Solo Swimmers

I think Elaine is a pretty good swimmer for her age. Anyone that swims 200 yard FLy under 4:30 is doing great. :smooch: Thanks, Cinc! I needed that! 200 Fly was by far my WORST event on the motivational time charts until I aged up to 55 and caught a bit of a break. Now, I at least have a chance of getting ON the charts when I'm healthy and able to train and compete in the event. Ahem.:D I swim solo and that's the way I roll. I dislike swimming with other people so I don't. Well, hello, Denise! :wave: Welcome to the conversation! I hear what you are saying. You know what I dislike? Swimming with other people in the warm-up pool at large, crowded meets, especially when it's crowded. You should have seen it in Montreal at the World Championships! What a zoo! I ended up with a bunch of bruises, and I'm lucky I got out of it without any broken bones. Yes, I do know lane etiquette, and I know how to circle swim; but, *&%$ happens even when the other person does, too. It makes me nervous being in that situation, and it's the only negative thing about competing at Nationals. Having said that, I will never forget meeting Cullen Jones in the warm-up pool in Greensboro at Nationals. What a sweetheart! 11114 11115 It's nobody's business but the person in the pool. No one has the right to judge anyone. I'm not hurting any master's group by not joining (in fact I was kicked out of a group two years ago because I didn't want to swim in a deep, already over-crowded lane and the coach told me to leave). Everyone swims for their own reason. For me, it's for weight and fitness. I think USMS would rather have by dues than not. I enjoy the forums and I enjoy meeting other swimmers on the rare occasion I go to watch meets. :agree: :applaud: Everyone has some sort of issue, whether it be overcoming fear of the water as an adult (me) to having hip or knee or shoulder injuries, to having a crummy kick. You're certainly not the only person with physical issues. In fact, probably a good percentage of adults get into swimming because they had issues that kept them out of other sports. If a master's group folds, somewhere another master's is forming. If a group is losing members, down the road it'll pick up because everything is cyclical. Just get in the water and enjoy yourself in your own way and don't judge what anyone else does. :applaud:

If I had to swim with a club to swim, I wouldn't swim at all. Similarly, if I had to swim pool meets to swim, I wouldn't do it. Plain and simple. Years ago, I quit my high school team after just my second season, not because I didn't enjoy the act of swimming or the accomplishment that comes from pushing myself in the pool but rather because I just didn't find group practice or meets enjoyable or motivating. I came back to swimming a few years ago and found that I can both push myself and enjoy it if I let it be a largely solo sport for me. I particularly like open water swimming, and the desire to be strong enough of a swimmer to take on new distances or more challenging conditions in the open water pushes me to keep going back to the pool. I do swim an organized open water event once or twice a year, but the swims that are just me and my husband paddling alongside are just as valuable to me. I enjoy improving my butterfly stroke in large part because, as a solo swimmer who doesn't go to meets, I'm only comparing my stroke to what it once was, not to that of other swimmers who never let theirs go to pot. I'd probably be too ashamed of it if I were in a club or meet context, but because I'm by myself in the pool I feel a freedom to keep trying, even if the road to improvement is long and messy. And yes, I also feel a freedom to barely swim any breaststroke because I have an irrationally intense dislike of that stroke. I conquered it once, swimming IM back in my teenage years. I have no need to deal with it again. I appreciate that USMS is not simply a competitive organization. I guess it comes down to recognizing that there is more to an athletic endeavor than the "sport" aspect of it. I can't say I personally care that much about who swims the fastest, but I care very much about swimming, and I'm glad USMS has room for people like me. I'm glad that those of you who get something out of facing off against others have that opportunity through the organization -- that really is great, if it's your thing -- but I'm also just as glad that the group offers resources and support for people who get a lot of challenging variety in the rest of their life and look to swimming to be a more stable, steady, unchanging part of their routine. :applaud::applaud::applaud: Very well said, looney! Kudos for two things: #1 Having your *&%# together, and knowing yourself well enough to do what's best for you and #2 Being able to articulate it so well! :agree:

ElaineK is one of the staunchest and most active supporters of this organization and no one should ever question that.

ElaineK is one of the staunchest and most active supporters of this organization and no one should ever question that. Thank you, Denise. I appreciate it!

Ahem.:D I swim solo and that's the way I roll. I dislike swimming with other people so I don't. It's nobody's business but the person in the pool. No one has the right to judge anyone. I'm not hurting any master's group by not joining (in fact I was kicked out of a group two years ago because I didn't want to swim in a deep, already over-crowded lane and the coach told me to leave). Everyone swims for their own reason. For me, it's for weight and fitness. I think USMS would rather have by dues than not. I enjoy the forums and I enjoy meeting other swimmers on the rare occasion I go to watch meets. Everyone has some sort of issue, whether it be overcoming fear of the water as an adult (me) to having hip or knee or shoulder injuries, to having a crummy kick. You're certainly not the only person with physical issues. In fact, probably a good percentage of adults get into swimming because they had issues that kept them out of other sports. If a master's group folds, somewhere another master's is forming. If a group is losing members, down the road it'll pick up because everything is cyclical. Just get in the water and enjoy yourself in your own way and don't judge what anyone else does.

If I had to swim with a club to swim, I wouldn't swim at all. Similarly, if I had to swim pool meets to swim, I wouldn't do it. Plain and simple. Years ago, I quit my high school team after just my second season, not because I didn't enjoy the act of swimming or the accomplishment that comes from pushing myself in the pool but rather because I just didn't find group practice or meets enjoyable or motivating. I came back to swimming a few years ago and found that I can both push myself and enjoy it if I let it be a largely solo sport for me. I particularly like open water swimming, and the desire to be strong enough of a swimmer to take on new distances or more challenging conditions in the open water pushes me to keep going back to the pool. I do swim an organized open water event once or twice a year, but the swims that are just me and my husband paddling alongside are just as valuable to me. I enjoy improving my butterfly stroke in large part because, as a solo swimmer who doesn't go to meets, I'm only comparing my stroke to what it once was, not to that of other swimmers who never let theirs go to pot. I'd probably be too ashamed of it if I were in a club or meet context, but because I'm by myself in the pool I feel a freedom to keep trying, even if the road to improvement is long and messy. And yes, I also feel a freedom to barely swim any breaststroke because I have an irrationally intense dislike of that stroke. I conquered it once, swimming IM back in my teenage years. I have no need to deal with it again. I appreciate that USMS is not simply a competitive organization. I guess it comes down to recognizing that there is more to an athletic endeavor than the "sport" aspect of it. I can't say I personally care that much about who swims the fastest, but I care very much about swimming, and I'm glad USMS has room for people like me. I'm glad that those of you who get something out of facing off against others have that opportunity through the organization -- that really is great, if it's your thing -- but I'm also just as glad that the group offers resources and support for people who get a lot of challenging variety in the rest of their life and look to swimming to be a more stable, steady, unchanging part of their routine.

67, what do you think? For those who need to adjust the time intervals, that's perfectly fine! Specific to his suggesting about coming up with test sets........that's an almost daily staple of swimdogs' workouts! Now, I don't usually do them. I haven't been doing it long enough to really have a clue what my pace should be. The one time I did, I went down in flames. He gave me some good feedback, and I owe him an email. That said, I think I still need a lot of things to stabilize a bit for me. I feel like I learn something every time I do a workout, and I try to carry it into the next one. Physically, my body hasn't really stabilized that much, either. But I think if someone has been doing this long enough where they aren't finding new tricks about strokes or turns or whatever, and their body is stable, weight and heart rate wise, then the idea of picking out a specific "test set" and doing the same test over on a regular basis sounds really good.

You're a newbie at this level of training, so give yourself plenty of time to get in the groove. You will! :cheerleader: It will be a lot of trial and error; however, you will get better at learning what you are capable of doing. In the meantime, the most important thing is making sure you are using good stroke technique. Oh yeah, and it's also very important to have fun! :bliss:

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!

Alright, so I know I whined about the pool in which I train in the thread I started, but since this is largely a rant thread, I'll add a few more. First, there were a couple of folks doing assisted floating today. The one guy who has a noodle, paddles, fins, and a snorkle, and using all together, who does a 5 minute lap. Looks like he kind of skulls a litttle. But here is something else. I have noticed that my stroke count, particularly in back, has been different depending on which way I was swimming. Well, I have been doing *** stroke workouts, and it became VERY obvious today how bad it is. So after breakout, in one direction, I hit the halfway tiles as I'm recovering from my second pull, pushing my arms back in front of me for my third reach. Goinig the other direction, it is a full stroke off. Very obviously when doing the sets taht are listed now, where they are batched by 25's - breakout +3 hard strokes, BO +5, BO +7, full sprint (also 50's, same except off of each wall, rather than beginning). The full length isn't as pronounced, it seems to all be up front. But iis is there, and it is real. I have already posted that the surface is about a 36 grit, industrial strength abrasive that loves to stick to human flesh. And that there are no "+" signs on the wall, which makes judging flip turns a little easier, and that the jets are in the middle of the lane where you push off. Oh yeah, and that the steps are in a lane, rather than an "L" section, making one of teh 3 lanes useless to lap swimmers. But get this. The pool is 4' deep at both ends. Gets to 5' at teh deepest point. Which is about 3 yards from one end of the pool. And that is where the two drains are. The drains are about 1' by 1' square. So it is apparently moving a lot of water, and since the depth doesn't change too much, it has a pretty big impact on the stroke count. Isn't as bad for other strokes, but for ***, it is vrey noticeable. I assume this is due to the time spent gliding after pushing off of the wall, rather than dolphin kicking or staying up on top of the water. So I'm not sure what kind of engineer designed that, but I suspect it wasn't one from Ga Tech!!!