Solo Swimmers

Hello, I just joined this forum and I'm a solo swimmer. I basically only swim during the summer. My aim is to train for an half ironman to be completed in the next years. On my swim sessions I usually try to swim from 1km up to 2.5km. I swim only freestyle and the thing I miss the most is having the chance to be corrected while I swim. I used to do swimming courses when I was a kid and a teenager.

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: Hi Elaine, and everyone, I am brand new to USMS and really new to swimming. I didn't swim in school, though I love the water and have visited pools and paddled around a lot, my whole life. I don't have the advantage now of living near great pools or near a team. I just got hooked again on swimming because my youngest grandsons and their mom (my daughter-in-law) introduced me to a very nice friendly pool near all of us. I haven't found a coach or lessons anywhere, and the summer is waning! Here in Maryland, I'm going to need to find indoor waters pretty soon. I find YouTube videos amazingly helpful. (And I just put Elaine's book recommendation on my to-read list). But I'd really love to find adult beginner lessons around here. I can swim a half-decent side stroke, and my crawl seems passable to me, but I really could use a lot of work on conditioning (I have heard it referred to by swimmers as "dryland") so I don't overwork new muscles. I also need help with breathing tempo. I am very, very aware I'm a newb and I try hard not to annoy or get in the way of the more pro swimmers -- I guess one nice thing about the pool I swim at now may be that everyone is about like me, so none of us annoy one another!

Check the places to swim page here. www.usms.org/.../placswimform.php

Hi Elaine, and everyone, I am brand new to USMS and really new to swimming. I didn't swim in school, though I love the water and have visited pools and paddled around a lot, my whole life. I don't have the advantage now of living near great pools or near a team. I just got hooked again on swimming because my youngest grandsons and their mom (my daughter-in-law) introduced me to a very nice friendly pool near all of us. I haven't found a coach or lessons anywhere, and the summer is waning! Here in Maryland, I'm going to need to find indoor waters pretty soon. I find YouTube videos amazingly helpful. (And I just put Elaine's book recommendation on my to-read list). But I'd really love to find adult beginner lessons around here. I can swim a half-decent side stroke, and my crawl seems passable to me, but I really could use a lot of work on conditioning (I have heard it referred to by swimmers as "dryland") so I don't overwork new muscles. I also need help with breathing tempo. I am very, very aware I'm a newb and I try hard not to annoy or get in the way of the more pro swimmers -- I guess one nice thing about the pool I swim at now may be that everyone is about like me, so none of us annoy one another! :welcome: Nice to have you with us on the Solo Swimmers thread! Good luck in your search for lessons; that's a great idea! If you are unable to locate a swim class, perhaps you can find a coach who is willing to provide individual lessons and coaching for you. You say there are "pro swimmers" at your pool. Get talkin' with them and see if any of them are coaches! In the meantime, sign up for a free subscription of swimming videos at http://www.GoSwim.TV . The videos on the free subscription option are excellent! Watch, and then try to copy what they do when you are in the pool. Good luck! :cheerleader:

Thank you Jack, for that link. I think I had taken a look at that, before I joined USMS a couple of months back. Most of these are a hike away for me, although I will check out one of them - I thought it was a commercial, membership facility and I'd need to become a member, but, we'll soon see. Only one listing that is *sorta* close to me, has a Masters team listed for it. If I phone around, though maybe I will uncover some that haven't gotten on the list yet.

:welcome: Nice to have you with us on the Solo Swimmers thread! Good luck in your search for lessons; that's a great idea! If you are unable to locate a swim class, perhaps you can find a coach who is willing to provide individual lessons and coaching for you. You say there are "pro swimmers" at your pool. Get talkin' with them and see if any of them are coaches! In the meantime, sign up for a free subscription of swimming videos at http://www.GoSwim.TV . The videos on the free subscription option are excellent! Watch, and then try to copy what they do when you are in the pool. Good luck! :cheerleader: Thanks Elaine! I'll get talking, and yes, GoSwim .TV is great; I also enjoy watching SwimLifeGuru and generally, find something new when I search something like "beginning swimming" there. There is a blog I just found too, MyDailySwim, which offers some workouts that I think I can manage. It has been rainy here the past few days and I am itching to get back in the swim!

Thanks so much for the links! I'm training for sprints - was never a distance girl. I have been doing free, back and *** during workouts and have tried mixing it up a bit with sets of 50 free, back and ***. I'm not sure how much rest I should give myself between 50's. Right now I do the 50 free's on the 1:15, averaging a .45-.50 time for each 50. For back and *** I give myself 1:30. I warm up with about 600 meters same 3 strokes both swimming and kicking. I'm just now starting the fly, but it is taking me awhile on that one! I see the workouts posted but it looks like I have some research to do regarding terminology that is new to me. I so appreciate this site. Any advice you can give me would be so appreciated.

Thanks for the encouragement! That is one thing I am wondering about... The pool I practice in does not have starting blocks and the local YMCA doesn't have them either. I'm going to have to try and find a way to get to a pool that has them so I can practice my starts. Thanks again.

Great thread!! I am a newb, and at first, the mere IDEA of having the presence of mind to count strokes, seemed so foreign to me. Well, today, I managed to DO IT. A modest accomplishment, to be sure, but, in the forward direction of progress! These hints and tips are really helpful!!

Nuts and f1re, keep up the good work! :applaud: Nuts, check out the very first post on those workout threads for terminology. There should be a "sticky" with an explanation. The Basic Training workouts has one, for example. F1re, I'm obsessed with counting strokes on breaststroke, my best stroke. It has become so automatic that even if I got distracted and didn't consciously count, I would know how many strokes I swam when I got to the wall (in a 25-yard pool). King Frog (Allen Stark) got me in the habit when I joined USMS seven years ago, and now it's as automatic as breathing!