Competetive Swim Workout?

[Salamok]

Anyone ever swim competetively in high school and remember what their workout consisted of? 

After 20 years of sitting on my ass and 15 years of smoking I've decided I am too young to hobble around like I am 60 and recently (3 weeks ago) started swimming again.  I used to swim competitively in high school (nothing steller but not bad either).  Anyhoo, I need to work up to a starter workout (sort of like what you get put through the 1st few weeks of the season) but can't remember exactly what that workout was.

So if any of you all know a high school swim coach, swim currently or have a kid who swims I'd love to see what they start the season off with (need to know rest times too if possible).

I am currently swimming between 700-1200 yards per day (38sec 50free w/o diving) and if I remember correctly my high school workout was around 2000-3500 with optional 5-10k's on the weekend.  I'd love to get my 100 free around a minute and be up to a 5k open water in another 12 months or so.

I did find this online but it doesn't have rest times between reps (I remember these being 15sec to 2min depending on what you were doing).  I'll probably do this for awhile but in the next month or so I want to start pressing it a bit harder.

Thanks, E

P.S. - Hey Schild you ready to start working some of that good Austin food off?

[schild]

I played soccer in high school. Super hairy jew wookies don't take kindly to swimming pools. Unless it's a private one.

Also, shockingly, I've only gained like 5 pounds since I moved here. But after dieting I know my limits a bit (a lot) better.

[Lt.Dan]

When I used to swim squad the rests were built into the timings.  So 3 x 50 on 1:00 would mean you'd start each 50 on the minute - if you swam faster you'd get a rest, if you didn't you kept on going.

[Merusk]

When I used to swim squad the rests were built into the timings.  So 3 x 50 on 1:00 would mean you'd start each 50 on the minute - if you swam faster you'd get a rest, if you didn't you kept on going.

Yep, the same.

Those workouts are "off season" workouts, so I'd think they were less yardage.  I can't recall my workouts, but I know they were almost took two hours every night, with three to three and a half hour workouts over the midseason/x-mas break.  There was a lot of yardage in those workouts, particularly for me since I was the distance swimmer.

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/swim-cgi/

That's got a nice little search tool and the only time I couldn't find workouts was searching for open water stuff.  The few middle-distance free workouts in 60m would indicate that 2k-3k yards is a decent 'in shape' workout.  So just keep adding yards to what you're doing. Maybe stop by your local HS and hunt down the swim coach.

[Salamok]

here some odd trivia, I quit smoking over 2 years ago and after a swim I taste cigarettes.  Guess I haven't breathed heavily in the last 2 years.

[Baldrake]

I used to swim in university. If you're anything like me, the days of the sub-60 100 free are a dream for the past. It's important to keep goals achievable and not get hung up on what you could do when you were a kid.

I recommend joining a masters swim club if you have such where you live. It's really hard to keep the motivation up swimming alone. I don't know if those exist in the US, but in my home town there's a team that rents a pool and pays a coach. Ages range from the 20s to the 70s. The more active people actually compete in meets (by age category of course.)

[Salamok]

I used to swim in university. If you're anything like me, the days of the sub-60 100 free are a dream for the past. It's important to keep goals achievable and not get hung up on what you could do when you were a kid.

I recommend joining a masters swim club if you have such where you live. It's really hard to keep the motivation up swimming alone. I don't know if those exist in the US, but in my home town there's a team that rents a pool and pays a coach. Ages range from the 20s to the 70s. The more active people actually compete in meets (by age category of course.)

I researched adult swim programs and masters programs in the area and they are double or triple what it costs to join a gym with a good pool, even the Y is about double the cost of the gym I joined.  They also have restrictions on times you are allowed to use the pool.  I think if I chart my progress and be competitive with myself it will be motivation enough for the next year or so.  I understand where you are coming from though, I'm 50 pounds overweight and haven't touched the water in 20 years but I am far and away faster than anything i've seen at the gym so i'm not exactly swimming in an inspirational environment. 

My modest 6 month goals involve a sub 30sec 50 free, a 400im in any time, an 800 free in any time, 1-length of the pool underwater, i think i'd be happy with a sub 1:05 100 free.  Out of those the sub 30sec 50 might be the hardest to pull off seeing how my fastest ever was just under 27.

Anyway, I really needed to do something as my feet were constantly killing me due to the weight and overall poor shape my body has decayed to.  Now even after 3 short weeks I feel much much better.  Feet don't hurt as much, I sleep better, my wife says my snoring isn't as heavy and I just have more energy all around.

[Surlyboi]

Yardage-wise, early season was 10,000 per day, 5,000 in the morning, 5,000 at night. That doubled during midseason and then dropped off during late-season tapering. I just started swimming again too and I'm finding my endurance now is for shit.

[Salamok]

Yardage-wise, early season was 10,000 per day, 5,000 in the morning, 5,000 at night. That doubled during midseason and then dropped off during late-season tapering. I just started swimming again too and I'm finding my endurance now is for shit.

Same here sometimes my entire workout is less than what I used to consider a single event.  The workout you describe is insane at it's peak you are swimming 12 miles a day.

[Amarr HM]

My problem was always my legs were doing 90% of the work when swimming, mostly due to having grown up playing football and a lot athletics but my arms were never worked out except for the racket sports to a lesser extent. When I was trying to do some semi-serious surfing (2 metre waves), I would practice in a pool by propping a float/ball between my legs and just focused on my arms.

[Baldrake]

Yardage-wise, early season was 10,000 per day, 5,000 in the morning, 5,000 at night. That doubled during midseason and then dropped off during late-season tapering. I just started swimming again too and I'm finding my endurance now is for shit.

Same here sometimes my entire workout is less than what I used to consider a single event.  The workout you describe is insane at it's peak you are swimming 12 miles a day.

Wtf, you were swimming 20,000 yards a day??

As in, 800 lengths of a standard sized pool?

Holy Christ, you were in a different league from me.

[Salamok]

Yardage-wise, early season was 10,000 per day, 5,000 in the morning, 5,000 at night. That doubled during midseason and then dropped off during late-season tapering. I just started swimming again too and I'm finding my endurance now is for shit.

Same here sometimes my entire workout is less than what I used to consider a single event.  The workout you describe is insane at it's peak you are swimming 12 miles a day.

Wtf, you were swimming 20,000 yards a day??

As in, 800 lengths of a standard sized pool?

Holy Christ, you were in a different league from me.

not me! at my peak I was occassionally doing 1 10k swim on a weekend but my daily workout was always under 4000 yards.

[Merusk]

My problem was always my legs were doing 90% of the work when swimming, mostly due to having grown up playing football and a lot athletics but my arms were never worked out except for the racket sports to a lesser extent. When I was trying to do some semi-serious surfing (2 metre waves), I would practice in a pool by propping a float/ball between my legs and just focused on my arms.

Funny, that's the exact opposite of the problem I had. My coach used to tell me it was like I was dragging two logs behind me for all the good my legs did in Freestyle. 

[Surlyboi]

Yardage-wise, early season was 10,000 per day, 5,000 in the morning, 5,000 at night. That doubled during midseason and then dropped off during late-season tapering. I just started swimming again too and I'm finding my endurance now is for shit.

Same here sometimes my entire workout is less than what I used to consider a single event.  The workout you describe is insane at it's peak you are swimming 12 miles a day.

Wtf, you were swimming 20,000 yards a day??

As in, 800 lengths of a standard sized pool?

Holy Christ, you were in a different league from me.

Basically, it was wake up, swim, eat, go to class, eat, swim, sleep. Rinse and repeat.