[muzicgrl]

Who swims? I need a good swimming workout (2500-3000 yards). It has been over 2 years since I did masters swim so I dont remember most of the good workouts we did. I do remember that we would do a warmup of 200 swim, 200 kick, & 200 arms only. Then we would do a bunch of sprints and switch between strokes. I have a hard time doing this all alone, so I need some workout ideas. I pretty much refuse to do back and butterfly (back because I cant manage to go in a straight line and that sucks for the person I am sharing the lane with and butterfly because I suck at that stroke and am not strong enough to do it for more than 1 lap) so IM is out.<br><br>
Lately I have been warming up, then doing a bunch of slow freestyle laps, with some kickboard, arm work, and breast stroke and a couple of freestyle sprints at the end. Help me with workout suggestions! Please!

 

[sistergoldenhair]

I don't think I can be of much help as I'm mostly self-taught with fitness swimming.<br><br>
Lately I have been doing 2000m swims because I am SO SLOW and that pretty much takes an hour.<br><br>
I do slow freestyle to warm up and some kick. Usually I throw breastroke in too because it's my favorite.<br><br>
Then I alternate longer freestyle sets (400m) with sprint intervals where I swim a lap as fast as I can and rest/repeat.<br><br>
After that I'll cool down with breaststroke, backstroke and elementary backstroke (easy effort), finishing with really slow freestyle where I focus on stretching and relaxing during the stroke.<br><br>
Like you, I'd love some more ideas for workouts and especially ideas for improving speed!

 

[muzicgrl]

I guess we are the only ones around here that swim. <img alt="sad.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad.gif">

 

[diablita]

It's been years since I swam. Used to be part of our practice for the dive team. Sometimes we'd use the cushion that goes b/w your legs for several laps to just focus on arm stroke. And then we'd switch that out for a kick board to hang on to, to just focus on leg kicks. That added a little variety.

 

[wyrillco]

I swim, sorta. Not very fast. I am hoping to go tomorrow. I am also hoping to sign up for some lessons with a Total Immersion coach to help my form, which is terrible.

 

[fox-runr]

I swam last night. I'm a beginner. Get in the pool, and the coach says swim back and forth 12x....it took forever. Then as I'm catching my breath, he said "congrats, you made it through the warm-up".....but, that's the most I've ever swam!!!!!!<br><br>
Later, my DH said how bored he was because it was so basic with so many new people.<img alt="sad10.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad10.gif">

 

[sistergoldenhair]

Today in the middle of my workout I threw in 500 meters where I'd sprint down and come back more moderately. That was a pretty good challenge.<br><br>
I am finding it hard to balance getting a decent cardio workout with being able to keep my breathing under control. I guess that is the hard part about swimming!