I'm back in the water training for the first time since college -- 20+ years ago. It took a little while but I'm up to 3k/work-out, but predictably a lot slower than when I was a kid. I'm trying to get some sense of what intervals to set/keep during sets. Right now it's pretty much a survival thing: 50's on a minute, 100's on 1:45 and 200's on 3:30. That's as fast as I can go and still do 5-10 to a set. What kind of intervals are we "more mature" swimmers doing?
Parents
Former Member
I tried this method of fast intervals myself for the last couple of years before finding this site. Speed is not the goal initially, as I have learned from this web site. I was able to ramp up the yardage and the speed to a certain level but could not improve past a certain point. read that as very slow. I also was accumulating a series of annoying injuries and aches and pains.
It is much better to make intervals that YOUR body can make and work on YOUR stroke each and every length. It is much better to lengthen YOUR stoke and listen to YOUR body than try to hammer out the yardage. I do not know how long you have returned to swimming but if you are working so hard that you are huffing and puffing it will be very diificult to improve your speed as your stroke is invariably going to suffer. A slow steady course also will improve your level of fitness which could be a long term goal anyway.
Read all of the posts that you have time to read. This is a great site for master swimmers and if you will follow the advice you will get better. Support USMS it is just a couple of bucks a year, I do.
After reading this site my stroke counts have gone way down, my effort out has decreased for a given stroke and distance, all of my assorted injuries have healed, my speed has increased, induranced has improved, strength has improved, knowledge has increased, and finally happiness is way up.
You have the rest of your life to swim so make the most of it and have a great time. Be consistant and it will pay off for you.
Have a great day
Paul
I tried this method of fast intervals myself for the last couple of years before finding this site. Speed is not the goal initially, as I have learned from this web site. I was able to ramp up the yardage and the speed to a certain level but could not improve past a certain point. read that as very slow. I also was accumulating a series of annoying injuries and aches and pains.
It is much better to make intervals that YOUR body can make and work on YOUR stroke each and every length. It is much better to lengthen YOUR stoke and listen to YOUR body than try to hammer out the yardage. I do not know how long you have returned to swimming but if you are working so hard that you are huffing and puffing it will be very diificult to improve your speed as your stroke is invariably going to suffer. A slow steady course also will improve your level of fitness which could be a long term goal anyway.
Read all of the posts that you have time to read. This is a great site for master swimmers and if you will follow the advice you will get better. Support USMS it is just a couple of bucks a year, I do.
After reading this site my stroke counts have gone way down, my effort out has decreased for a given stroke and distance, all of my assorted injuries have healed, my speed has increased, induranced has improved, strength has improved, knowledge has increased, and finally happiness is way up.
You have the rest of your life to swim so make the most of it and have a great time. Be consistant and it will pay off for you.
Have a great day
Paul
