Need to drop my 500m time. - Swimming Forums: The Online Community for Swimmers and Swim Forums

BLindenberg · 01-30-2010, 04:34 PM

Hey guys, My name is Brett. I am 16 years old from the sunny beaches of FL. I recently started swimming, maybe a month ago 2x a week, to train for lifeguarding tryouts today. I failed and am very motivated to improve now. I had to swim 500m in 10:00 and I ended up at 10:10. I have until march to correct my form / improve my times. I am very athletic and ran cross country, I bodybuild, and play on the high school tennis team. I know there are beginners routines and obvious tips when it comes to bodybuilding, and I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction similar to those. I am not lazy and will do my research, I just need to know where to start. I have until March 27th to get to a sub-9:00 500 m time or else I will be working inside all summer. Thanks to all that take the time to respond.

Typhoons Coach · 01-30-2010, 11:40 PM

start with 10 x 50m @ 1:30. It's a 15 minute workout that will start to get you on the right track. You can then work it down to 1:00 per 50m and then down to however far your endurance can handle. Ideally, you want to gradually improve on your endurance. This is not something that is going to come overnight.

The other glaring fact is that your technique probably needs some improvement. With regard to that, you can look for drills at The Swimmers Circle - Swim Networking, Swim Blogs, Swim News, and Much More that will help you out.

BLindenberg · 01-31-2010, 04:00 PM

I appreciate the help.

Typhoons Coach · 02-01-2010, 01:23 AM

no problem what-so-ever.

texasaggies · 02-02-2010, 07:41 PM

In your bodybuilding, remember that to benefit your swimming, you're looking for muscular endurance, so doing some lower weight, higher rep workouts would help your swimming.

Agree with what Andy said. However, once you get down to 1:00, instead of keeping on lower, I might propose that you change to, say 8x100 on the 2:15, and start working down again from there. That will help stretch you into getting more and more swimming into one shot.

Given that you only have 2 months, if you want to really make sure you make it, it might benefit you to add a 3rd practice in for the first few weeks, if you can find the time. I've actually had many swimmers tell me that swimming really improved their serves in tennis as well.

Typhoons Coach · 02-02-2010, 11:41 PM

Good point, Tex! I also love to run 75's and 125's for those sets!