I just started swimming to get for my cardio workouts. My ultimate goal is to swim consistantly 3-4 times a week and maybe join the Masters Swim program. I started on 3/26 and I have done about 10 swim workouts with two weight training sessions. I'm a pretty pathetic swimmer. I breathe every stroke on freestyle and my breaststroke is worse than my freestyle. I have never done butterfly. I was actually thinking of taking some swim lessons to help with my strokes because seeing it in books and doing it in the pool seems difficult. I would appreciate any suggestions....training routines, books, videos etc.. I'm slowly trying to incorporate weights which I have always done w/ swimming. I'm 39 and a pretty good athlete. I was thinking to add some distance swims of 1600M in addition to my short intervals...and vary the length of the intervals Here's my log. Please note L is for 50M and S is for 25. The lanes are set up differently depending on the time I workout. My pool got a digital clock on 4/20 so I started timing my workouts. Sorry for the long post but I would appreciate any help. Thanks.
DATE 3/26/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 200 M WARMUP
5 X 50M(S)
50M WARM DOWN
TOTAL: 500M
DATE 3/28/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 250M WARMUP
6 X 50M (S)
100M WARM DOWN
TOTAL: 650M
DATE 3/29/2007
ACTIVITY WEIGHTS
WORKOUT LEGS
DATE 4/3/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 300M WARM UP
7 X 50M (S)
100M WARN DOWN
TOTAL 750M
DATE 4/4/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 100M WARM UP
8 X 50M (L)
100 M WARM DOWN
TOTAL 600M
DATE 4/10/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 450M WARMUP
9 X 50(L)
150M WARMDOWN
TOTAL 1050M
DATE 4/15/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 300M WARM UP
8 X 50M -BOARD(L) SHORTS
200M WARMDOWN
TOTAL 900M
DATE 4/18/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 300M WARM UP
10 X 50M(S)
100M WARMDOWN
TOTAL 900M
DATE 4/20/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 300M WARM UP
10 X 50M(L) W/ 45-55 SEC REST-60,58,58,55,55,51,51,51,50,49
200M WARMDOWN
TOTAL 1000M
DATE 4/24/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 375M WARM UP
1 X 50 (S) 33 w/ 2.5 MIN REST 9CLOSE TO ALL OUT)
3 X 50M(S) IN 47,45,43 W/45-50 SEC REST…late had to go home
150M WARM DOWN
TOTAL 725M
DATE 4/25/2007
ACTIVITY WEIGHTS
WORKOUT UPPER BODY MINUS SHOULDERS
DATE 4/26/2007
ACTIVITY SWIM
WORKOUT 375M WARM UP
4 X 50M 44,42,43,43 W/ 45-50 SEC REST
150M WARMDWON
725M
Former Member
If you have any interest in joining a team workout, don’t wait, start now. You could get swim lessons, but you’ll probably get everything you need from your coach. The overwhelming consensus is that you will likely progress better and faster by practicing in a coached group situation.
Forget what you think about your current abilities. If you are healthy “and a pretty good athlete” you will improve really quickly, especially if you get some coaching and workout with a team.
Masters swimming is one of the most laid back and welcoming groups of people I’ve ever met.
The USMS web has a training section. And there is a workouts section on this forum.
You can also search the archives here to see previous discussions on a wide variety of topics.
Feel free to post any swimming questions here that you want.
And, oh yeah... Welcome! :-)
Thanks for the info. I need to do some research. I actually just bought paddles which I may return. I need to research EVF and see if that's the way to go. I found workouts geared toward beginners by Kevin Williams and Rick Bober. They both seem really interested in helping people, I just need to see what's the best for me. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I also need to see if I can fit the Masters Swim program into my work schedule. I may be contacting you Tomtopo. Thanks again.
Baldy,
There are many things you can do to accelerate your improvement and joining a master's team will be, one fun way of doing that. I'd like to send you some information on EVF training that will help you. If you're interested please email me @ tomtopo@netzero.com I think your quest for more information shows passion and there are many people like me who would enjoy helping you. I'm an EVF and dryland specialsit but there are streamlining specialists, workout specialists, psychologists, - you name it and this forum has it. We'd all like to help you. Good luck, Coach T.
