Solo Swimmers

...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. I have already posted 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. 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. ... So I'm not sure what kind of engineer designed that, but I suspect it wasn't one from Ga Tech!!! Hopefully the noodler was sculling and not skulling. And while it used to bug me that noodlers were taking up valuable pool space, I’m now of the belief that anyone getting exercise in the water is doing a good thing! As for no T’s or crosses at the turns, I suggest bringing a couple of diving bricks to place in the corners as reference points. Or if you have a few extra bucks, invest in a Pace Pal, you can put it in the pool as a turn reference point and a pace clock. 4 feet at the ends and 5 in the middle, that’s deeper than the Y I swim at. Count yourself lucky! As for the Ga Tech engineer, my son was a “Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer…” also a decent swimmer on their team. I’m sure he’d design a pool that was unswimmable, just to spite us. And, it seems like most pools get designed to be Olympic ready, but through budget cuts the end up being a Motel 6 kidney bean.

Thank you, Denise. I appreciate it! I agree with ElaineK that this thread has gotten way off the original topic of helping solo swimmers with workout ideas and other areas to make their swimming experience better. Only about 1/3 of USMS members compete at meets. While I personally feel more should compete as a tool to focus on for their workouts that's MY FEELINGS ONLY. Our group is way too diverse for this banter. So here's my input for today: Come up with two for three "test sets" you do once a month or so exactly the same way. Write these down with the times. Two of my favorites are similar but very different: 5X100 on 3:00 for best average time and 5X100 on 1:30 for best average time. One aerobic one anaerobic Good swimming.

Thank you, Dan. Your input is most appreciated. Thanks for the test set suggestions. I think these are excellent, and may be very helpful to 67King who asked for help on his thread. 67, what do you think? For those who need to adjust the time intervals, that's perfectly fine! Yes thanks the set of 5X100 on 1:30 I average about 1:15 if I'm feeling good that day. So please adjust the interval so you get at least 10-15 sec rest. On the 3 min interval make sure you get at least 1:30 rest or more. You can do these two sets monthly or six weeks apart or whatever. The key for solo swimmers is to keep track over time. They both tax you in different ways and of course can be done in different stokes or IM.

I agree with ElaineK that this thread has gotten way off the original topic of helping solo swimmers with workout ideas and other areas to make their swimming experience better. Only about 1/3 of USMS members compete at meets. While I personally feel more should compete as a tool to focus on for their workouts that's MY FEELINGS ONLY. Our group is way too diverse for this banter. So here's my input for today: Come up with two for three "test sets" you do once a month or so exactly the same way. Write these down with the times. Two of my favorites are similar but very different: 5X100 on 3:00 for best average time and 5X100 on 1:30 for best average time. One aerobic one anaerobic Good swimming. Thank you, Dan. Your input is most appreciated. Thanks for the test set suggestions. I think these are excellent, and may be very helpful to 67King who asked for help on his thread. 67, what do you think? For those who need to adjust the time intervals, that's perfectly fine!

Rob, Noah got a Masters degree 5 years ago??? I remember when he was born! You were kicking my butt at Berkeley. Thanks for making me feel even older than I already did. In case you are interested, I'm back swimming almost 2 years (after a very long layoff), and got my 200 free down to 1:58.9 this year. Lots of room for improvement, but much better than I was. Hope to see you at a Nationals in the future. Ron

I'm back swimming almost 2 years (after a very long layoff), and got my 200 free down to 1:58.9 this year.With apologies for continued off topic posts… But, congratulations Ron on a sub 2:00 200 free in the 55-59 age group! Outstanding swim. And speaking of Berkeley, Cathy and I went back to Jersey in March to catch up with the NJ Masters and it’s amazing to see how many are still swimming 20 years later.

Oh, I only swam for exercise, not on the team or anything, I was NEVER anywhere nearly that good. My degrees were Materials Engineering. And seeing as you are from Fayetteville, I'm actually originally from Griffin. Congrats to your son, I really can't imagine getting through there as a scholarship athlete and getting an engineering degree. I'm quite sure you are rightfully proud of him! As a moderator, you probably saw 67's thread where we discovered him mom is a friend of mine, and he used to be coached by Bob Bugg. Small world!

With apologies for continued off topic posts… I started this thread, and I say you can write as many off-topic posts as you want to on this thread. :wiggle: :D

Small world! That's part of the beauty of Masters Swimming... Even when you are a solo swimmer.

Hopefully the noodler was sculling and not skulling. And while it used to bug me that noodlers were taking up valuable pool space, I’m now of the belief that anyone getting exercise in the water is doing a good thing! As for no T’s or crosses at the turns, I suggest bringing a couple of diving bricks to place in the corners as reference points. Or if you have a few extra bucks, invest in a Pace Pal, you can put it in the pool as a turn reference point and a pace clock. 4 feet at the ends and 5 in the middle, that’s deeper than the Y I swim at. Count yourself lucky! As for the Ga Tech engineer, my son was a “Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer…” also a decent swimmer on their team. I’m sure he’d design a pool that was unswimmable, just to spite us. And, it seems like most pools get designed to be Olympic ready, but through budget cuts the end up being a Motel 6 kidney bean. Hey, now. If your son was truly a Helluvanengineer, then you oughtta know we don't spell very well! I'm not knocking the guy, I agree with you. I just seemed to have created an expectation among some others that I'll throw in a little bit of humor in my posts based on a thread I started about moving from lap swimming to workouts. But I digress. I'm getting better at finding the end of the pool. I have used fins as position markers in the past. And there are lines on the bottom of the pool. But I'm not consistent enough yet to do a flip turn without seeing the wall, itself, in front of me. Depth perception is lacking without something contrasting in front of me. What I have found is that if I get the lane with ladders on both ends, those are the best markers for me. The depth. Wasn't a complaint. The point was the drains. They are huge and move a lot of water relative to the size of teh pool. And most of the time when you see drains like that, they are in deep water, or in the middle of the pool. Here they are at one end. So it is like I'm swimming in a river. In one direction, with the flow, the other direction, against the flow. When was your son at Tech? Got my Bachelors in 97, so I was there when they were building the pool (and swam in a bubbled pool before, until I broke my ankle which ended my swimming), and my Masters in 2000. Didn't know any swimmers, though.