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'm on the fence about renewing. Two shoulder surgeries and issues with vertigo kept me out of the pool for the past six months and I'm nervous about going back. That plus the inconvenience of getting to the pool (my gym pool is small and mostly used up with water aerobics, the fitness center in my community has a pool that's only 50 feet long, and the nearest olympic size pool is 20-25 minutes away, a huge demotivator). So I'm wondering if other people face these obstacles and how they overcome them. Last time I was in the pool back in September, for only about 20 minutes, I was thinking of dropping out of my master's program and that short swim really turned things around and gave me the "wtf it's just one course" mentality that allowed me to make it through the semester.
I'm taking a master's at UMd where, as you know, there's an amazing pool, but I'm only on campus a couple mornings a week starting in January. The upshot is that I'd like to get back into swimming, but I'm not certain how this USMS membership is helping. I don't belong to a team and I don't really "train" on my own. Suggestions appreciated.
Baby steps, in my opinion. If you are at UM a few days a week, take 20-30 minutes and just paddle around. I swam for 25 years up until my first child was born. Then I took basically 3 years off to pursue other interests (Ones I had given up to focus on swimming over the years, like soccer and running). When I started my comeback last January (after 2 false starts over the previous year), I spent the first two months doing about 1,000 yards 3 times a week. That was it. I wouldn't let myself do any more. Just wanted to see how it made me feel (both physically and mentally). The end result is that as I suspected, swimming is a drug that I am hopelessly addicted to. I am back to doing 18-25,000 a week now, but partial credit to rekindling my love for the sport has to go to the slow and steady way I reintroduced myself to it.
I'm on the fence about renewing. Two shoulder surgeries and issues with vertigo kept me out of the pool for the past six months and I'm nervous about going back. That plus the inconvenience of getting to the pool (my gym pool is small and mostly used up with water aerobics, the fitness center in my community has a pool that's only 50 feet long, and the nearest olympic size pool is 20-25 minutes away, a huge demotivator). So I'm wondering if other people face these obstacles and how they overcome them. Last time I was in the pool back in September, for only about 20 minutes, I was thinking of dropping out of my master's program and that short swim really turned things around and gave me the "wtf it's just one course" mentality that allowed me to make it through the semester.
I'm taking a master's at UMd where, as you know, there's an amazing pool, but I'm only on campus a couple mornings a week starting in January. The upshot is that I'd like to get back into swimming, but I'm not certain how this USMS membership is helping. I don't belong to a team and I don't really "train" on my own. Suggestions appreciated.
Baby steps, in my opinion. If you are at UM a few days a week, take 20-30 minutes and just paddle around. I swam for 25 years up until my first child was born. Then I took basically 3 years off to pursue other interests (Ones I had given up to focus on swimming over the years, like soccer and running). When I started my comeback last January (after 2 false starts over the previous year), I spent the first two months doing about 1,000 yards 3 times a week. That was it. I wouldn't let myself do any more. Just wanted to see how it made me feel (both physically and mentally). The end result is that as I suspected, swimming is a drug that I am hopelessly addicted to. I am back to doing 18-25,000 a week now, but partial credit to rekindling my love for the sport has to go to the slow and steady way I reintroduced myself to it.
