Swimming goals?

Bo has some good time goals for your distances but you won't be hitting those in 6 months.  I'd say your 1st major goal s/b to get down to 2:00 for the 100m free.  Your 2:42 doesn't seem right given that you can swim 50m in 61 secs.  In order to hit 2:00, you should be able to hit 25 secs for 25m and 55 secs for 50m.  As Bo mentioned, 9 minutes for a 400 seems like a good time to shoot for...that's averaging 2:15 per 100.

No, you can't get your turnover rate from your watch.  The Finis tempo trainer ( http://www.swimoutlet.com/p/finis-tempo-trainer-pro-33518/?color=10804  beeps in your ear at whatever rate you adjust it to.  When you adjust the trainer to match your natural stroke cadence, you'll notice a pretty slow turnover, especially compared to Olympic/elite swimmers.  I'm betting that your turnover rate is quite a bit higher than 2 secs  per full stroke cycle (i.e. it takes more than 1 second between the time your right hand hits the water to when it hits the water again).  You want to initially focus on getting to 2 secs per stroke cycle and then work down from there...ideally in the 1.50 ish range.

Not sure what your coach has in mind, but I would work on getting your 100 time down below 2:00 minutes consistently as a first major milestone.

Again, I don't want to inadvertently contradict your coach, but the way I was coached was to only swim intervals where you maintain good form for the entire distance.  Start with 25's and once you can hold form there, move to 50's etc.  Don't worry about pace or turnover rate for now, just form & technique.

 Remember the old saying:  "Slow is smooth; smooth is fast".   

As your form improves you'll see some improvement in your pace.  The big payoff comes when you can start working on increasing your tempo or turnover rate while still maintaining your technique.  

Good luck,

Mark

Sounds like you're in good hands with your coaches.  No substitute for having a set of eyes on you from the deck to give you immediate feedback.

Keep at it.

Good luck,

Mark

I would keep #4.....but I would change it to being able to articulate what your form problems are.  If you don't know what they are, you can't fix them.  For the time being, you will have to actively think about your form and what you are doing right and wrong in order to clean it up.  If you can't even name what the problems are (and there are many of them) then you can't even start with fixing the issues.  Once you can name them, you work on one at a time.

I think she needs to video her swim and maybe we could help articulate the form goals for the coming year.

I think it's interesting that her 100m time degrades so much off the 50m time.  I would think a 61 sec 50m would translate to around 2:15 for the 100m.  To me, it sounds like there's both aerobic conditioning & form issues.  Goals addressing both of these would be worthwhile.  An aerobic conditioning goal could be volume based (min of 1500m per workout with 10-20% of that kicking) or time based (execute 10x50m on 1:15).

I agree with LB here.  Get help on identifying form issues and then work on them.  Setting time goals right now doesn't make sense.  Set technique goals.

Body position, catch, head position, tempo, bilateral breathing, ankle flexibility, to name a few.  Everyone is different.  That's why a trained eye is so important.

The other poster got it right.  When people learn to swim properly they don't swim for time.  If she is swimming a 2:47 100 then there are huge issues to fix before worrying about time.  Time will drop when the form issues are cleaned up some.  Body position, catch, pull, breathing, kick, streamline, etc.  These are all parts of a swim that the OP doesn't do well at all.  Yu can't be a swimmer and hope to drop any meaningful time without learning those components.

Hmm, I'm wondering if you are not breathing enough early and getting into debt that compounds in the latter lengths.  Breathing every four strokes at this stage of the game seems pretty aggressive to me.  Even every three strokes may be a bit much until aerobic capacity increases and comfort with greater continuous distances.  Just for kicks why don't you try a 100 breathing every other stroke and see if you are as gassed at the end.