Hi all,
I'm the Slow Swimmer in Residence at my swim practices, and this often means that I'm maybe halfway done with a set when people are moving on to the next one. Usually, I have the slow lane to myself, which widens my options somewhat (if I don't, I do whatever the others are doing, even if it means moving on to the next set before I'm done with the previous one).
Since I almost NEVER finish my sets the same time as the others (unless I get to the practice earlier... that allows me to come out even with the others at least on the first set), would I benefit more from (a), (b) or (c)?:
(a) jump to the sets that others are doing even if not finished with all the repeats (ex.: 10x100; others have moved on to 250s. I have done 5-6 100s... following this option, I'd stop doing the 100s and move ahead to the 250s).
(b) finish the set I'm doing, then start on whatever set others are doing, even if they're, let's say, two or more sets ahead of me.
(c) finish the set I'm doing, then move on to the next one in the order the coach listed, only skipping ahead if the time allotted for the workout is drawing to a close and I need the warmdown.
Underlying all this, I guess what I am asking is whether it's better to do fewer repetitions but more of the sets that everyone's doing or all the repetitions but finish fewer sets.
Some might say I should retire to the open lap swim, but I'm not ready to do that. ;)
Thanks for your help!
If you think about it, the fastest swimmers probably have the knowledge to take a work-out and adapt it to their needs. But the slower swimmers are often more new to swimming(I started in that slow lane and worked up, would still be slow with many of you guys), and need more advise on how to adapt. So just sticking a work-out on the board geered to the fastest swimmers really make the slower lanes feel left out. We had a period of time where no coach was showing up, so I often came prepared with a work-out for myself. I would put my work-out up on the board and than write 2 others that I adapted from mine at different levels. It was not that hard, but to someone new, it would be.
If you think about it, the fastest swimmers probably have the knowledge to take a work-out and adapt it to their needs. But the slower swimmers are often more new to swimming(I started in that slow lane and worked up, would still be slow with many of you guys), and need more advise on how to adapt. So just sticking a work-out on the board geered to the fastest swimmers really make the slower lanes feel left out. We had a period of time where no coach was showing up, so I often came prepared with a work-out for myself. I would put my work-out up on the board and than write 2 others that I adapted from mine at different levels. It was not that hard, but to someone new, it would be.
