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.)
10687
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?
You're a newbie at this level of training, so give yourself plenty of time to get in the groove.
Yeah, I was not really trying to talk about that so much as getting stabilized. In other words, if one could go from, say 2:00 in a 100 stroke (we'll say ***) to a 1:40 in the span of a couple of months, then doing test sets may not be useful information. But if in another couple of months, one is only at 1:38, then at that point, yeah, do them! My first day in teh water, I could only wring out a 300 yard set. And I was only able to get a few in, and I think i cooled down with a 100. So grand total of 1000 yards in a bit over half an hour. That was early February. I just did a 1650 in 26:21 on Friday. Physically, I'm still losing weight, though I'm not trying. Heart rate is creeping down, but largely stable. But I am feeling stronger almost every time I'm in the water. And my intervals are becoming less modified from the ones Mark publishes.
Anyway, I'm really just saying that if the poster asking about that is like me, in that they can tell that they are improving, then I don't know if the test set will tell them much. If, on the other hand, they are pretty stable, and just in "maintenance" mode, then by all means, do them!
You're a newbie at this level of training, so give yourself plenty of time to get in the groove.
Yeah, I was not really trying to talk about that so much as getting stabilized. In other words, if one could go from, say 2:00 in a 100 stroke (we'll say ***) to a 1:40 in the span of a couple of months, then doing test sets may not be useful information. But if in another couple of months, one is only at 1:38, then at that point, yeah, do them! My first day in teh water, I could only wring out a 300 yard set. And I was only able to get a few in, and I think i cooled down with a 100. So grand total of 1000 yards in a bit over half an hour. That was early February. I just did a 1650 in 26:21 on Friday. Physically, I'm still losing weight, though I'm not trying. Heart rate is creeping down, but largely stable. But I am feeling stronger almost every time I'm in the water. And my intervals are becoming less modified from the ones Mark publishes.
Anyway, I'm really just saying that if the poster asking about that is like me, in that they can tell that they are improving, then I don't know if the test set will tell them much. If, on the other hand, they are pretty stable, and just in "maintenance" mode, then by all means, do them!
