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?
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Former Member
My (possibly ambitious) goal is to swim in three specific open-water swims and not finish last. :D
(I might even aim to make a respectable time, but let's not go completely crazy here).
There's one in particular that I've been dying to swim in since I first got back into swimming (Swim & Fin for Salem Sound), and fortunately it's near the end of the summer, so plenty of time to spend practicing in the lake and the ocean.
I'm bugging a friend of mine (now in medical school) to swim in a 5K open water that supports LifeFlight in Maine, so at least I'll go up and cheer her on, and she said she might be able to come and swim the open water ones here as well! :)
My ambitious goal is to complete cold half (15 km open water race in about 16°C) in February 2020, and do the channel in 2021. But I may be daydreaming for the latter part because it might not be possible to book a place in 2021 by 2020.
My (possibly ambitious) goal is to swim in three specific open-water swims and not finish last. :D
(I might even aim to make a respectable time, but let's not go completely crazy here).
There's one in particular that I've been dying to swim in since I first got back into swimming (Swim & Fin for Salem Sound), and fortunately it's near the end of the summer, so plenty of time to spend practicing in the lake and the ocean.
I'm bugging a friend of mine (now in medical school) to swim in a 5K open water that supports LifeFlight in Maine, so at least I'll go up and cheer her on, and she said she might be able to come and swim the open water ones here as well! :)
My ambitious goal is to complete cold half (15 km open water race in about 16°C) in February 2020, and do the channel in 2021. But I may be daydreaming for the latter part because it might not be possible to book a place in 2021 by 2020.
