What is the best time to time yourself?

I don't mean to make it complicated but you pose a great question that has at the heart of it, the concept of baseline training. The sooner you start timing yourself in the various training aspects the sooner you'll see how effective your training regime really is. If you'd like more information on "baseline training" just holler. In trying to answer your question; it depends upon what you're trying to accomplish. If you are going to swim a specific number of events and at different distances, you'll want to time yourself at rest intervals that closely mimic the meet (i.e. your 1st event, 2nd event, 3rd etc.,). That means you'll want to warm-down after your first timed set, rest an approximate amount of time then warm-up like you'd do before a meet, then time the next event and repeat the process again. If you're focusing on only one event then time yourself after a warm-up (keep it the warm-up the same). The most important thing when timing yourself is consistency (try to keep the variables the same). Variables include, what you're wearing (drag suit or not), day that you time yourself (should mimic days the meet will run), training regime (days when you exercise and when you exercise), time of day you're timing yourself should resemble meet conditions, and others you feel are important. Do this every other week (once) and if you're training correctly your times should drop test to test. Swimmers who are more serious should have baseline times for most of the aspects of their training. If you're not timing yourself at consistent periods during your training and your training seriously, you're missing a critical evaluation tool. Good luck, Coach T. A mushroom walks into a bar, sits down and orders a drink. The bartender says "We don't serve mushrooms here." The mushroom says,"Why not? I'm a fun guy!"

I don't mean to make it complicated but you pose a great question that has at the heart of it, the concept of baseline training. The sooner you start timing yourself in the various training aspects the sooner you'll see how effective your training regime really is. If you'd like more information on "baseline training" just holler. In trying to answer your question; it depends upon what you're trying to accomplish. If you are going to swim a specific number of events and at different distances, you'll want to time yourself at rest intervals that closely mimic the meet (i.e. your 1st event, 2nd event, 3rd etc.,). That means you'll want to warm-down after your first timed set, rest an approximate amount of time then warm-up like you'd do before a meet, then time the next event and repeat the process again. If you're focusing on only one event then time yourself after a warm-up (keep it the warm-up the same). The most important thing when timing yourself is consistency (try to keep the variables the same). Variables include, what you're wearing (drag suit or not), day that you time yourself (should mimic days the meet will run), training regime (days when you exercise and when you exercise), time of day you're timing yourself should resemble meet conditions, and others you feel are important. Do this every other week (once) and if you're training correctly your times should drop test to test. Swimmers who are more serious should have baseline times for most of the aspects of their training. If you're not timing yourself at consistent periods during your training and your training seriously, you're missing a critical evaluation tool. Good luck, Coach T. A mushroom walks into a bar, sits down and orders a drink. The bartender says "We don't serve mushrooms here." The mushroom says,"Why not? I'm a fun guy!"