Any swimmers in here?

0psi

Eats Squid
So I'm back in the pool after many years off and quite frankly I suck. I was an okay swimmer back in the day (PB was about 19min for a 1500m ocean swim) so my technique isn't horrible but these days I have the arm strength and endurance of a block of cheese. I'm doing the odd triathlon here and there which is fun but I like the idea of swimming as it's a workout you can do while resting the legs a little.

Now here are the issues, while I like the idea of swimming I hate being in the pool. When I used to swim nearly all of my training was in the ocean, looking at the same tiles over and over again is just mind numbing. My hatred of the pool isn't helped by the fact that I feel like I'm going to die after swimming 400m.

So any swimmer types have any tips or tricks to make life in the pool a little more bearable or any exercises I can do at home that will help. My stroke is reasonable and to be fair there's no point in working on my stroke with my pityful arm strength and endurance. I find weight/resistance band work okay but all the exercises I'm doing now don't quite work the same muscles I use when swimming.

And before anyone mentions it, no swimming in the ocean isn't an option as I live 90k away from the sea.
 

Roasted Chicken

Likes Bikes
Don't worry everyone's arms feel like mush after a couple hundred meters in their first few sessions back in the pool.
I would just work on getting total distance per session increasing first, work in sets of 50 or 100. Whatever you can do until you feel like you are going backwards. Recover at the end of the pool and repeat. You will be surprised how quick the distance will tick over and after a week or 2 you will be pushing those sets out to 200 etc
To alleviate the boredom,
do a warm up of say 500 m,
then watch the clock and see how long it takes you to do 50 m
say it is 45 s
then rest 15 s
And go again, try and maintain the same speed (this is effectively just interval training but because you have a time to maintain and you are checking the clock it will take your mind off just chasing the black line)
do 10 intervals
do a 500 m cool down

Alternatively if you can alternate 100 free with 100 m back to mix up the session and also helps reduce fatigue because of different muscle recruitment.

That's about the extent of what I sued to do, I'm sure there is heaps more stuff you can do though.
 

jumpers

Likes Dirt
Quality over quantity. Most pool swimming gets boring as just covering miles . Need learn how change pace, intensity etc.

How long do you want to spend in pool? I was swim coach, be happy help ideas maybe. Try work out how long takes you to swim 100m and 200 at med intensity - then maybe able help if you want
 
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