Swim question - getting frustrated with progress!

If your recent swimming is indicative of what you do, you need to swim more.  Get to the pool more frequently.  Work on basic balance drills.  Get coaching if you can.  Or maybe see if the lady who runs the Masters would be willing to spend a short bit of time helping you make sure you're doing the drills properly or what else you might be able to focus on.

Once you start being able to swim a bit more steadily (and you will), start swimming with the Masters group.

Yes.  Yes it is!  Intervals and speed work are for EVERYONE.  20x50 does much, much more than just work on your 50 yard swim times.  That is building your endurance, speed, and you can feel your form breaking down, but with the short rest between 50s you can focus on what you need to do on the next one to correct it.

Oh, and competing in longer distance tris doesn't exactly mean you are more experienced.  Sprint tris are awesome.  My favorite distance because you have such a short window of time to empty your tank.  That is more of a challenge to me than an Oly.  It's HARD, and if you like that distance, speed and interval work will be VERY beneficial to you.  It will also be very beneficial to you for your HIM swim.  They are going to help build you a strong swim base so that you can begin to add yards to your long swims.

I have no probs with doing intervals....I have had my best success in running when I incorporate interval training in my workouts.  My current pace when I try to stay relaxed and swim easy is about 2:40/100 meters, but I can definitely go much faster for 50 meters at a time maybe even do them in 30-40 secs but I would need an oxygen tank and a gurney at the end of the lane after doing a couple at that pace.  One question I have is - I know that I always looked ahead while swimming (in the beginning) so now I swim consistantly with my head down, and focusing on swimming "downhill" to keep my arse higher in the water, since it has a tendency to drop.  I also work from time to time with a buoy between my legs, but not a ton, as I don't want to become dependant on it.  I am also doing my pull drills - underwater "crab pulls" and swimming with my fists to get used to my forearms pulling through the water. 

In order to swim faster/more efficiently, do I literally pull "harder" underwater, or just try to stay relaxed and smooth?  I sometimes feel myself pulling really hard in an attempt to get through the water faster.  I do know this, everyone around me is always faster - not that it matters really, but they look like much more effortless in the water.  I am also 6'0 218, so I am easily the largest fella in the pool, but that is getting better also.  Started at 246 lbs just 3-4 months ago.  I also recently counted the # of strokes of the human torpedo in the next lane to me - he is about my height and he did about 20-21 strokes per length of the pool.  I do 24 consistantly...does that mean anything?

If I wanted to mix in intervals, what is a good interval workout for a relative beginner?

Thanks again...

Brian

The idea of 50m intervals is not to get your race pace down to that, it's just to simply bring your race pace down.  And it will, with patience and hard work.

Try swimplan.com

You can put your times for various distances in and it will create workouts for you based off of those.  And as others have said, swim more.  Start to slowly increase your volume because there is no substitute for time in the water.

Thanks for all the great info everyone...I already feel better about it and look forward to getting back into the water.  NOw that I think about it, I have made good improvements from when I first started back in Feb.....I could barely go 25 meters  back then.....I will keep working on it!!!

Brian

It's not about pulling "harder," it's about efficiency.  I'm 6'3" 215 and it takes me 18-20 strokes to get to the end of the pool just because I have a long reach.  My swim coach always told me that the best way to better your time for endurance events is to literally stretch yourself out, reach forward, focus on rotation and glide through the water.  Pull all the way through your strokes and do the thumb drill (i.e.  brush your thumb across your thigh so you know that you're pulling all the way through your stroke).  I'm no expert but this has worked well for me.

I also started swimming in February (had my first lesson on Feb 19th)....and it was slow at first - I, too, could BARELY swim 25m at a time - and while i haven't spent nearly as much time in the pool as I should - but  I swam 2000m non-stop (for the first time) on Tuesday in 54 min.  And I did my first tri - a mini-sprint with a 300m swim (which I did in 6:50) last Saturday.

My goal is to go to the pool 3 times/week (most weeks I only make it twice though) and work on just slow easy distance for two of those sessions and then speed/interval work on the other.  Progress is definitely being made....and it sounds like it is for you too - keep at it!!

I would do a warmup using a distance you feel comfortable doing, I use this time to get a feel for the water and get loosened up.

Pick a few drlls to do(kick,pull,balance,breath,etc) and move on to your main set.

Swim a test 50 and see what your time is, add 15-20 seconds and do intervals on that time. Start out with a number you feel comfortable with and keep adding 50's each week until you can bump it up to 100's,150's,200's. Keep the rest at 15-20 seconds during the intervals.

 Dont think of pulling harder, your pull strength will evolve as your stroke and speed improve, pushing it will lead to possible injury.