed you can turn them into a crutch with overuse. For example, lots of swimmers with less than ideal balance, and weak kicks, and a "just keep up, man" mindset (i.e. triathletes) will use a pull buoy for every challenging set. They fool themselves into believing they are faster than they really are when the race starts and there are no pull buoys in sight, and fail to address their underlying stroke issues in realistic, stressful conditions.
-- When learning a new stroke, swim only as many strokes as you can do well, then freestyle into the wall. This is especially effective learning butterfly, as opposed to butterstruggle.
- Communicate with your lane mates. When you make any adjustment, think first how this might affect the folks who are sticking to the set, and make sure they know if you are going to do something unusual. "Don't mess up your neighbor's thrill." In non-freestyle sets, it is common for swimmers to figure out who is swimming what stroke, and adjust who goes first, second, etc.
Please keep in mind, EVERYONE, even Olympic Champions, has been tail end Charlie at some point in his/her career. I'm an experienced swimmer, but I have used each and everyone of the tools listed above to handle sets that were over my head with the company I was keeping. Be smart, keep it fun, keep smilin'
Matt
Thank you so much. That was extremely helpful. I'm a bit nervous for my 2nd workout, but I decided to tailor it to my needs, if I force myself too hard to finish the sets, I'll just do it sloppily...
Thanks!
Don't worry about having to keep up with everyone else. If you do, you may get faster initially, but your technique will suffer. For now, focus on swimming as much of the workout as you can with correct technique. Ask your coach for a specific part of your stroke to work on each day, and spend the rest of the workout focusing on fixing that one thing.
