What do YOU need to do to have a major swimming breakthrough?"

Did this thread lose about 6 months of posts? Somewhere I posted my gigantic breakthrough of swimming 100 yds in under 2 minutes. A breakthrough now would be to get back in the pool regularly. Congratulations, Ande, on the nice shoutout in Swimmer mag. The article on you and the one on Pat Brundage got submerged by other interests (but at least we haven't had the thread on where's my magazine for this issue :) ).

Ande, Question for you! I am looking for a huge break through in swimming. I am 20 almost 21 (female) and I have swam since I was 15. I took one year off (when I was 19) but this past year I have been swimming again because I missed it so much. I am an average swimmer and I have always swam with people much faster than I (that is until this pa ast year I have been swimming in Oklahoma). My times are starting to get faster however, I would like any advice you can give me on getting faster. I am gaining speed but it is very slow. Because my times aren't extremely fast I feel that I should be able to lose more quickly. Any advice would be appreicated. I am hoping to get a good summer of training in. My times are: SCM 100 *** 1:35 100 Back 1:21 200 Back 3:01 800 Free 11:45 1500 Free 22:25 100 Free 1:10 50 Free 34 I usually swim 5,000 LCM or SCM a day and I lift 3 times a week. Occasionally I will run. Any thoughts?

sorry it took me so long to respond to this sounds like you're training hard, try going on a vision quest Tip 340 Go On a Vision Quest to Become your Best decide if you want to race better in short or longer races Ande Ande, Question for you! I am looking for a huge break through in swimming. I am 20 almost 21 (female) and I have swam since I was 15. I took one year off (when I was 19) but this past year I have been swimming again because I missed it so much. I am an average swimmer and I have always swam with people much faster than I (that is until this pa ast year I have been swimming in Oklahoma). My times are starting to get faster however, I would like any advice you can give me on getting faster. I am gaining speed but it is very slow. Because my times aren't extremely fast I feel that I should be able to lose more quickly. Any advice would be appreicated. I am hoping to get a good summer of training in. My times are: SCM 100 *** 1:35 100 Back 1:21 200 Back 3:01 800 Free 11:45 1500 Free 22:25 100 Free 1:10 50 Free 34 I usually swim 5,000 LCM or SCM a day and I lift 3 times a week. Occasionally I will run. Any thoughts?

Ande - I want to drop my 100 training interval from 1:50 to 1:30. Currently I swim at 1:43 / 100 SCY on a continuous basis -for a "steady pace" over any distance up to 1000 yards. My current flat out 100 y from the wall is 1:15 - 90% effort is 1:20-25 Previous coaches have said that if my 90% effort is 1:20 then I should be able to do intervals on 1:40 - but I struggle to hit 1:50 when doing repeats with 10 sec rest. I am 54 a former HS swimmer - not a great one. In HS I was easily hitting 1:30 intervals - top 100 time was just under 1:00. Top 50 was 26. Two years ago I swam a 29.3 with only about 5 mos of steady training. So I am wondering if I could even set some PRs in my 50s - I have much more muscle now than I did in HS - I was a skinny dork back then. My training has been inconsistent but for the last month have been getting in the water 4 times a week and swimming between 2,800 and 3,500 yards. I train alone - no access to a coach or master's group at this time. If I just focus on time in the water / distance and swimming consistently 4 or more times a week - will that make a big impact or do I need to focus on specific work outs? Andy