Hi everyone,
I'm looking for ideas for near/medium/long term goals to set for myself.
I'm 28 and got back into swimming about 5 months ago. Previously I swam for a club team when I was 12. I swim by myself and get in to the pool 4x a week and run 2-3x a week (on off days). A typical workout for me is 3x500 freestyle and then a couple hundred in kicking.
I would like to get a lot faster and swim a lot farther. Swimming as fast as I can, I manage a 34 second 50. I swim a 500 in ~11 min. I can breathe bilaterally and do flip turns in my freestyle sets (it took me a few months to get those into my workouts because I didn't have the cardiovascular system to handle both for a long time).
What are some milestones that you've set for yourself? What skills/times should a beginner be able to accomplish? How about an intermediate swimmer?
Thanks,
Nick
Parents
Former Member
I'll advise replacing one of those 500 repeat swims with a set of 5 x 100 giving yourself 15-20 seconds rest between 100's at first.
Then figure out a fixed send-off time (eg: 5 x 100y @ 2:00) that you can maintain; then bring down that send-off interval to 1:50, 1:45, 1:40, and 1:30 as you get faster and your swim muscles get conditioned. This will help you learn pacing as well as let you get better feedback on what technique helps you swim faster. If you are holding an interval that doesn't allow much rest, you will learn how to finesse and swim economically so you can make ALL the intervals without blowing up at the beginning of the set.
Switch it up with sets of 10 x 50y at, say, 1:00.
I find swimming sets of 100's odd swims IM, even swims free ("I Am Free!") to be great overall conditioning and more entertaining to swim. Allow extra rest time after the IMs.
When I was going :34 for a 50 free, I was about 1:10 for 100 free, 2:32 for 200 free, and 6:37 for 500 free.
The advice to work on stroke count is very good. Also, swim technique has changed a lot since you were 12 years old. Watch some good swimmers and see how there is so much more emphasis on the underwater kicking off the walls (everything except breaststroke), how the butterfly is flatter, how the breaststroke body position has changed, how the starts don't pike as much.
10 x 100 sets would be even better than 5 x 100 sets, as previous posts suggest.
I'll advise replacing one of those 500 repeat swims with a set of 5 x 100 giving yourself 15-20 seconds rest between 100's at first.
Then figure out a fixed send-off time (eg: 5 x 100y @ 2:00) that you can maintain; then bring down that send-off interval to 1:50, 1:45, 1:40, and 1:30 as you get faster and your swim muscles get conditioned. This will help you learn pacing as well as let you get better feedback on what technique helps you swim faster. If you are holding an interval that doesn't allow much rest, you will learn how to finesse and swim economically so you can make ALL the intervals without blowing up at the beginning of the set.
Switch it up with sets of 10 x 50y at, say, 1:00.
I find swimming sets of 100's odd swims IM, even swims free ("I Am Free!") to be great overall conditioning and more entertaining to swim. Allow extra rest time after the IMs.
When I was going :34 for a 50 free, I was about 1:10 for 100 free, 2:32 for 200 free, and 6:37 for 500 free.
The advice to work on stroke count is very good. Also, swim technique has changed a lot since you were 12 years old. Watch some good swimmers and see how there is so much more emphasis on the underwater kicking off the walls (everything except breaststroke), how the butterfly is flatter, how the breaststroke body position has changed, how the starts don't pike as much.
10 x 100 sets would be even better than 5 x 100 sets, as previous posts suggest.
