Mile a day?

[terry]

Originally Posted by BradMM

Do you think I can follow your guidelines and still get a good workout or should I break it up into ladder set session first followed by "just swimming"? Can I get the same workout intensity by just keeping the breaks short but maintain mindfulness?

Brad
I'm not an expert on calorie burn and always counsel people to be clear on whether their priority is to "get a good workout" or "improve your swimming." I can give plenty of sound advice on the latter, but for the former advise that any physical activity, even if mindless can suffice.

However I've heard reports of quite a few people who've lost significant weight through regular practice of TI drills and skills, perhaps 3 to 4 hours a week.

However, mindful myself of an earlier comment of yours >>If part of the payoff is that I can be GOOD at something, that's a big motivator.>> then I'd say practice is far more likely to produce that outcome than workout.

[BradMM]

Yes, you are right that I may have at least two separate goals here but I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. I know I, personally, need to greatly increase my aerobic capacity and that requires aerobic exercise so the anaerobic resistance training won't help me. I think I went too far to the other end of the spectrum but now my health (blood pressure) requires me to swing back the other way. I don't have to be 100% with either but higher intensity aerobic work is good for calorie burn, too.

I think I may alternate days, one work on technique and one work on improving my mile time. I agree that practicing technique is very important and I hope that it will all work together to help me reach my goal but I just hate to drop either. I'll certainly monitor things as I go and tweak as needed if there's no progress in one area.

I'll throw other stuff in on the side. Lately, I've been trying to nurse a pulled tendon in my forearm from eight sets, five reps ea, of chinups but I can still do a lot of body weight exercises such as push ups, air squats, lunges, etc. I'm laying off the weights for now.

Because of my initial statement on this thread, I swam 37 laps today (standard 25 yd pool)... added the extra one just in case I miscounted along the way some where. It took me 40 minutes. Because I want aerobic conditioning, lately I have been swimming with a snorkel in my teeth and I do basically Yoga breaths the entire time so breathing doesn't slow me down any. I think that swimming without the snorkel would cause me to be more anoxic/hypoxic and that's not the effect I want even if it might help be swim better sans snorkel. I know the snorkel causes drag - I can feel the difference - but I like this approach for now.

Question: using the snorkel kind of precludes flip turns so what do I want to be shooting for in good open turns? I tried crunching up tight(er) today before turning and that seemed to make them more smooth.

Thanks again for all the great feedback!!!

Brad

[madvet]

Lately I have been excited about trying out the Tempo Trainer, and for the past week I have been just diving in and starting work at a regular tempo, starting at 1.3 seconds per armstroke and then working at gradually faster paces. I noticed that at the end of 45 minutes I wasn't necessarily tired but I just didn't feel like swimming any longer I just felt like it was drudgery.

Today, after looking at Terry's sample workout with the tempo trainer I made sure to have a nice 20 minute warmup including 12 minutes of drills and 8 minutes of slow tempo swimming. Then I swam with the same plan as I had doing before and I swam for an hour and a half -- I was enthusiastic, instead of drudged out, and could have gone for another 30 to 60 minutes if I didn't have to go back to work.

My point being --- you can aim to have an aerobic workout, but don't skimp on the warmup. Your attitude and ability to maintain focused and productive will benefit greatly.

[BradMM]

Originally Posted by madvet

My point being --- you can aim to have an aerobic workout, but don't skimp on the warmup. Your attitude and ability to maintain focused and productive will benefit greatly.

Warm up...????

[shuumai]

Originally Posted by BradMM

Question: using the snorkel kind of precludes flip turns so what do I want to be shooting for in good open turns?

You can flip with a snorkel on, but the results might vary with the snorkel design and your skill level.

As with everything else in swimming, your first objective should be learning to reduce drag. It's no different for turns.

[BradMM]

Originally Posted by shuumai

You can flip with a snorkel on, but the results might vary with the snorkel design and your skill level.

I figured that it was possible but more difficult. Until I get the flip turn under my belt better, I'll stick with open turns.

Brad

[BradMM]

Originally Posted by terry

Brad
This motivation is the most elemental and powerful, and the one with the greatest potential to spark a sustained interest -- even passion as time goes on.

I think I can confidently assert that no personal-mastery quest will prove to be more appropriate, nor offer more opportunity for satisfaction, than swimming.

That's because:
1) As humans we're SO NOT WIRED by evolution to be good at swimming, that the opportunity to improve is virtually universal, nearly limitless and highly accessible. It is literally possible to have an experience in your first 5 minutes that suggests a world of unrealized potential -- mainly by doing Superman Glide.
2) While we may not be wired by evolution to swim well, humans are wired to be "problem-solving machines," and the TI approach is designed to guide you through a logically-sequenced problem-solving process.

There is virtually nothing in the physical arena that I can do as well or easily or feel as good doing as I felt 40 years ago at 18. But in swimming I feel exponentially more capable, skilled, tuned-in, and comprehending than I did at 18. This is a major source of personal satisfaction.

Swim on,
Terry

I may have to print that and keep it in my swim bag! That in itself is motivational to me!

Thanks,

Brad

[terry]

Originally Posted by madvet

I have been just diving in and starting work at a regular tempo, starting at 1.3 seconds per armstroke and then working at gradually faster paces. I noticed that at the end of 45 minutes I wasn't necessarily tired but I just didn't feel like swimming any longer I just felt like it was drudgery.

Today, after looking at Terry's sample workout with the tempo trainer I made sure to have a nice 20 minute warmup including 12 minutes of drills and 8 minutes of slow tempo swimming.

My point being --- you can aim to have an aerobic workout, but don't skimp on the warmup. Your attitude and ability to maintain focused and productive will benefit greatly.

John
Actually having an aerobic workout is relatively low on my priority list. It's just a natural consequence of swimming for an hour or so. The real priority for me is to swim better than I ever have before, in perhaps some small way. And by so doing to leave the highest-value neural imprint that I can.
I understand what you're saying though, because your final sentence above makes the point.
From the standpoint of a focus that never wavers from creating the highest quality neural imprint, I think of the first 300 to 600 meters as a tuneup, more than a warmup -- i.e. the focus is on tuning my electrical circuits, rather than on increasing the flow rate in my cardiovascular plumbing. The latter happens, and thus can accommodate the greater metabolic demands the body incurs as my nervous system rises to the task of incrementally more exacting combinations of SPL, tempo and duration.
But the phenomenon I now experience most profoundly is the increasing efficiency of my nervous system at performing almost any task, as I increase the number of repetitions.

Thus I seldom turn on the TT until I've swum at least five minutes or so accompanied only by my own thoughts.

[terry]

Originally Posted by BradMM

Because I want aerobic conditioning, lately I have been swimming with a snorkel in my teeth and I do basically Yoga breaths the entire time so breathing doesn't slow me down any. I think that swimming without the snorkel would cause me to be more anoxic/hypoxic and that's not the effect I want even if it might help be swim better sans snorkel.

I'll keep making a quiet point, in response to all posts that include some reference to aspects of aerobic conditioning that yes aerobic conditioning happens, but apart from the health benefits (which are inarguable, but if you're a devoted swimmer you needn't worry much about that), swimmers who are truly improvement-oriented, should keep their focus relentlessly on nervous-system training.

When you do that, you'll have a stronger framework for answering questions which arise about the utility of things like snorkels or other such swim aids.

[BradMM]

This thread has been most beneficial to me!

Thanks to all!

Brad