I could use some direction

Ah thank you for the advise this actually seems like something I can live with. I do have a question though. In cycling, at the beginning of the year I work on my base fitness. I wont do intervals or hill repeats for almost 1000 miles. Certainly there is a base fitness I need to gain in swimming for me to do some of this, no? How many yards do I need to do to obtain a base in swimming before really starting to push for speed (which to be honest with you is not my main goal, but I wouldn't mind getting faster). I figured i would need at least a good 4 weeks of doing what I am doing before starting to really work on speed. My arms just need some time. But I am amazed at my results already. Good points. I still tend to do interval work even in the "early season," but do longer distances. For example, rather than doing a straight 2000 yard swim, I'd do either 10 x 200 or, more likely, 5 x 400. Maybe I just have some ADD, but I generally don't do a lot of straight swims that are much more than 500/600 unless it's a long warm-up where I might mix up some swimming, kicking and drilling. Now, while I'm admittedly training primarily for pool swimming and primarily to go faster, here's how I'm thinking about training for my next "season." I wrapping up a "season" in a couple of weeks (1st weekend in December) after which I'll take a full week off and do absolutely no swimming, no running, no weightlifting, no physical activity greater than walking around. From there, I'll have a target to swim fast in about 4.5 months. I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but I also want to break up the season into intervals to keep the variety up: ~2.5 months: swim 3 to 4 times per week, focusing mainly on longer sets (e.g., 200s to 500s repeats), with workouts like I described in my original post. I'll aim for 12k to 16k yards per week. full body weight lifting two times a week (going to try to follow Jason Lezak's program ... google his name and weight training and I think you can find it) try to run ~3 miles on those weightlifting days (I personally HATE running, but there are these great splash-n-dash races here in Arizona that I like to do so I have to run) 1 core or flow yoga class on Sundays (my "rest" day) ~1.5 months swim 5 to 6 times per week, focusing more more speedwork (e.g., most sets likely to be 50 to 200 repeats), but still keeping yardage and intensity up. I'll aim for 20k to 25K yards per week. weight lifting twice per week keep running, but I just do these to get through them aim to keep up core or yoga Last two weeks before trying to swim fast One week very focused on speed work, drop running, lighten weights considerably, do core Last week: dramatically drop swim yards, no weights, no run, no core, maybe only 15% of my workouts at race pace

Ah thank you for the advise this actually seems like something I can live with. I do have a question though. In cycling, at the beginning of the year I work on my base fitness. I wont do intervals or hill repeats for almost 1000 miles. Certainly there is a base fitness I need to gain in swimming for me to do some of this, no? How many yards do I need to do to obtain a base in swimming before really starting to push for speed (which to be honest with you is not my main goal, but I wouldn't mind getting faster). I figured i would need at least a good 4 weeks of doing what I am doing before starting to really work on speed. My arms just need some time. But I am amazed at my results already. Good points. I still tend to do interval work even in the "early season," but do longer distances. For example, rather than doing a straight 2000 yard swim, I'd do either 10 x 200 or, more likely, 5 x 400. Maybe I just have some ADD, but I generally don't do a lot of straight swims that are much more than 500/600 unless it's a long warm-up where I might mix up some swimming, kicking and drilling. Now, while I'm admittedly training primarily for pool swimming and primarily to go faster, here's how I'm thinking about training for my next "season." I wrapping up a "season" in a couple of weeks (1st weekend in December) after which I'll take a full week off and do absolutely no swimming, no running, no weightlifting, no physical activity greater than walking around. From there, I'll have a target to swim fast in about 4.5 months. I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but I also want to break up the season into intervals to keep the variety up: ~2.5 months: swim 3 to 4 times per week, focusing mainly on longer sets (e.g., 200s to 500s repeats), with workouts like I described in my original post. I'll aim for 12k to 16k yards per week. full body weight lifting two times a week (going to try to follow Jason Lezak's program ... google his name and weight training and I think you can find it) try to run ~3 miles on those weightlifting days (I personally HATE running, but there are these great splash-n-dash races here in Arizona that I like to do so I have to run) 1 core or flow yoga class on Sundays (my "rest" day) ~1.5 months swim 5 to 6 times per week, focusing more more speedwork (e.g., most sets likely to be 50 to 200 repeats), but still keeping yardage and intensity up. I'll aim for 20k to 25K yards per week. weight lifting twice per week keep running, but I just do these to get through them aim to keep up core or yoga Last two weeks before trying to swim fast One week very focused on speed work, drop running, lighten weights considerably, do core Last week: dramatically drop swim yards, no weights, no run, no core, maybe only 15% of my workouts at race pace