Ok so it will become painfully obvious I'm and adult on set swimmer looking for advice. It will also be clear I've never had coaching or swam with a squad in all the time (2+ years) since I've began developing my swim skill set. I've been reading a ton of swim sets and info found both on ST and in other areas of the interwebs. Now I have a simple and stupid question for all the Fishies
1 - How in the hell do you know when you're hitting a certain pace in the pool? Is this just as simple as experience trumping all. For me I go out, I swim I fatigue I repeat. I do intervals (although I haven't traditionally up until November 2014) and when I'm done my Garmin says you did X average throughout the workout. Obviously I can also see the various hills and valleys in the data but by no means can I say to myself "I'm doing a 1:30/100m pace" or "I am doing a 1:45/100m pace". Without looking at my watch which would just ruin the pace for obvious reasons.
2 - What do people mean when they say "leaving on 2:30" or similar? I don't get this at all. What the hell are they talking about here? Like look at your watch and every 2:30 take off for another set? Which would make no sense because they also usually have a given rest time in the description. Here is an example of what I mean:
[SET EXAMPLE]
6×150 on 2:30 (100 swim/50 kick)
12×25 on :30 (1 drill/1 underwater kick/1 FAST!, repeat)
3x[2×200 (1 FAST!/1 ez) on 3:00
3×100 (2 FAST!/1 ez) on 1:30
4×50 (3 FAST!/1 ez) on :50
(Round #1: swim, #2: pull, #3: swim)]
300 pull (25 back/75 free)
100 cool-down
*4300 total*
3 - Lastly with long straight through swims being useless for gaining speed or efficiency I'm curious what the longest interval one should be doing. I do short course so I'm not worried about anything over 1500m but I tend to do the 150-200% rule where I would train to 2250m or 3000m respectively to ensure I am more than capable of reaching the distances I need without hitting the ceiling.
Swimming is the last discipline I've yet to immerse myself into fully because of the lack of "insider information". I know I'm going to get the typical "go to masters, get a coach, swim with a squad" but honestly I have a 4 lane 25m pool in my condo and I am not interested in waking up at 4am for swim practice if I can just apply the principals myself. I do have plans to get a swim coach to come to my pool for a few sessions to get poolside feedback but so far I've not been impressed with the pedigree of those I've found thus far to do such a session. Oh and FYI I'm also fully equipped with just about any and every training tool Finis produces as well as a GoPro and I'm willing to put them to use to get me to where I want to be in the water.
If the only truly way to get better is to get a coach/swim with a squad/go to masters than I'll have my answer but I'd like to hear from as many fishies and onset swimmers as possible on how they got "faster" in the water.
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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"
1 - How in the hell do you know when you're hitting a certain pace in the pool? Is this just as simple as experience trumping all. For me I go out, I swim I fatigue I repeat. I do intervals (although I haven't traditionally up until November 2014) and when I'm done my Garmin says you did X average throughout the workout. Obviously I can also see the various hills and valleys in the data but by no means can I say to myself "I'm doing a 1:30/100m pace" or "I am doing a 1:45/100m pace". Without looking at my watch which would just ruin the pace for obvious reasons.
2 - What do people mean when they say "leaving on 2:30" or similar? I don't get this at all. What the hell are they talking about here? Like look at your watch and every 2:30 take off for another set? Which would make no sense because they also usually have a given rest time in the description. Here is an example of what I mean:
[SET EXAMPLE]
6×150 on 2:30 (100 swim/50 kick)
12×25 on :30 (1 drill/1 underwater kick/1 FAST!, repeat)
3x[2×200 (1 FAST!/1 ez) on 3:00
3×100 (2 FAST!/1 ez) on 1:30
4×50 (3 FAST!/1 ez) on :50
(Round #1: swim, #2: pull, #3: swim)]
300 pull (25 back/75 free)
100 cool-down
*4300 total*
3 - Lastly with long straight through swims being useless for gaining speed or efficiency I'm curious what the longest interval one should be doing. I do short course so I'm not worried about anything over 1500m but I tend to do the 150-200% rule where I would train to 2250m or 3000m respectively to ensure I am more than capable of reaching the distances I need without hitting the ceiling.
Swimming is the last discipline I've yet to immerse myself into fully because of the lack of "insider information". I know I'm going to get the typical "go to masters, get a coach, swim with a squad" but honestly I have a 4 lane 25m pool in my condo and I am not interested in waking up at 4am for swim practice if I can just apply the principals myself. I do have plans to get a swim coach to come to my pool for a few sessions to get poolside feedback but so far I've not been impressed with the pedigree of those I've found thus far to do such a session. Oh and FYI I'm also fully equipped with just about any and every training tool Finis produces as well as a GoPro and I'm willing to put them to use to get me to where I want to be in the water.
If the only truly way to get better is to get a coach/swim with a squad/go to masters than I'll have my answer but I'd like to hear from as many fishies and onset swimmers as possible on how they got "faster" in the water.
------
"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"