The coached workouts threads seem to be restricted to actual USMS members. Fair enough, I guess, but they've always been the main (possibly only) reason I visited the site.
I got a lot of my workouts (mainly "Distance Free") courtesy of Chris Layton and Scott Hofteizer over the last 2 years or so, and tips from the other coaches. Thanks for making that possible, chaps!
When I first got back in the water, I swam by myself until I felt "ready" to swim with our local team. I found this site, and used the free workouts and forum extensively. Eventually, I joined USMS before I was required to as a condition of team membership or competition because I wanted to help pay for the value I was getting here for free.
It seems like every other day there is a post like this one to the forum:
Hello everyone,
I am new to this website, but not to the world of swimming. I have been swimming most of my life save the past three years due to medical problems and am trying to get back into the sport.
I would love to be able to join a masters team and really start working again but I am unable to do so because of school. I am in my last semester of undergraduate study and dont have the time needed to join a team.
However I still wish to not just sit around all semester when I have access to a pool and a gym. I've been trying to go to the pool 3-5 days a week but when I go, I generally just swim for 45-90 minutes and dont really do anything special in terms of how I swim.
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on specific workouts or places I should look to build up a routine. I really would love to get back into the competitive side of swimming once again and while I wont be able to do it for a couple months, I would love to train as hard as possible.
Thanks for any advice.
-Fry
It seems to me that it might be in our best interest to post a limited amount of information targeted to swimmers just getting back in -- perhaps 6 months or so of recycled workouts culled from the archives, and separated and tailored to beginner, intermediate, and former competitive swimmers -- to try and set the hook. The teaser is that if they join USMS they can get all the "newest, most up-to-date, and best" workouts emailed to them for free.
Sure, some cheapskates will use the same 6 month plan over and over, but there are lots of free workouts out there for the Google-savvy, so I really don't think we'd be giving anything away.
When I first got back in the water, I swam by myself until I felt "ready" to swim with our local team. I found this site, and used the free workouts and forum extensively. Eventually, I joined USMS before I was required to as a condition of team membership or competition because I wanted to help pay for the value I was getting here for free.
It seems like every other day there is a post like this one to the forum:
Hello everyone,
I am new to this website, but not to the world of swimming. I have been swimming most of my life save the past three years due to medical problems and am trying to get back into the sport.
I would love to be able to join a masters team and really start working again but I am unable to do so because of school. I am in my last semester of undergraduate study and dont have the time needed to join a team.
However I still wish to not just sit around all semester when I have access to a pool and a gym. I've been trying to go to the pool 3-5 days a week but when I go, I generally just swim for 45-90 minutes and dont really do anything special in terms of how I swim.
I was wondering if anyone had any advice on specific workouts or places I should look to build up a routine. I really would love to get back into the competitive side of swimming once again and while I wont be able to do it for a couple months, I would love to train as hard as possible.
Thanks for any advice.
-Fry
It seems to me that it might be in our best interest to post a limited amount of information targeted to swimmers just getting back in -- perhaps 6 months or so of recycled workouts culled from the archives, and separated and tailored to beginner, intermediate, and former competitive swimmers -- to try and set the hook. The teaser is that if they join USMS they can get all the "newest, most up-to-date, and best" workouts emailed to them for free.
Sure, some cheapskates will use the same 6 month plan over and over, but there are lots of free workouts out there for the Google-savvy, so I really don't think we'd be giving anything away.
