uhhh, hi... i'm new here. and, in reality, new to swimming. thirty two years ago in basic training i had to learn how to swim to graduate. since then... no swimming.... last year (in december 2006) i decided to start swimming... i have no idea what kind of expectations i should have with regard to ability or progress.... at this point... i swim two to three days a week. typically, i swim one mile without stopping. currently, it takes me about 34 to 36 minutes to swim that. when i am done, i still feel relatively fresh... today, i went 1.5 miles.... 50 minutes.... the only stroke i know is the freestyle... can't do a flip turn to save my sorry carcass.... any suggestions... comments... ideas of what to look forward to... i have no idea if i'm any good at this, but it sure is fun... thanks in advance...
First, don't worry about how fast you are going.
I'm not exactly sure, but it looks like what you are really interested in is making your workout more interesting and challenging for your ability. You should feel a good kind of tired at the end of your swim. It's hard when you swim through a long distance to know if you are going out to slow or too fast until you've hit the end.
If you enjoy swimming straight through, stick with that. But maybe try something where you try to vary your intensity throughout the swim. For example, throughout your swim vary between slow, medium and fast. Maybe throw in one or two laps after you are halfway through where you go as fast as you can. This will help to make sure you are challenging yourself as a swim a distance.
If you'd like to try something different, go for an interval based workout. I would stay away from the type where you are doing it on a time (ex: do 10x 50 yards on 1:00; this means you have to swim them all under a minute). Go for interval based sets instead and pay attention to how fast you complete them (ex: 10 x 50 yards, 30 seconds rest). The idea is that you can swim shorter distances at a faster pace than if you are swimming a mile because you get a bit of rest in between. The trick is to not rest too long for the speed you are swimming. Check your heart rate, and don't let it get too low before your next send-off. If it's getting too low either try to go faster, or decrease the rest (or both).
You might want to try learning a new stroke, or just improving your freestyle or learning flip turns. There are tons of places on the board here and on the web to find great advice on learning new swimming techniques.
But these are just some ideas, since I'm not really sure I understand what your question is.
First, don't worry about how fast you are going.
I'm not exactly sure, but it looks like what you are really interested in is making your workout more interesting and challenging for your ability. You should feel a good kind of tired at the end of your swim. It's hard when you swim through a long distance to know if you are going out to slow or too fast until you've hit the end.
If you enjoy swimming straight through, stick with that. But maybe try something where you try to vary your intensity throughout the swim. For example, throughout your swim vary between slow, medium and fast. Maybe throw in one or two laps after you are halfway through where you go as fast as you can. This will help to make sure you are challenging yourself as a swim a distance.
If you'd like to try something different, go for an interval based workout. I would stay away from the type where you are doing it on a time (ex: do 10x 50 yards on 1:00; this means you have to swim them all under a minute). Go for interval based sets instead and pay attention to how fast you complete them (ex: 10 x 50 yards, 30 seconds rest). The idea is that you can swim shorter distances at a faster pace than if you are swimming a mile because you get a bit of rest in between. The trick is to not rest too long for the speed you are swimming. Check your heart rate, and don't let it get too low before your next send-off. If it's getting too low either try to go faster, or decrease the rest (or both).
You might want to try learning a new stroke, or just improving your freestyle or learning flip turns. There are tons of places on the board here and on the web to find great advice on learning new swimming techniques.
But these are just some ideas, since I'm not really sure I understand what your question is.
