Help me swim faster

The Sandbox Fitness
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I’m trying to get back into swimming. I swim in a 50 meter pool, and am trying to do 1500 meters. My time, rough because on my phone including a minute or two to get in and out of the water was 43 minutes last time.

I think I was close to 30 minutes many years ago when I was last into it.

I’m doing front crawl. I suspect I’m letting my legs flop too much, but not sure what else in my form to be working on.

My plan is to swim the 1500 meters once or twice per week whenever I can eek some time out.

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sharks or alligators in the water should help improve your speed.

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Consult @twig93 if you need help distinguishing between crocodiles and alligators. Either should do for this purpose.

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Might sound strange . . . but do some “out-of-water” aerobic exercises. That can help with allowing your breathing pattern to be “every other” (or more) stroke.

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You doing flip turns?

Edit: see this is a 50 meter pool, and not a 25 yard pool where you’d do more turns, but still.

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TPIWWP

Hire a coach. That’s the best advice you’re going to get on a forum like this.

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No, doing a fairly strong kickoff, but not a flip turn, will look into it

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For now I’m lazy, i rarely know when I’m actually going to get time more than a day ahead of time.

For now I’ll swap 1500 m, vs intervals for speed on alternate swims

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The initial post and thread title are about faster, but at this length we are into endurance. This is more about fitness IMO, and regular training at distance will help a lot.

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My cardio endurance is ok, although its been a few years I’ve done a half marathon in IIRC 1:52, and a lot of cycling. I think swimming form is my way to get quick wins, but its hard without seeing video of myself swimming to know what exactly to be trying to do better.

ETA my thinking is the intervals will help me work on how to go faster, and I can then work that into the longer swim days.

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How often will you be timing yourself?
Dont you use the clock at the swimmin hole? Most have one.

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No clock at the pool unfortunately.

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I like this guy -

The videos are informative and I picked up some good tips. Let me know if you need help understanding his accent.

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Thank you, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for!

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If you have a masters swim program near you that may be a cheap way to get a coach to look at your form.

Also rather than doing 1500 straight look into interval training. Like 100 on a 2:30 pace (no idea what your speed is) so you finish early you get about 20 seconds rest then go again.

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I last competed in HS, and science may have advanced since then. Use a two kick to save legs for the turn. learn flip turns, get deep on the turn to avoid your wake, dolphin kick once before you break. Think streamline and central vector down the pool. The more your body twists off that vector (like bending at the waist to left or right), the more energy you are wasting. Rotation along the axis (to help with breathing and stroke efficiency) isn’t too bad, but don’t exaggerate it. See how far you can go taking a breath every other stroke. Sprints were more about powering through the water, 500 (yards) seemed more like rowing/crew does to the eye, long smooth efficient strokes. I think i only did the 1650 once or twice, it wasn’t part of hs meets.

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I swim 2x a week for 30 minutes. For me:
A tough workout is a 1200M
1100 is heart pumping
1000 is relaxing

I get very discombobulated in the 1200 usually around the 800 mark.

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