When I started running, I was slow. But using various training schedules, I have gotten stronger and faster. What really made me faster at running marathons, was speed training. I had used the Four Months To A Four Hour Marathon book schedules, and added intervals and tempo runs to my training. Then when I switched to the Furman FIRST program, it had intervals and tempo runs every week, and it varied them for distance and speed. That really helped make me faster.
My swimming has all been at pretty much one slow speed. I need to find a schedule that adds something like intervals and tempo swims or something like that. I am guessing my swimming would get faster. I have seen a book titled "Workouts in a Binder for Swimmers, Triathletes, and Coaches". I will have to check out the contents of the book to see if it actually has what I am looking for. Actually, I just searched Amazon, and found the same authors have another book
titled "Workouts in a Binder: Swim Workouts for Triathletes". That might be exactly what I need.
A friend of mine wanted a base time. There’s a base time. Slow as mud. I am getting better. Keep in mind I am just starting to really learn how to swim. I never swam as a kid due to ear problems. I took four swimming lessons in June, one of which was a waste with two teenage girl lifeguards that were subbing for the teenage kid who was the regular teacher. At least the girls were cute.
But I swam 1000 yards (40 lengths in a 25 yard pool) today after work. I was able to swim 50 yards at a time instead of 25 yards at a time before stopping to catch my breath. And today I wasn’t as out of breath between laps. I mostly did front crawl, with a little bit of breast stroke.
I am hoping to swim 3 times a week til I get it down. It’s definatly my weakness. And I probably wont be able to wear a wet suit in Louisville.
Are there like neoprene jammers? Would they be legal in warmer water, and would they give much floatation?
With the Louisville Ironman about a year away, I need to get serious about swimming. I have cycled 100 miles, and run multiple marathons. But swimming is my weak point.
Tonight my wife and I headed to the pool. I managed to swim 17 laps which almost half a mile. Actually 17.5 laps would have been about a mile. So I was close. Anyway, I swam it 25 yards at a time. I was actually getting a little smoother towards the end.
I need to get different goggles. I have some Speedo goggles that seal really nicely. But when my head is in the water, I see the bottom in a double vision that is sort of disorienting. They also have blue lenses. I have heard that I will want clear lenses for the river at the Louisville Ironman. My clear lens Tyr goggles just dont seal well.
I was swimming okay. I swam most of it doing the front crawl, but I swam a couple laps using a breast stroke. I probably could have gone a little farther, but I had pulled out my ear plug to talk to my wife, and with my ear a little wet, it wasn’t sealing very well. This was the farthest I have ever swam.
I want to get an MP3 player designed for swimming. I think that would encourage me to stay in the pool longer. I need to work up to where I can swim more continuously. I will get there! I am going to try to swim two or three times a week.
I went to the pool last night to swim some laps. This was the first time I went swimming since I finished my swimming lessons last week. I managed to swim a little over 1/3 of a mile (13 times down and back in a 25 yard pool). I could have swam more, but crappy swimming form, was getting crappier, so I decided to stop. I am able to swim down and back now before having to stop and cacth my breath. I was concentrating on keeping my head down in the water to keep my feet up, and stay more balanced. I worked on reaching and extending my stroke. I worked on slowing my stroke down and relaxing. I worked on breathing. I am slowly getting better at breathing ever third stroke. I really need to work on keeping my head down in the the water more. When I don’t think about it, it comes up, and my feet go down.
I definatly need to work on my swimming endurance. I need to be able to swim more laps continuously. Right now I am lucky to make it across the 25 yard pool twice without having to stop and catch my breath. I am doing better though. Soon I might be able to make it across three times, then four. I just need to relax more, and be more comfortable in the water. I am slowly getting there.
The ear plugs seem to be working. I didn’t get dizzy or nauseous last night at all.
I still suck at swimming, but I am sucking just a little but less than before.
I am starting my swim lessons in about 3 weeks. After which I am going to try to get into a habit of swimming laps a couple times a week to build my swimming skills and endurance. With my goal of doing an Ironman triathlon next year, I need to be able to swim 2.4 miles. According to the website, the lap swimming part of the pool is 25 yards long. I looked it up and found that I will have to swim 35.2 laps to have swum (swimmed?) a mile. So 2.4 miles would be about 85 laps. There is no way that I would able to keep track of counting those those laps in my head. I decided to by a watch with a counter. What better kind of watch to get for doing Irorman training than a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch?
I started search the web and found there area bunch of different models. Men’s and women’s styles. 8 laps, 30 laps, 42 laps, 100 laps, etc. There are even models with heart rate monitors and GPS’s! I decided that I wanted a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch that would count up to 100 laps. I figured that would work when I try to swim 2.4 miles in the pool.
Even among the 100 lap models, there were still a variety of styles. As far as reviews about the quality of the watches, pretty much all of the reviews were postive. So I wasn’t too concerned about the quality of any of Timex Ironman triathlon watches. So it came down to style. I wanted a watch that said Ironman Triathlon! I wanted a reminder of what I will be training for.
All of the models had Ironman Triathlon on the face. Some of the models had a simple M-Dot logo on the side. I found one model that actually says Ironman triathlon on the band. It looked really cool. And the reviews were good. That was the one I wanted. I found it on amazon for about $45 plus shipping. I walked over to target, and found a couple 30-lap models on sale for $30. They also had a 100-lap model for $50. But it wasn’t the one I wanted. I searched Walmart’s website and found the watch I wanted for $46. So last night after karate clas, I hit Walmart. They had a small handfull of Timex Ironman watches. I found a 100 lap model that looked different than the one I wanted, but it was only $44. It said Ironman Triathlon of the side and was waterproof to 100 meters. Perfect for swimming and counting my laps. When I got it home, I read through the instructions which are in a dozen languages and kind of hard to follow. I managed to set the time and play with the lap timing stuff. It will work great. After comparing it to the picture of the watch I wanted, I relized it was in fact the same watch. I just looked brighter in the pictures on the net or something. It is a cool watch though!
This is the watch I bought: Timex 100-Lap Ironman Triathlon 66801
