I think this is one of my main issues with swimming. Post covid the sessions in LCC pools have all become shorter with most of the ones I can attend are only an hour long. It can make it tough to get some long swims in.
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only an hour here as well (50mins in some with 10min changing time) but Ive found that when I do overstay no one notices.
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A lot of the sessions here are in isolation so in the evening there is one, one hour session. One day a week there are two but with an hour gap in between them. The morning sessions are 90 mins but I do the school run and when I don’t I have to leave in time for work. They now start at 7 but used to start at 6:30 or 6:45 so I could do over an hour and still be at work on time.
My local pool does one 75 and one 90 (Friday only) min session but they finish late, again pre covid these finished later, which in a way was better as after 21:15 I almost always had the lane to myself and could use paddles and do the session I want. I get it, it is cheaper for LCC to do it this way just means doing a long session is hard for someone as slow as me.
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decent bit of swimmage from @Doka on Strava. Looks like IM distance in 1h 04 ?
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Punchy 750m block hidden in there - 1:34 pace
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Nothing impressive I’m afraid, just our one & half hour Sunday session, intervals of drills then a 12 min swim at the end.
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Aah, forgot that Strava tends to crunch swims down and just put the moving time. My crappy Wahoo has stopped recognising arm movements at all and so have just been recording the elapsed time. In my confused head I thought maybe you’d smashed out an IM swim
Still, decent session & distance covered 
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Ok. Strava says 31km swum in January. Feels like I have been swimming quite a lot, but it has not been enough to see any evidence of progress towards goal of 22m30 1500m.
Going to shoot for 40km in February. Know that’s still not much by swimmer standards, but just being realistic with what I can stomach. That’s an average of 2km per swim, 5 days per week. Will try to make at least 20% of that target pace or faster. Sound like a plan??
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using your little gadget do some stroke rate work,
Look at your SR, do a test, swim 50’s at increasing rates, say start at 48, add 3 each time, log the number of strokes, time, and RPE from each rep and you should be able to find your current sweet spot. Then try to increase that whilst holding the same strokes per length. A nome can be a very good substitute coach when used for SR
Another good test is so set it to what you do, hold it, but for the second half of each rep try to go faster without upping SR. This will help you to hold form on the back end and subsequently save energy.
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I’d probably suggest 2.5km average 4x a week as being slightly better (± working towards 3x3), but if you really don’t like longer swims with boredom then obviously that’s not crucial.
While I agree you probably do need to swim a bit more, 3-4 weeks also probably isn’t enough time to truly see progress? Might just need more time to see the small incremental gains, it was always going to be a big target not achievable with just a few weeks of work.
But
That session of 8x100 hitting 1:24 seems to be progress?
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The last couple of weeks I’ve been swimming in lane 6, with the ‘proper’ swimmers.
I like a good challenge and I obviously go to these session to improve my swimming but blimey it’s a massive jump up in speed. Took me ages to get to sleep last night and my whole upper is aching!
I’m also kind of stuck in no man’s land in the lane too. I get dropped pretty quickly and end up just leading my own session with only one guy behind me pace wise. Problem is the sessions are full gas all the time for me and I’m still dropped easily. Not sure what I’m getting at with this post really but they’re bloody hard sessions! Suppose it’s all good though. I am certainly swimming faster than ever have though (in the pool at least).
For reference, the chap leading lane 5 last night averaged 1:36 / 100 last night where one of the leaders of 6 averaged 1:22 / 100 i’m languishing on 1:26 /100 but in reality that’s the watch inflating my speed as I’m pausing a couple of metres from the wall. I guess I just have to persevere.
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Its difficult, as you get faster by being pushed at times, but this can lead to breakdown of stroke and “muscling through”. If its just once a week push yourself. Sometimes with the kids i hold them back a lane in some sessions to slow them down, especially in drill sets, although communication is key here so it doesn’t seem like a “demotion”.
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It’s twice a week normally for around 8km. I need a lane 5.5 really and probably one or two to move from 5 to 6 with me. I can comfortably lead 5 but yeah, I’m nowhere near the speed of 6!
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Simple answer here Big A … just stop swimming. Problem eradicated.
Thank me later.
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I think swim fitness is what is holding my swimming back at the minute. I can swim 100m in 1:30 without it being a max effort and repeat that a few minutes later several times. The best I can currently hold in a CSS type session is 1:44 and I can’t do that consistently yet.
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Sounds like some good swimming going on 
I managed 10km over the last 7 days, as planned, but it was a case of quantity over quality. Just churned out 1500 or 2000 before or after work, and then packed it in.
Have found a new game to play with the bleeper though. Set it to 25s per length (25 minutes per 1500m) and see how many times you can ‘lap’ it in 1500m.
If you get one bleep ahead, it means you swam 24m35. Two bleeps, 24m10 and so on.
Didn’t manage three bleeps yet but maybe that’s a target for next week.
Would love to have a squad to train with like @Adam , but not found one here, so the bleeper has to do
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LO hasn’t been for weeks. There was an engineering issue at the pool and now it needs a new liner.
Been offered lessons at Southampton but shove that on a Friday night!
Have no idea when they’ll be operating again
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Managed 1040m at 1m30/100 pace this morning. In the 20m pool, but still.
Feel like my goal of 1500m at this pace is within reach now, just need to keep plugging away at the volume to build the fitness for that final 500m.
The last 200m today felt pretty grim mind, so not counting any chickens yet, still work to do.
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16 * 100 descending off 2
1-4 hold 1:32
5-8 hold 1:30
9-12 hold 1:28
13-16 as fast as you can
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Did your session this morning @Hammerer
Slight adjustment to allow for whole numbers on the bleeper: 6x100m in 1m32 off 1m55, 6x100m in 1m28 off 1m50, 4 x 100 aiming for but not quite hitting 1m24 off 2m06. More or less what you suggested though, thanks, felt like a good one.
That’s 10.5km swum this week, think I’m starting to feel some subtle hints of improvement 
- think a month ago this session would probably only have been possible with longer rests.
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