I do have a Finis tempo, hadn’t thought about it, but could be really useful in this respect
This is really useful. For the first time in 3 years I am making progress in swimming and understanding why I am making progress. Swimming comfortably at 1:40 and being able to think about form / trying out different things is not something I was able to do in the past.
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Nice steady 3 k this morning in 50 m pool average was 1.53/100m total 56.30. I generally try to swim relaxed and use different breathing patterns to regulate effort so
Every 4 strokes, bi-lateral, bi-lateral with 2 breathes each side, right side and left side …change each 100m
Garmin says 27 strokes per min and 25 strokes per length
If I was just kicking I would still be in the pool!
I swam ~2hrs a week this year, but combination of this thread, @Poet , and realisation swim will suffer next year has motivated me to increase now while I have time. Don’t expect gains, but getting progressively worse each year so would be nice to stop the decline where realistically possible.
4 weeks of swimming 3-4x a week and I’m seeing improvements. Have 4 weeks left of current job to carry that on. This morning 6x400 descend 1-6, again motivated by people going longer repeats. I’ve also done a little bit of kick recently having not done any other than bit of drills for years. Guess we can all learn/be reminded of what we should do!
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Who me?
I’m scared of anything over 400m
Don’t copy me!!!
I’m now way better than I thought I could be at 25m to 100m reps, but I’m naff at anything else.
You’re probably swimming most frequently of everyone on the thread and have sparked a lot of the discussion. Helped me see actually I should swim more too
It won’t last (for me!)
I’m at home four days a week and the pool is less than a minutes walk away. Not literally. Actually.
I also pass it on the way to the station, on the day I have to actually get dressed and be a functioning member of society, so I nip in for a quick dip then.
Sunday 1830-1930 is the tri club swim for my sixth swim of the week.
But by then, I’ve had Sunday lunch and a beer (or two!) and just want to put the fire on
But they are the same thing?!
Maybe not in today’s bastardisation of the English language and colloquial use, but that’s what it always meant. It’s only through the use of literally as a modern synonym for metaphorically that has caused all this crap.
“My eyes literally popped out of my head!”
No, they really didn’t. Probably one for the rant thread.
You might want to check the new OED definition for literally. And Miriam-Webster’s.
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Back to swimming…how do you stop your arms (lats and triceps) hurting? Land based exercises? Or just a pint sized man can of HTFU?
I want to start doing some 200, 300 and 400 intervals, but I just CBA.
2*(5*200) sounds like a slog, especially with a WU/CD either side. (~2.7km set!)
Probably do the standard 200m mixed WU and CD, with 4 * 25m and 4 * 50m quick ones before the intervals (to get pacing right)
For 300m, what do you do here?
3 x 300
300 easy
3 x 300
400m???
2 x 400m
400m easy
2 x 400m
Then just build it up from there?
Until eventually doing them straight at 1:30/100m?
I’m going to have to blame @Hammerer for the endemic lack of ability for people to do longer reps. It’s his banging on about short hard intervals that has brainwashed everyone!
Campaign for longer intervals!
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dont blame me. polarised…a good mix!. without the top end you cant get the steady state speed up, but without doing steady intervals you cant build the endurance to hold form. you dont need to do too many very long swims though. broken swims are great, or do something like 8 x 50’s short turnaround and steady into a 200 pull paddles. Id keep longer intervals below 400 generally as the last 100 ends up just muscling through with form breaking down
WHAT!?!?!
You mean I’m not going to be able to swim 3.8km at 1:30/100m by doing 40*50m off 50s?
And you call yourself “a coach”
SHAME 
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That depends, for some they may well be able to but its always about mixing stuff up. Work on form, then work on the ability to hold that form under fatigue for longer reps
At least the first hit on google is an article entitled “Uproar as OED includes erroneous use of ‘literally’”
A lot of the swim sets I do, I try and mix up some longer and shorter reps so I get a bit of everything in the session. A couple of favourites I often turn to are: (1x16L+4x4L, 1x12+4x3, 1x8+4x2 & 1x4+4x1) or (1x12L, 2x6L, 3x4L, 4x3L, 6x2L & 12x1L) with the shorter the rep the faster the pace.
It’s probably as much about passing an hour without getting bored as anything else but is that a flawed idea. Am I kind of achieving neither one thing nor the other and would be better devoting whole sessions to either longer or shorter reps?
Etymology Lesson
It’s like awful and awesome - both used to mean the same thing (deriving from awe)
Naughty - you had naught (i.e. were poor), then moved from meaning having nothing, to being worth nothing (essentially you were morally wicked)
It literally looks as though literal is on that bandwagon
How do you do that arrow thing?! I like it.
If you look back far enough, all language is bastardised over time. It’s just happening so much quicker these days in the digital age where all of these different influences are mixing like never before.
The Arrow Thing
You need to engage with the DiscoBot to earn your badges, young man.
Only then will you be eligible for full Level 3 benefit
(HINT: It’s the cog at the top far right of the text input box)
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