November swimmies!

[Reesha]

Today I learned to do flip turns with the help of my fairy godmother, Caryl! After a few flips missing the wall, I finally figured it out Now I feel like a pro After I learned I swam 1000 freestyle and called it a day. Next week I want to move up to doing 2000 twice a week, but it will mean getting up even earlier than 4:55 AM.

[sgf726]

Awesome! I just started swimming again this past May when I decided to do tri's before that I hadn't really swam any distance since HS which was over 20 years ago. I was really surprised first time back in the pool how hard it was - I thought my endurance was great from running and biking but one lap was a challenge. I was able to build my swimming endurance fairly quickly but am very slow mostly because I am not swimming efficiently. I had a first session with a coach this week which was great as I knew that I was working harder than I should be and really needed someone to tell me how to fix it. He said I was working twice as hard as I should be, so if I can correct the issues I should be able to go twice and far and hopefully faster.

[badger]

I used to regularly swim 2-3x a week for the past 6 years, but since the beginning of season in early September, I've only made it to 3 practises. Being unusually busy and all my lanemates moving to another day/quitting it feels like a different club. I've been keeping up with the elliptical/treadmill/cycling, but I feel like I'm losing my swimming fitness. I went once last week and it was all I could do to just keep up.

[Susan Otcenas]

....This one is a Michael Phelps work out:

1x800
2x700
3x600
4x500
5x400
6x300
7x200
8x100

10,000 meters! Holy moly. I've just started swimming 2-3 days per week again. I'm 3 weeks in and so far my longest workouts are 1900 meters. They'll get a fair bit longer through the spring, but for now 1900 is plenty! Takes me about 45 minutes start to finish, including rest intervals.

I used to dread my swim workouts because they were so unstructured. But my new coach is giving me very structured workouts and it's amazing how fast I get through them. (By fast, I mean, the time seems to fly by. Obviously, I'm anything but "fast"!)

Susan

[zia]

Here's an "active recovery" workout my masters group did on Sunday. Loved it -- my favorite so far, I think!

1000 warm up
(400 stroke, 300 pull, 200 kick, 100 free)

12 x 50 @ 1:10

4x25 @ :30
100 easy (very easy; go right from the 25s into this, your active recovery)
4x50 @ 1:00
200 easy
4X75 @ 1:30
300 easy
4X100 @ 2:00
400 easy

8 x 25 @ :30, ascending

3600 total

[fatbottomedgurl]

Jen and Zia thanks for the workouts. They look hard! I generally just go in and swim laps.

So how does this hard work translate into a faster OWS? Do you find yourself able to swim the long distances at a faster pace?

How do you transfer into OWS training during the season?

[Susan Otcenas]

Jen & Zia - I have a quick question on the format in which you're posting your workouts. When you write:

4x50 @ 1:00

Are you saying that you are swimming each 50 at a 1 minute pace?