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?
Can I rant? I mean, not for pool temperature or for the amusing noodlers, but just for the whole last several months. Grr, I can't catch a break. Summer was tough, took a couple of months to get back in the groove once the kids were in school, and the older ones went back to 5:00AM practice, which is great for me so long as 67Queen isn't working overnight (physician), because I take them, then go across the street to the gym, and do my workout.
Started to get back in the groove, and had to head out of town in October, to Mexico for a wedding. And got sick. Darn sick. Real sick. Out for 2 weeks with fever, lost 9 pounds, etc. So then I start eventually working my way back up to being able to do a normal workout (thanks for the advice I recieved on the forum, BTW!). Took me to about.....the Christmas season and break and all of that. WHich seriously disrupted my routine. And then I started having to hang around the kids practice in the mornings, either to set up the equipment I had made for the team (I basically built the team power towers, since the commercially available ones are so expensive), or to deal with team issues, as I've been on the board for a few years, and the President was out of town.
Seemed to FINALLY get past that a couple of weeks ago. So I try to get back in, immediately delayed. At any rate, I up the yardage, normally average 3000 a day, and just went to about 3700 for a few days to try to kick start things. AND......ended up with a bum elbow, kind of like "tennis elbow." I'm sure it is because I tried to push it a little harder than I should have since I had not been able to train as regularly as normal. Anyway, RICE and ibuprofen. Talk to one of the kids' coaches, suggests I'll be fine, just don't to backstroke.
So I try, but I feel it halfway through a set. Gets more painful. Back off, modify interval and just kick out the remainder of the main set. Next day, I do 4/2/4 swim/kick/pull for warm up. Then 16X25 UDK's with fins. Been trying to work on improving my upkick rather than just relying on the down. So I alternate on stomach, right side, left side, back, four times through. Do 20 50's sprint kick for a main set. All this so my elbow can heal.
Now my freakin' lower back is killing me. Icing helps, ibuprofen. Standing KILLS me. I am guessing it may have been the UDK set, not sure.
To make it worse, I have been planning on trying out one of the local Masters teams this week. WOn't go every day due to the schedule, but met the coach at a HS meet last weekend, and talked about checking it out. Now I'm out of shape, and have a bum back.
Grr....like I said, I just had to rant (of course, if anyone has had a lower back problem resulting from swimming, or has any insight into what I did, I'd love to hear so I won't do it, again.
Can I rant? I mean, not for pool temperature or for the amusing noodlers, but just for the whole last several months. Grr, I can't catch a break. Summer was tough, took a couple of months to get back in the groove once the kids were in school, and the older ones went back to 5:00AM practice, which is great for me so long as 67Queen isn't working overnight (physician), because I take them, then go across the street to the gym, and do my workout.
Started to get back in the groove, and had to head out of town in October, to Mexico for a wedding. And got sick. Darn sick. Real sick. Out for 2 weeks with fever, lost 9 pounds, etc. So then I start eventually working my way back up to being able to do a normal workout (thanks for the advice I recieved on the forum, BTW!). Took me to about.....the Christmas season and break and all of that. WHich seriously disrupted my routine. And then I started having to hang around the kids practice in the mornings, either to set up the equipment I had made for the team (I basically built the team power towers, since the commercially available ones are so expensive), or to deal with team issues, as I've been on the board for a few years, and the President was out of town.
Seemed to FINALLY get past that a couple of weeks ago. So I try to get back in, immediately delayed. At any rate, I up the yardage, normally average 3000 a day, and just went to about 3700 for a few days to try to kick start things. AND......ended up with a bum elbow, kind of like "tennis elbow." I'm sure it is because I tried to push it a little harder than I should have since I had not been able to train as regularly as normal. Anyway, RICE and ibuprofen. Talk to one of the kids' coaches, suggests I'll be fine, just don't to backstroke.
So I try, but I feel it halfway through a set. Gets more painful. Back off, modify interval and just kick out the remainder of the main set. Next day, I do 4/2/4 swim/kick/pull for warm up. Then 16X25 UDK's with fins. Been trying to work on improving my upkick rather than just relying on the down. So I alternate on stomach, right side, left side, back, four times through. Do 20 50's sprint kick for a main set. All this so my elbow can heal.
Now my freakin' lower back is killing me. Icing helps, ibuprofen. Standing KILLS me. I am guessing it may have been the UDK set, not sure.
To make it worse, I have been planning on trying out one of the local Masters teams this week. WOn't go every day due to the schedule, but met the coach at a HS meet last weekend, and talked about checking it out. Now I'm out of shape, and have a bum back.
Grr....like I said, I just had to rant (of course, if anyone has had a lower back problem resulting from swimming, or has any insight into what I did, I'd love to hear so I won't do it, again.
