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?
...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.
I was stationed for two years in Kyrgyzstan where the one pool nearby had two lanes which they turned into three lanes. It was always full, and you really couldn't have more than one person in a "lane" due to the skinniness of the lane. My only other option was a pool ~20 feet long. So I bought straps, wound them around the ladder, velcroed them to my ankles, and swam. For two years.
It was apparently good enough training because I managed to pioneer a new route across the second largest alpine lake in the work (lake Issyk Kul, at 5272 feet above sea level), 14km in 6:02 (good for me!). And now a swim across that route is an annual event there! /pats self on back/
And now I travel at least a week every month, and I make sure the hotel I'm staying at has an indoor pool and I bring those straps. ;)
...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.
I was stationed for two years in Kyrgyzstan where the one pool nearby had two lanes which they turned into three lanes. It was always full, and you really couldn't have more than one person in a "lane" due to the skinniness of the lane. My only other option was a pool ~20 feet long. So I bought straps, wound them around the ladder, velcroed them to my ankles, and swam. For two years.
It was apparently good enough training because I managed to pioneer a new route across the second largest alpine lake in the work (lake Issyk Kul, at 5272 feet above sea level), 14km in 6:02 (good for me!). And now a swim across that route is an annual event there! /pats self on back/
And now I travel at least a week every month, and I make sure the hotel I'm staying at has an indoor pool and I bring those straps. ;)
