Hey, solo swimmers! :wave: Welcome to the thread for all of us who train solo. Whether you train on your own due to a lack of a Masters team in your area (or for any other reason), this is our virtual locker room. Please post training tips that you think would be helpful, or anything else you would like to share with the rest of us. Have a rant? Go ahead and vent here! :rantonoff:
I'll start with a tip:
The most frustrating thing for me training solo is not having a coach on deck to evaluate my stroke and keep me on track, so I bought a waterproof camera and enlisted the help of my husband to periodically shoot video of all four strokes. Shooting underwater video became a knee/back buster, so I bought a camera mount and attached it to PVC pipe, so my husband could stand up straight to shoot underwater video. The camera gets dunked underwater, and he twists the pipe to pan the camera as I swim by.
Today, I bought a 2-pack of 12-inch "Gear Tie" reusable rubber twist ties (available at Home Depot), so I can tie the PVC pipe to the pool ladder (located in the corner of the pool) and shoot video myself. (If I angle the camera just right and keep it on wide angle, I can video me coming and going.)
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After each video session, I upload the videos to my desktop computer and compare my stroke to my favorite Go Swim stroke videos to see what I'm doing well (or not). I also post them on the Forums for feedback.
Ok, solo swimmers, what's your tip?
... and always counting strokes every length. Triple agree on this point. Counting strokes, particularly for freestyle, also serves as a barometer for when I need to back down; if my stroke count gets too high and consistently too high while producing the same (or slower) times, I know I'm at a point where I need to back off for a bit and rest.
...Where solo swimming becomes tough for me is midway in my meet preparation cycle.Timing doesn't always work for me, but I like to do a quick 3-4 day 'drop-taper' meet in the middle of a training cycle when I can. In SCY, this usually means a meet in mid-February to early March.
I'll second Elaine's point about swimming off events. Not only in-season, but even at Nationals, I find it can be an incredible morale boost to go a best time in an event I rarely swim. Even when I rationally know that the only reason I went the best time is because I finally swam the event tapered & shaved, my emotional mind still gets stoked. If there are events you don't swim that often, you can even get that 'high' at an in-season meet.
No. I have a spreadsheet of my own design. Yes! Yes! Yes! I have a great Excel file that I've been using over the years; it's way easier to use and way more information-packed than the Flog.
... and always counting strokes every length. Triple agree on this point. Counting strokes, particularly for freestyle, also serves as a barometer for when I need to back down; if my stroke count gets too high and consistently too high while producing the same (or slower) times, I know I'm at a point where I need to back off for a bit and rest.
...Where solo swimming becomes tough for me is midway in my meet preparation cycle.Timing doesn't always work for me, but I like to do a quick 3-4 day 'drop-taper' meet in the middle of a training cycle when I can. In SCY, this usually means a meet in mid-February to early March.
I'll second Elaine's point about swimming off events. Not only in-season, but even at Nationals, I find it can be an incredible morale boost to go a best time in an event I rarely swim. Even when I rationally know that the only reason I went the best time is because I finally swam the event tapered & shaved, my emotional mind still gets stoked. If there are events you don't swim that often, you can even get that 'high' at an in-season meet.
No. I have a spreadsheet of my own design. Yes! Yes! Yes! I have a great Excel file that I've been using over the years; it's way easier to use and way more information-packed than the Flog.
