Awesome, @Joelrivera!
Is anyone interested in sharing favorite workouts/sets? I just got back to the pool after 18 months (?!?!), and I’m in need of inspiration!
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400m easy warm up, some drills and varying strokes
2x(50-100-150-200m) with the first 25m of the 100m and first 50m of the 200m full gas sprint, 15" rest in between
100m easy
2x(50-100-150-200m) with the first 25m of the 100m and first 50m of the 200m full gas sprint, 15" rest in between
100m easy
5x200m on 20" rest with paddles
3x100m kicking with kickboard and fins, first 25m go hard
200m easy cool down, varying strokes
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Here is one I did yesterday that I do every few weeks and use as a benchmark.
400 easy warmup
6 x 100 (50 kick / 50 swim); build easy to moderate effort from interval 1 to 6
Main set, 2-3 times through:
300 moderate, 30-40 sec rest
6 x 100 hard, 15-20 sec rest
300 pull easy, 30-40 sec rest
Where “moderate” is 75-80% effort, lower aerobic threshold. And “hard” is ~90% effort, slightly above aerobic threshold - not all out, but going pretty hard.
Sometimes with this set, I swap out the 100s for 50s (but do twice as many), for some or all 3 rounds.
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I attempted this this am
300 Wu choice
200 pull buoy
4x50 decent 15s
4x
200 strong 15s
2x50 fast 20s
1 min rest
200 CD
I quit after the 2nd set…
Feeling weak… Could get into a good breathing rhythm…
Oh well…
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So after not swimming for 3 years plus I managed 4 sessions this week…
Swim 1. 160m – 3:11 /100yd
Swim 2. 300m – 3:09 /100yd
Swim 3. 340m – 2:47 /100yd (actually 420m but swan some rest intervals, hence not recorded)
Swim 4. 400m – 2:42 /100yd
Very slow, but very comfortable and the most confident I have been in the water ever.
The progress is purely down to breathing and getting the head lower (more streamlined) plus slowing down the stroke rate and grabbing / catching the water better, learnings I will take forward over the next few weeks. Forget my ridiculous slow times, I am sure these principles apply globally to swimming.
Re: Garmin watches, it’s a pain but I don’t trust the auto-rest so press it manually.
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I assume you meant you couldn’t get into a good breathing rhythm. But I’m curious what you mean by that? How are you breathing and what is your assessment of a good breathing rhythm?
So I ordered the Zen8 swim trainer. Anyone uses it or anything similar?
Yes…
Couldn’t
I now usually can breath LR as 2L, and 2R pattern.
On Friday it was impossible to keep that pattern even swimming slow or with pull buoy.
I was not feeling well the rest of the day and part day yesterday. I almost bailed on my 11 mile run yesterday (i ended up doing it). This morning ride was rough… So who knows… Maybe getting sick or something.
Does anyone have any women’s wetsuit recommendations? Looking for something that would be good for 50-60F (10-15C) and not super expensive!
Thanks y’all 
For lack of anything better to do I’m following the swim workouts from the Half Triathlon Build program, days 2 and 5 each week, not the day 7 endurance swim since I’m only (recently) going to the pool twice per week.
Warm-Up 350m Easy, RPE4
10x25m FS Drills w/ 10s rest between drills
8x100m Easy-Moderate, RPE6 w/ 5s rest between intervals
4x200m Moderate-Hard, RPE8 w/ 30s rest between intervals
10x25m SK drills w/ 15s rest between drills
Cool-Down 350m easy, RPE4
Instead of the prescribed drills I’m using paddles since those are the only pool toys I have (fins and a kickboard are on order). Are there good videos for how to do the drills? For example, “FS Drills” are described as follows. I really have no idea what this is teaching me to do or how to do it?
Front Sculling (FS) - Stretch your arms out in front of you, fingertips pointed forward, arms no more than shoulder-width apart and use both hands to propel yourself forward by “sculling” in a figure-eight pattern as you simulate the catch over & over. Use a minimal kick and do this with your head up or down.
I’d ignore the figure-8 advice. Here’s a decent demo, but I have always done this drill with hands closer to the surface of the water. Front Scull - Improve your swimming with Personal Swimming - YouTube
Thanks, that was very helpful.
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Teaching feeling the water, creating propulsion and reducing drag.
Pull Buoy between legs (no kicking).
Finger tips below wrists, wrist below elbows. Movement described as mixing water or figure of 8 movement feeling a constant pressure on you palms.
Don’t do the hand (fingers up) stop sign or as beginners often do horizontal flat hand, you will either stop or go backwards, going backwards, doing it incorrectly is demo in video linked
See the swimsmooth video (on their website there is narration.)
I have this drill down to do this week… 10 meters scull into freestyle (although I’ll be happy to nail the sculling bit for now.) I haven’t sculled for years should be interesting. It is one thing knowing the theroy / drill, often very different thing executing it well.
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With the off-season looming I am getting ready for a proper swim block over the winter - pandemic permitting I will be looking to get my IM swim to under 60 minutes by adressing some tech flaws and maintain higher yardage for a longer period. The ST guppy challenge with increased yardage appears to be a good start, does anyone have experience with that program? Any ideas for alternatives?
Also, how do you bring your prescribed workout to the pool? It seems that a program designed to break through my current plateau requires more complex workouts, to a point where I am unable to remember the program on a given day. Paper seems like a dumb idea, whiteboard marker isn’t grea either. Any clever ideas for this?
I pre-program them into my fenix 5 through garmin connect.
Paper in a plastic bag, or slightly wet printed workout stuck to a kick board
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Now that is a true swimmer. Always wet paper on a kickboard !!!
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I put my wet, hand written workout sheet on the pool deck… 
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That works too!
Ok so basically there is no elegant solution and I shall make peace with wet paper on the deck. At least I can now be sure I am not missing a secret trick.