swimming question: what is the next step?

[boston340]

I am getting a lot more comfortable in the pool and can do about 0.6 mile now during a workout.  I've mostly been doing my workouts as long-slow-distance.  Should I continue to do this until I get up to a mile or should I start adding in some speed work to my workout?  

And uuuhh...speed work is relative.  

[Susie]

I have to do mental math to figure out how far 0.6 mile is -- I think of swimming in yards (or meters).  You're doing in the ballpark of 1000 yds, it sounds like?

If you are not breaking up your time in the pool to include a discrete warmup, main set, and cool down, I would start doing that.  I would pick proportions that work for you - maybe 200 warmup, 600 main set, 200 cool down.  Then as you get stronger you can add yards to your main set.  Maybe mrs.jacinthe can suggest some resources for sets/workouts.

You will probably eventually want a longer warmup too (I do 600-1000 to warm up), but 200 has really always been a long enough cool down for me.  A typical workout for me will be 600-1000 warmup, 2000-3000 worth of main set yardage, almost none of which is straight swimming, and 200 cool down.

[boston340]

Yes, 0.6 mile is 1,056 yards or 956 meters. I guess I should start thinking of everything in meters since our pool is 25 meters in length. I swim 1-2x per week.

I will take your advice and break it up with the warm up, main set, and cool down. Right now I do 400 meters, then take a quick break, 400 more meters, quick break.

I am definitely feeling a lot more confident in my swimming ability, which is a good feeling!

[Susie]

You may also want to tuck a couple hundred "pre-main set" in between warmup and main set, that is a great place to do, say, 4x50m of drills to work on your stroke before going into the main set.

I would not be surprised if you can do more yards already, by breaking your workout up. It's just like it's easier to do a treadmill run with intervals than it is to try to slog it out at an even pace.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Ok, so if you want 1000m workouts, I'd definitely remove the warmup and cool down from the calculation. The beginner workouts at mydailyswim.com/ are great, IMO. I know they're all 1600m or so, but consider that includes the warmup and cool down, too.

What is your goal, long term, with swimming? Do you want to get faster at the short distances or try for farther distances?