The Masters Swimming Thread!

[Over50Newbie]

Kimmy, you go girl!

I felt the same way about swim meets last year, and my coach had to literally "twist my arm" to get me to try one.

But now that I am doing them, I am really starting to like them. I don't like the feeling that I get before them - butterflies in my stomach, feelings of self doubt, thinking that I am a fraud being there - but, once I actually get in the water to swim, I find that I really enjoy myself.

The best part of the swim meets is that you don't compete against others, you only compete against yourself. Everybody is swimming to complete their personal bests. There are no ribbons, no trophies, no nothing. It is a great atmosphere where you swim with people, right in the next lane, who their 80's and 90's. And it is much less competitive than doing triathlons.

So, think it over. Oh, and BTW, there are many, many Masters swimmers who do open turns!

Lynette

[Wahine]

I did 3 masters swims this week for a total of....8100 m this week. Thought my arms were going to fall off on tues but I had a great set today, 3 x 400 on 7 min, I held a 6:45.

[Over50Newbie]

Wahine, you are truly a MASTER...

Nice job on your 400 repeats. It is soooo hard to keep your time for all three of them, especially at the end when you are fatigued.

Lynette

[Kimmyt]

Rough day at Masters yesterday. We had the Twelve Drills of Xmas.

12- 25 freestyle on :30
11- 25 free/fly on the :30
10- 25 stroke/free on the :30
9- 25 free/kick on the :30
8- 25 IM order on the :30
7- 25 fly kick on the :30
6- 25 free with 2 breaths on the :30
5- 5 50 free kick
4- 100 free on the 1:45
3- 75 fly
2- 50 sprint
1- 25 underwater

all equals to ouch. I made it all the way to the fourth day of christmas before having to cut down. Then time ran out of class so we ended up doing 3 100s for the 4th day, then 3-25s of fly for the third day, then 2 25sprints and then the one underwater.

It was a hurty kind of day! (though on Wednesday we get Reindeer Games, woo!)

K.

[chickwhorips]

I have never swam with the masters per say, but my friend use to and we would do drills together.

Now that I am finally in a place that has a pool, I have a membership and have begun to swim again. Phew! It feels so good.

I've been swimming about 3 days a week to get back into the swing of things. One long easy day. One short faster day, and then drills.

I hope you girls don't mind, but I'm going to tag along with all of you to help get ideas on training and keep motivated. My dr said I couldn't train hard yet until at least the summer if I was up to it.

Thanks in advance to letting me tag along!

[Wahine]

Hey Kimmy, thanks for posting that workout. I am sooooooooo going to try it over xmas.

[kelownagirl]

So what kind of swim workout would an absolute beginner expect to do? I'm figuring on just swimming laps and work on form and not try to do any other crazy stuff. How many laps can I expect to do in one session without getting completely exhausted? I know - I just need to go and see, right?

[Kimmyt]

Wahine, glad I could share the pain... erm, help you out...

Kelownagirl, I guess it all depends on how much experience you have as a beginner swimmer? I would say that to start off you'd do some sets of stroke, then kicking on a board, then pulling with a buoy. I think that really helps get technique down. Swimming laps non-stop takes alot, so if maybe you can try doing a longer set and then doing repeats with rest that would probably help.

For example, you could do a 100 swim (4 laps) and see how you feel. If thats hard then try and do maybe a 50 of kicking using a board, and then a 50 using a pull buoy. You could finish with another 100. Or, if that 100 was not so hard, then you can do 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 pull to warm up, then try and do a 400 swim. Then you could do a cooldown of some kicking on a board or pulling or even backstroke or breaststroke to get your heart rate down.

Hope this helps, there may be more info on beginner swim workouts on beginnertriathlete.com

K.

[kelownagirl]

Thanks Kimmyt, I didn't think about BT. I'll take a look there as well. I can't wait to get into the pool and see how many laps I can do.

[HillSlugger]

So what kind of swim workout would an absolute beginner expect to do? I'm figuring on just swimming laps and work on form and not try to do any other crazy stuff. How many laps can I expect to do in one session without getting completely exhausted? I know - I just need to go and see, right?

I've had good success with a training plan called "0-1650 in 6 weeks"

Week 1 (x 3 days): (700m)
100m x 4 (12 breath rest)
50m x 4 (8 breath rest)
25m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 2 (x 3 days): (900m)
200m (12 breath rest)
100m x 4 (10 breath rest)
50m x 4 (6 breath rest)
25m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 3 (x 3 days): (1250m)
400m (12 breath rest)
100m x 4 (8 breath rest)
50m x 6 (4 breath rest)
25m x 6 (4 breath rest)

Week 4 (x 3 days): (1500m)
600m (10 breath rest)
300m (8 breath rest)
100m x 4 (6 breath rest)
50m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 5 (x 3 days): (1600m)
1000m (8 breath rest)
100m x 4 (4 breath rest)
50m x 4 (4 breath rest)

Week 6 (x 2 days): (1650m)
1200m (6 breath rest)
200m (4 breath rest)
100m (4 breath rest)
50m x 3 (4 breath rest)

Week 6 (day 3):
1650m straight!

You can mix these in less than 3 times a week along with other drills.