I swam competitively in High School and College. The distance I used to swim turned me off from swimming for many yrs. 10-15k a day.
After 15 yrs ive decided to try it again. My best masters experience were workouts that averaged 2500. I felt 40 min of hard swimming was manageable with my other daily duties and did not scare me away.
A good warm up. 600 yards.
A kick or stroke set. 600 yards.
Then a core set -1000 yards. 10x 100, 5 x 200 im etc.
Warm down.
Can this cut it 3-5 days a week to get in primo shape?
Oh good! That's what I do! I swim 2000 meters 3 times a week as fast as I can maintain the entire time. I'm a female 56 y.o. and my average 50 yd lap time is 55:26. I am mainly training for tris but hope to compete in some USMS events this spring and summer. Can I hope to be competitive in my age group?
I've found that a quick way to get depressed & to feel very inadequate is to spend any amount of time on these forums :sad:-- especially on the ones involving how impossibly fast a lot of other people can swim. . . so I just don't read those much anymore, & concentrate on ones like this post. :)
I used to just try to get as many yards as possible during my master's workouts, & also when I swam on my own. Lately, however, I have been emphasing "quality, not quantity". IOW I now try to get time hacks for both my 'easy' segments, & 'fast' ones (especially during master's workouts). Also, kick fast on kick sets, take rests where needed, but also push myself into tighter intervals. So I have these benchmarks I try to beat (I keep a log of them), & when I do, I 'raise the bar higher'. I think that, more than anything, doing that has gotten me faster (I will NOT disclose my times because I feel that most people would snicker at them :-(. But, I feel I'm getting faster :applaud:. Typically our master's workouts are about 4500 yards, which I 'eventually' will finish (I can stay past our workout time :) to do so). On my own I do considerably less distance, but as mentioned work on my times & technique -- I think it's helping me!
As for "being competitive in your age group", I just don't see how very many people can be . . . considering the caliber of seemingly many USMS swimmers . . . my :2cents:
Oh good! That's what I do! I swim 2000 meters 3 times a week as fast as I can maintain the entire time. I'm a female 56 y.o. and my average 50 yd lap time is 55:26. I am mainly training for tris but hope to compete in some USMS events this spring and summer. Can I hope to be competitive in my age group?
I've found that a quick way to get depressed & to feel very inadequate is to spend any amount of time on these forums :sad:-- especially on the ones involving how impossibly fast a lot of other people can swim. . . so I just don't read those much anymore, & concentrate on ones like this post. :)
I used to just try to get as many yards as possible during my master's workouts, & also when I swam on my own. Lately, however, I have been emphasing "quality, not quantity". IOW I now try to get time hacks for both my 'easy' segments, & 'fast' ones (especially during master's workouts). Also, kick fast on kick sets, take rests where needed, but also push myself into tighter intervals. So I have these benchmarks I try to beat (I keep a log of them), & when I do, I 'raise the bar higher'. I think that, more than anything, doing that has gotten me faster (I will NOT disclose my times because I feel that most people would snicker at them :-(. But, I feel I'm getting faster :applaud:. Typically our master's workouts are about 4500 yards, which I 'eventually' will finish (I can stay past our workout time :) to do so). On my own I do considerably less distance, but as mentioned work on my times & technique -- I think it's helping me!
As for "being competitive in your age group", I just don't see how very many people can be . . . considering the caliber of seemingly many USMS swimmers . . . my :2cents:
