Hi. :help:
Was just wondering how you handle practicing by yourself. My team only practices two times a week and that is obviously not enough time in the water to improve. At practice, we do anywhere between 3,200 and 3,800... and I usually do the same when I swim by myself (right now I'm getting in two solo practices, but I'd like to do more). Usually the USS team or High School is practicing at the same time and that sorta helps get me moving. But how do you guys motivate yourself to keep going - because weekly I am starting to ask myself - "why am I doing this"... when I'm trudging along solo. I do compete and love it... but I just get down and in the gutters once in a while. I usually get my workouts from the "workout forum" here on the site... but do you have any thoughts on how to get more motivated? I hope I don't sound desperate, but just need some feedback from those who are going thru the same thing.
While I've been done with college for 4 years now, I ended up quitting in college and waiting 3 years to go back to swimming because I truly grew to loathe practicing with the team. My last good coach was when I was 12 years old. After that, it was lots of junk yardage and everything geared towards the sprint freestylers and nothing geared towards me who is a breaststroker, and general stroke lover and middle distance freestyler. Sounds a lot like what poor Morgan is going through now...
I now swim not on a team 100% of the team. Part of it is because the masters teams here are expensive and largely inconvenient to get to in comparison to the pool I swim at. But mostly because when I think back to swimming on a team I remember how miserable it got not being allowed to enjoy swimming.
I swim now to go fast but also to enjoy swimming. I try to get workouts put together and LOVE the freedom to be able to do that and get creative with my workouts. I can really sit back and practice things I need work on like my butterfly rather than being a slave to the clock and the person swimming 2 seconds behind me. I can do 95% breaststroke workouts with 60% drill. I can give myself mini challenges though the whole workout because I know the purpose of everything I am doing in the water.
And, like others have stated here, even though I might do my own workouts, I am not alone in the pool. All of the other regulars know me and say hi. There are some other workout swimmers and occassionally we'll do a set or two together to mix things up.
Basically, when I swim alone and I am starting to die during a set, or ready to give up, or slack off I remind myself I am doing this (and have gone through a lot of trouble to do this for many personal reasons) because I love to swim. And usually I find a competitive fire in that which propels me though the tough sets. But sometimes it just means I need to slow down, keep swimming because it's good for me, and love the feel and flow of the water.
Anyways, I don't know if I can help because I clearly have a superhuman amount of self motivation when it comes to swimming, and have a love for putting together my own workouts. But perhaps you might find something in this long post worth re-examining yourself. Even to the point of if what makes you love swimming is swimming with a team, then go out of your way to swim with a team or have a workout buddy. Swimming workouts alone isn't for everyone, just like going to the gym alone isn't for everyone. Why else would there be so many gosh darn noodlers?
Wow! Ok. I'm really done now.
Well, I feel better! :)
While I've been done with college for 4 years now, I ended up quitting in college and waiting 3 years to go back to swimming because I truly grew to loathe practicing with the team. My last good coach was when I was 12 years old. After that, it was lots of junk yardage and everything geared towards the sprint freestylers and nothing geared towards me who is a breaststroker, and general stroke lover and middle distance freestyler. Sounds a lot like what poor Morgan is going through now...
I now swim not on a team 100% of the team. Part of it is because the masters teams here are expensive and largely inconvenient to get to in comparison to the pool I swim at. But mostly because when I think back to swimming on a team I remember how miserable it got not being allowed to enjoy swimming.
I swim now to go fast but also to enjoy swimming. I try to get workouts put together and LOVE the freedom to be able to do that and get creative with my workouts. I can really sit back and practice things I need work on like my butterfly rather than being a slave to the clock and the person swimming 2 seconds behind me. I can do 95% breaststroke workouts with 60% drill. I can give myself mini challenges though the whole workout because I know the purpose of everything I am doing in the water.
And, like others have stated here, even though I might do my own workouts, I am not alone in the pool. All of the other regulars know me and say hi. There are some other workout swimmers and occassionally we'll do a set or two together to mix things up.
Basically, when I swim alone and I am starting to die during a set, or ready to give up, or slack off I remind myself I am doing this (and have gone through a lot of trouble to do this for many personal reasons) because I love to swim. And usually I find a competitive fire in that which propels me though the tough sets. But sometimes it just means I need to slow down, keep swimming because it's good for me, and love the feel and flow of the water.
Anyways, I don't know if I can help because I clearly have a superhuman amount of self motivation when it comes to swimming, and have a love for putting together my own workouts. But perhaps you might find something in this long post worth re-examining yourself. Even to the point of if what makes you love swimming is swimming with a team, then go out of your way to swim with a team or have a workout buddy. Swimming workouts alone isn't for everyone, just like going to the gym alone isn't for everyone. Why else would there be so many gosh darn noodlers?
Wow! Ok. I'm really done now.
Well, I feel better! :)
