Do you feel the need to do additional swimming sessions by yourself? I’ve been swimming masters 2-3x week since July now, and sometimes I feel like the group workout isn’t exactly what I want to be doing. Is there a large benefit in buying a separate pool pass to go by myself once or twice a week to work on the things I (probably mistakenly) think I need to work on?
I try and get to the pool an extra time each week. I want to work on things for my next masters practice. Having short term swimming goals and an Ironman in 8 months really helps with my motivation.
Masters has completely changed the way I look at swimming.
Mopey, how has it changed the way you look at swimming? Just curious.
Masters has completely changed the way I look at swimming.
^ This!
At Masters I have no time for chillin’ out or excuses. I have to keep up with the group and the faster folks keep pushing me to get better. One thing I don’t get a lot of at Masters is drill work, so I’m adding an extra session a week on my own just to work on drills and my major weaknesses. This includes videotaping my swim, having the ST folk criticize it and work on little things.
I used to swim by myself to get ready for events. Found it difficult to stay “swim” motivated for events that could be months away. Now since joining masters I am enjoying swimming with others (competition) and developing the other strokes that I had zero interest in before. I try to get to the pool an extra time each week so I can improve and keep up at my next masters practice. A shorter term goal which seems to work for me and long term makes me a better swimmer…hopefully!
Our group swims 4x/week 5:30-6:45AM. Each workout is ~3,500 SCY-or-LCM.
I guess if I were a pro triathlete or something, I’d want a day or two extra, but for me this is plenty.
I think the key is having a masters coach who understands your goals, and swimming in the lane where you’ll be challenged. During the warmer months, our masters coach will put the long course triathletes in a lane, and write a main set tailored for that type of racing.
Masters swimming can often put you into a “no man’s land” in terms of preparation. It is great to be with a group, but often you aren’t dialed in to train specifically for your event. There are always great benefits to specificity in training.
You didn’t mention what you are training for, or what you want to work on, or what your masters team does, so it’s tough to make the call, but there definitely could be a large benefit IMO.
Last year I was looking to improve my technique significantly so I went to masters 3 times per week…
This year I feel my technique is much better and have been going to master’s only once per week (doing whatever they have on the board including all the various strokes that ill never use in a tri) and then also swimming at my gym once per week all freestyle working on improving my speed at various distances…
I feel this is working for me…
Before spending extra money for another pool pass I would talk to the coach and see what you can work out. Getting ready for an IM race last year I just asked if every couple of Saturday practices I could go to the far lane against the wall and do some 1000 yard repeats. They didn’t have a problem with it. This year I said that my goal is to try and break 20 minutes for a 1500 open water swim and brought up some possible workout to get there. More than just encouraging it, the coach talked some other athletes into trying to do the same thing. We are now going to have a few practices that are tailored specifically for that goal. I am sure in a bigger masters program it might be harder to get buy in for your individual goals but it never hurts to ask.
Care to post some of those swims after you do them ? That’s where I want to be for next year as well. I guess you need to be able to hold ~ 1:12/100scy for sub 20min 1500m swim.
I keep my Y membership so I can swim on my own if I miss a Masters practice. Plus then I can work on other things as well.
Several years ago I asked the question on here of what kind of workouts people who swim sub 20 are doing. Below is the best response that I got. The one I have focused on the most for the past few years was 20x100. I usually start off the season at the 1:30 send off then slowly progress. I still haven’t gotten any faster than the 1:25 sendoff for all 20. I am hoping that with a masters team I will be able to get to where I wasn’t able to go on my own.
You might try (scy sendoffs)
4-6 x 400 on 5:30 - varieties: descend them, work the middle 200, 1 and 3 moderate / 2 and 4 FAST
20 x 100 on 1:20 (this is like my Feel Good workout. bonus points for 25s of fly until your stroke falls apart after it).
10 x 200 on 2:50, hold 2:22-2:28 and it’s a threshold set / hold 2:38-2:42 it’s an aerobic set
8 x 300 on 4:15 desc 1-4 and hold the last four at really, painfully, fast
3 x 600 :20 rest desc by 200 and desc set
Several years ago I asked the question on here of what kind of workouts people who swim sub 20 are doing. Below is the best response that I got. The one I have focused on the most for the past few years was 20x100. I usually start off the season at the 1:30 send off then slowly progress. I still haven’t gotten any faster than the 1:25 sendoff for all 20. I am hoping that with a masters team I will be able to get to where I wasn’t able to go on my own.
You might try (scy sendoffs)
4-6 x 400 on 5:30 - varieties: descend them, work the middle 200, 1 and 3 moderate / 2 and 4 FAST
20 x 100 on 1:20 (this is like my Feel Good workout. bonus points for 25s of fly until your stroke falls apart after it).
10 x 200 on 2:50, hold 2:22-2:28 and it’s a threshold set / hold 2:38-2:42 it’s an aerobic set
8 x 300 on 4:15 desc 1-4 and hold the last four at really, painfully, fast
3 x 600 :20 rest desc by 200 and desc set
And those people were swimming the sub20 in the pool or open-water? Seems a little slow to go sub 20 on a true course in the open water.
Those are good sets. How about working top end speed though ? I feel like its necessary to push the top end speed in order to see big improvements in those 20 x 100 sets.
I think one more you could add to the list to work the top end speed is 5 x 100 fast on 6 minutes with 3-4 x 50 in between for recovery. Descending.
Ex. 3000scy
1000 WU - I like 10 x100 kick/swim with fins on 1:30 (25,kick, 25swim, 25kick, 25swim)
1500 Main: 5 x 100 fast on 6 minutes (~1:08,1:06,1:04,1:02, < 1:00), 4 x 50 easy in between
500 CD
Another variation of this is to substitute 5 x (6 x50) with the first 50 all out (breath holding, 0-2 breaths/25), with the remaining 4 x 50 recovery/technique
My perspective is that of an adult onset swimmer trying to be a FOP triathlon swimmer. I know its different for those with a competitive swim background. Its like the speed is there and they just have to rebuild the fitness to get it back quickly, whereas I am still trying to reach it for the first time.
The workouts I got were from people who said they went 19:30ish open water, but I can’t vouch for their honesty. I can definitely see what you mean in the difference between starting new versus coming from a swimming background. All I did was swim for 4 years in highschool but still, I did plenty of sub 1 minute hundreds back then so my body knows how to go that fast in the water. However, after a swim set this weekend where we did several redline 50s, I am not convinced of the benefit of really pushing your top end speed with super quick 100s or 50s. No matter how good an open water swimmer you are, going wall to wall for 100 scy in under a minute requires really good flip turns, pushoffs and underwater work. We spent hours working on that stuff in high school and I don’t know if there is a point to it for triathletes. I mean, you need to be able to do a flip turn and keep up with a basic circle swim but beyond that I don’t see it benefiting you in a race. The sets I love are 100s and 200s with 5-10 secs rest where about halfway through you really have to start concentrating or else you miss a sendoff and spend the rest of the set paying for it because 4 sec rest versus 5 sec rest makes all the difference. I will say that if you are lucky enough to have a 50 meter pool to swim at, I can see more of a benefit to trying for higher speeds simply because it is more about swimming and less about flip turns.
Again, this is coming from the perspective of someone who swam in the past and is in no way an expert in this stuff nor especially fast at any triathlon discipline. Just my 2 cents.
Masters swimming can often put you into a “no man’s land” in terms of preparation. It is great to be with a group, but often you aren’t dialed in to train specifically for your event. There are always great benefits to specificity in training.
You didn’t mention what you are training for, or what you want to work on, or what your masters team does, so it’s tough to make the call, but there definitely could be a large benefit IMO.
“most” triathletes would benefit from just getting in more swimming with a coach, the improvements in efficiency are what most of us need. Of course we have to want to improve to, I’ve swam with people that were in lane when I started 2 winters ago and they’re still in lane 2 now. Still swimming the same way as when I started, they say they want to get better but it’s just “too hard”.
Masters swimming can often put you into a “no man’s land” in terms of preparation. It is great to be with a group, but often you aren’t dialed in to train specifically for your event. There are always great benefits to specificity in training.
You didn’t mention what you are training for, or what you want to work on, or what your masters team does, so it’s tough to make the call, but there definitely could be a large benefit IMO.
“most” triathletes would benefit from just getting in more swimming with a coach, the improvements in efficiency are what most of us need. Of course we have to want to improve to, I’ve swam with people that were in lane when I started 2 winters ago and they’re still in lane 2 now. Still swimming the same way as when I started, they say they want to get better but it’s just “too hard”.
Stroke instruction at Masters swimming has helped my wife make significant improvements in addition to enjoying swimming more. Before she started coming to Masters with me, she swam on her own, didn’t really enjoy it, and really did just enough to get by. When she started coming to Masters swimming with me, she started getting technical feedback and instruction and her swimming became faster and more efficient. As for myself, I grew up a swimmer and the “swim team” workout format and environment has always worked best for me.
As for training specificity, I concur with others who have suggested speaking with your coach. For others, it is worth looking around at different Masters swimming programs. Some are more fitness oriented, some are more competition oriented, and others, because they have a large number of triathletes, have workouts focused more triathlon swimming. For “most” swimmers, however, the pool time and technical stroke instruction, will help them more than swimming on their own, even if the workout is not triathlon specific.
I will do a session by myself only if i feel i need to work on something specifically
For example, we rarely ever swim with a band around our ankles, and i know that drill helps me a lot.
Ideally for me, Two master sessions a week with two solo, or small specific group sessions a week. Masters allows me to hammer out some big hard workouts without thinking, and improve fitness. While my solo sessions allow me to work on more specific things be it mechanics or fitness based things. I found that to be a really nice balance for avoiding plateau’s and burn out.
Depends on the speed of the group and the lane you are in. I swim for dear life at my masters program, every workout, usually 2-3x per week, and rarely do anything on my own. I would now swim as hard as I do by myself.