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
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. ...
10 x 100 sets would be even better than 5 x 100 sets, as previous posts suggest.
I endorse Nancy's advise. Short of getting a coach to work on your stroke, I can think of nothing better to improve your swimming than interval training. It is also a great way to set goals and track progress, as in, once you can complete 10x100 on the 2:00 send-off, the next goal is to complete 10x100 on the 1:50 send-off. I'm frequently working to increase the number of repeats I can do on a given interval, or decrease the interval time for a given number of repeats. I think Ande calls this "shifting the training grid" in his SFF tips.
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. ...
10 x 100 sets would be even better than 5 x 100 sets, as previous posts suggest.
I endorse Nancy's advise. Short of getting a coach to work on your stroke, I can think of nothing better to improve your swimming than interval training. It is also a great way to set goals and track progress, as in, once you can complete 10x100 on the 2:00 send-off, the next goal is to complete 10x100 on the 1:50 send-off. I'm frequently working to increase the number of repeats I can do on a given interval, or decrease the interval time for a given number of repeats. I think Ande calls this "shifting the training grid" in his SFF tips.
