what would you do

having to swim on your own following written coach's workouts (coach working with other 50 hs swimmers) or commuting 1hour15mins to organized team with coach supervison/attention etc. rob Swim with a friend if you can, but you don't need a coach that badly. Having a lane mate to push you and keep you from slacking off is more important than having a coach for that purpose. I commute 10 minutes to my pool. If it was much more than that, I would never have gotten back into swimming (or stuck with it)...

Maybe a couple times, if you need technique observed. Then take what you've learned swim alone, hopefully with someone that can motivate you and keep you challenged.

I would post a sign at the pool, look for other swimmers when I was swimming on my own, talk to the officials about organizing a team. It is a LOT easier for many people to swim with others than by themselves. Driving 2.5 hours per practice is just not worth it. If you can't move yourself to the team, move a team to yourself--start one.

see if there is a local age group program near you if you can't find swimmers to train with.

Presently I travel 1/2 hour for coached workouts that I really love when there are other alternatives closer to home. An hour and 15 minutes is pushing it though. Maybe once in awhile....

I already spend enough time in the car commuting to work daily. I can't see adding another 2.5 hours to that. You can ask for help/opinions at meets to assist in filling the technique void. (Or post a video online and ask...)

I just made that decision this year. I started swimming with my kids when they were younger at a top notch competive pool. As you guessed it they grew up and I continued to drive to the pool every day by myself and liked it. Suddenly time became an issue this summer along with the price of diesel so I only swam a couple of times the entire summer. I wised up and found a pool 3 minutes from my house and dropped my Y membership. It was a very hard decision but the correct one. I swim by myself and use the USMS workouts. At least now I get to swim a lot more and use a lot less time than the four hours it took at the other pool.

I am a swimmer that need an "organized" workout to get a quality swim in. This does not necessarily mean a coach, but I do need another motivated teammate or two to get in the yards and push myself. Saying that, I would not drive more than 15-20 minutes max to accomplish this. I guess part of my "lifestyle requirement" would be living relatively close to a usable pool with other swimmers in it.

I swim by myself during the work week, then I get individual coaching and feedback on the weekend. It's tough during the work week, but the weekend session is really high quality - focused just on what I need.