I just got back in the water a little over a month ago after 15+ years out. I ended my swimming career short (due to hard headness and ignorance) when I was younger so there is a part of me with something to prove. I guess where I am going is I need help on focusing at the task at hand....training for top performance (for me) in competition. I am currently training on my own because the nearest team doesn't offer compatible training times or enough to be honest. I have been perusing the boards and have found lots of great information, but am having a hard time organizing and prioritizing what is relevant to me right now. Any suggestions on how to approach training...dryland/in the pool workouts would be great. I guess with it being so long and doing it on my own I am just a bit overwhelmed!!
Thanks,
Diana
Parents
Former Member
Diana,
You can probably get better advice if you can tell us where you are now. How much pool time can you reasonably do, do you have gym access for weights or is your only option for drylands body weight exercises.
For example, I have 3 coached practices a week, and I can get in the water for solo practices of an hour the other two days a week and probably 2 hours a day on the weekends. I have gym access and a full weight setup at home and have about 45 minutes to an hour I can devote to working out in the evening, but there is no pool space at that time, so it needs to be restricted to drylands.
General recommendations:
When you are in the water, only pick one or two things to try to change during the entire workout. I have a few million things I need to work on, but I focus on maybe a dozen that will help me the most, and rotate through them.
I think frequency in the water is more important than volume. So 5 2-3k practices would be more beneficial than 3 5k practices. This might not be good advice if you are distance or OW, but then you need to ask someone else :)
It might be worth joining a team even if you train with them infrequently to get some feedback on your stroke when you can go, and to have a team to compete with if you compete.
General conditioning takes a while to build back up. I would steal workouts from the workouts forum that are about the level you are interested in, and follow those until you feel like you are "in shape". At that point, you can start working on creating your own workouts, or taking the workouts from the workouts forums and changing sets to meet your specific goals.
have found lots of great information, but am having a hard time organizing and prioritizing what is relevant to me right now.
Don't worry about that, the feeling doesn't go away. I would venture a guess that most of us feel like we have lots to work on and don't know what is most important, and no one can effectively answer the question for you anyway. Pick something from your list that you know is important and work on it. If it isn't the most ideal choice, oh well. It needed to be improved anyway, and maybe tomorrow you will pick the ideal choice.
Diana,
You can probably get better advice if you can tell us where you are now. How much pool time can you reasonably do, do you have gym access for weights or is your only option for drylands body weight exercises.
For example, I have 3 coached practices a week, and I can get in the water for solo practices of an hour the other two days a week and probably 2 hours a day on the weekends. I have gym access and a full weight setup at home and have about 45 minutes to an hour I can devote to working out in the evening, but there is no pool space at that time, so it needs to be restricted to drylands.
General recommendations:
When you are in the water, only pick one or two things to try to change during the entire workout. I have a few million things I need to work on, but I focus on maybe a dozen that will help me the most, and rotate through them.
I think frequency in the water is more important than volume. So 5 2-3k practices would be more beneficial than 3 5k practices. This might not be good advice if you are distance or OW, but then you need to ask someone else :)
It might be worth joining a team even if you train with them infrequently to get some feedback on your stroke when you can go, and to have a team to compete with if you compete.
General conditioning takes a while to build back up. I would steal workouts from the workouts forum that are about the level you are interested in, and follow those until you feel like you are "in shape". At that point, you can start working on creating your own workouts, or taking the workouts from the workouts forums and changing sets to meet your specific goals.
have found lots of great information, but am having a hard time organizing and prioritizing what is relevant to me right now.
Don't worry about that, the feeling doesn't go away. I would venture a guess that most of us feel like we have lots to work on and don't know what is most important, and no one can effectively answer the question for you anyway. Pick something from your list that you know is important and work on it. If it isn't the most ideal choice, oh well. It needed to be improved anyway, and maybe tomorrow you will pick the ideal choice.
