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?
I was asked about my 15 wk cycles. The number is arbitrary, one year there was 15 wk between Summers Nats and my SCM taper meet,I had a good SCM meet,so I thought 15 wk was a good length.I can cut it down to 12 wk when necessary, I already have trouble pushing the intensity to 15 wk,so I don't go beyond that.
All parts of this are arbitrary and change based on how I feel,but it is based on my philosophy of what is important to swim competitively. First,the most important thing is consistency,that is more than just showing up to swim,it means listening to your body, if something is injured,rest it if I feel a little sick,cut back the intensity so I don't get a lot sick.
Second, working on technique will give conditioning,vice versa is not necessarily true.
Third, the best way to swim race pace at meets is to swim lots of race pace in practice.
So the first 2-3 week of the cycle I do mostly drills and relatively slow swims working on getting my stroke in a groove.Then I start adding in race pace sets. When I was doing mostly HIT I was adding them in relatively slowly(100 yd one week then 200 yd the next etc.) but since I am doing more USRPT I find I can add a whole set in since the sets are self limiting.
By week 6-7 it is all race pace,as long as I am feeling good.I swim 4 days/wk and try to lift 2 days/wk. I generally lift on swim days after swimming. At 67 I need recovery days(at 30 I needed recovery days too though.)
I do a 3 wk taper of swimming about the same amount but making every other swim a recovery swim(cutting the number of race pace swims in half) for 2 wk and the last week I warm up do 100-200 pace work and cool down.
I was asked about my 15 wk cycles. The number is arbitrary, one year there was 15 wk between Summers Nats and my SCM taper meet,I had a good SCM meet,so I thought 15 wk was a good length.I can cut it down to 12 wk when necessary, I already have trouble pushing the intensity to 15 wk,so I don't go beyond that.
All parts of this are arbitrary and change based on how I feel,but it is based on my philosophy of what is important to swim competitively. First,the most important thing is consistency,that is more than just showing up to swim,it means listening to your body, if something is injured,rest it if I feel a little sick,cut back the intensity so I don't get a lot sick.
Second, working on technique will give conditioning,vice versa is not necessarily true.
Third, the best way to swim race pace at meets is to swim lots of race pace in practice.
So the first 2-3 week of the cycle I do mostly drills and relatively slow swims working on getting my stroke in a groove.Then I start adding in race pace sets. When I was doing mostly HIT I was adding them in relatively slowly(100 yd one week then 200 yd the next etc.) but since I am doing more USRPT I find I can add a whole set in since the sets are self limiting.
By week 6-7 it is all race pace,as long as I am feeling good.I swim 4 days/wk and try to lift 2 days/wk. I generally lift on swim days after swimming. At 67 I need recovery days(at 30 I needed recovery days too though.)
I do a 3 wk taper of swimming about the same amount but making every other swim a recovery swim(cutting the number of race pace swims in half) for 2 wk and the last week I warm up do 100-200 pace work and cool down.
