I'll be disappointed if I am that slow, at least I'll look like I am good amongst the grannys and women doing breaststroke while chatting.
I'll see what my local pool is like when its refurbished, but might start swimming again during winter.
I've not swum for 7 years now, but used to train 5 times a week 90 minutes to 2 hours a time, plus water polo and circuit training when I was 11-18!
Yeah I had a similar system in place when I was younger! I swam aged goodness knows what to age 16ish, and had national times at that point! Just started to get back into it over summer for my second year of Uni, and whilst I'm happily beating the people in the pool, flat out I'm doing about a 31 for 50 fc, 34 for 50 fly and something like 1:07 flat out for 100 fc! It's annoyingly slow! But hey this is why I'm back into the pool! But yeah at the moment I can do 100's off of about 1:45 if I'm keeping up a consistent pace and doing a reasonable sized set of them! (my fitness level is nowhere near what I want it to be)
Hi mate, thanks for the reply!
Butterfly is the one stroke I cannot do, I've never seen the point to it! But there are lessons available at the gym so it's something I could learn!
Anyway, your questions answered.
How long are you planning to make each session? 1 hour.
What would you describe your current fitness level as roughly? Crap. It's far better than it was as I'm shifting around a lot less weight now, but in general, its not that great. Ok to get around without getting out of breath.
Are you aims mainly fitness or would you like to see stroke improvement as well? Fitness is my main aim
If it's not too much hassle what would you guesstimate a rough time for 2 lengths front crawl/backstroke and breastroke being at a comfortable pace for you? I can get some answers for you when I go to the pool itself? Can wear a watch and time myself
Ok, back on topic more so
I only asked about fly because it will actually kill you
It's very painful, and hard work as a stroke! If you can't really do it, it doesn't matter too much, we can just build a set without fly! It is great for shoulders and your core, but saying that it's a stroke that other swimmers in public pools tend to give you evils for because you end up hitting people and stuff... (well sometimes...)
1 hour a session is a pretty good time, so we can build up something fairly nice and easy
As for timing yourself, you can probably use the clock in the pool! Pretty much every pool I've ever swam in will have one of the speedo second clocks on the wall! They're massive and you can use them if it's easier
Big blue and red hands and only measure seconds!
If I go on the basis of roughly a minute every 2 lengths... You can then speed that up or slow it down
I'm going to abbreviate a couple of things to make this easier:
FC - Front Crawl
Breast - Breast stroke
Back - Back stroke
Fairly basic I know, but I thought I'd clarify
I'd say for work terms you want to be doing warm up at about 50% off capacity, main set at about 70-80% (unless stated otherwise) and warm down again at about 50%
Also take 1 or 2 minutes rest in between warm up/main set/warm down
Possible set 1 (Traditional Set):
Warm Up:
4 FC
3 Back
2 Breast
1 Fc
20 Seconds rest
1 Fc
2 Breast
3 Back
4 FC
The rest I've advised you don't have to stick to, if you need to rest between each set of lengths so the 4 the 3 the 2 and the 1 you can, just try and keep the rest down to 15/20 seconds (again the massive clock should help with this). Also the rest in the middle I've given you, but you can take it out if you feel you don't need it. The 4 is correspondent to 4 lengths obviously
Main set:
15 x 4 Lengths FC (I've put this into Lengths just in case the pool is 20m instead of 25!)
Try and do this all FC and I'd say 2 minutes should be a nice starting time, again if the time isn't right, slow it down or speed it up! But you want about 15 seconds per 100 as a rest, and don't forget you'll slow down as the set progresses!
1 Minute rest
8x2 Lengths as:
1 Length FC flat out
1 Length Back 70%
Do this off of about 75 seconds (again 15 seconds rest is what you're aiming for:
2 minute rest
Warm down:
8 Lengths Back
All nice and easy and relaxed.
This set on the whole is a fairly simple one and easy to adapt. It has very few different sets, and you can adjust it as and how you need to (as you get fitter take time off of the 100's and put more in.) But I expect you'll find yourself tired out after it! If you don't manage it all don't worry! But if you're going to be short of time cut the 8x2's down to 4x2, or take some out of the 100's! Whatever you do don't skip out on the warm down!
Possible Set 2 (Pyramid Set):
Warm Up:
4 FC
3 Back
2 Breast
1 Fc
20 Seconds rest
1 Fc
2 Breast
3 Back
4 FC
As above, this is a nice set because it gets all your muscles working and nice and loose, traditionally the 1 lengths are done as butterfly to replicate a rough IM, but as you've seen I've substituted it out for FC.
Main Set (All FC):
16 Lengths
8 Lengths
4 Lengths
2 Lengths
2 Lengths
4 Lengths
8 Lengths
16 Lengths
Leave 20 seconds between each set of lengths. Except for the 2 Lengths. Do these flat out at 100% off of about 75 seconds
8x3 Lengths as:
1 Length Back
1 Length Breast
1 Length FC
Try this off of 1:30
Warm down:
200m (8 Lengths) your choice of stroke.
This set is much more based on the pyramid principle, where you work hard in the middle of the main set. It's very much focussed around you having to work absolutely flat out in that 2 x 2 lengths in the middle. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it should work fairly well
Again if you're struggling to get it all in the hour cut the 8x3's back down!
Possible Set 3 (HIIT):
Warm up:
20 Lengths FC
Main set:
12 x 3 Lengths
1 Length FC
2 Lengths back (you can change this to FC if you prefer, but this set already has a lot of FC in it!)
The 1 FC length absolutely flat out, the 2 back stroke you can cut down to about 60-70% effort and use this predominantly as your rest. If you're doing this right you'll be exhausted by the time you turn onto the first of the 2 lengths back
Keep the rest times down to about 10 seconds between each!
2 Minutes Rest
12 x 3 Lengths as:
1 Length FC
1 Length Back
1 Length Breast
Rotate which length you work so on the first 3 do the FC hard, on the second 3 the backstroke hard, and on the 3rd 3 the breast stroke hard. Do this 4 times to make up the total of 12
2 Minutes Rest
Warm down
200m your choice of stroke
Test set (measure your fitness)
64 Lengths : Time how long it takes. If you have to rest in between lengths, include that in your time
I think that should probably do you for now!
If your fitness level is as low as you're suggesting, than these are going to really push you. What I've tried to do is lay out for you a few different sets that you can try. If you're doing 3 sessions each week I'd try and fit in one of each type if you can, however you'll have your own personal preference, so feel free to adapt as you need to!
Times are something I've had to guess, but as I've already said try about 15-20 seconds between the lengths!
Also feel free to interchange warm ups/main sets and warm downs as and how you want. I'd recommend the way I've done it, but there's nothing wrong really with interchanging them to your preference.
I'll continue to keep an eye on this thread, but if you have questions and I don't get back to you my trust is always open
Finally, good luck!
kd
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