A Master club works great. I am member of one but they start too late for me (5:30 am). Plus i heard they have become very popular lately and now it 4 per lane. The pool they go is just 5 lanes… So they circle… And I’m too slow for that… 
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By just swimming more, swim fitness will improve as will the times. But he could be reinforcing bad habits the whole time. I swim mostly alone so it’s hard for me to know what flaws I have.
This^
The pace clock is your friend/enemy. In the pool, the clock is your power meter. Time everything and try and go faster. (A second or two is significant on shorter repeats) That’s how all those speedy kids do it.
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Is this better than using the watch to track the intervals?
There is something magical about knowing the big clock controls when you start your next interval. I don’t know what it is, but for me yeah it’s better to use the big clock to actually do the workout. Watch to track and record it.
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Time is time so it doesn’t really matter as long as you are consistent in how you read whatever clock you’re using. Although, if you use the pace clock, you can take splits during longer swims. The key is real time feedback, not just checking your saved data after you’re done.
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Maybe placebo, but I feel progress…
Today I did a 200 wu with buoy, then 150 kick, then 3 sets of 3x25 drill/swim (one arm L, one arm R, catch-up), then 10x50, 6x25 with paddles and 100 cd with buoy…
The 50s i wasn’t going out with the intention to be a hard set of all out… I was focusing on form and trying to keep elbows high and body straight through out…
The fastest was 58, slowest 62. Which to my standards was a good set… Last year I would feel a set of me trying to go under 60, and to get to 55 was me going close to all out… Today I was tired but could have taken probably less than the 30s recovery i was taking, but I was focusing on proper form so full rest was important…
Anyway… Will keep up with this and see where I am in a few weeks… Goal is to cut rest time while keeping the intensity, and hopefully going less slow…
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In case anyone wants it - the reference for the drills in the swim plans:
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Did a similar wo on wedsday (200 wu, 200 kick, 3 sets of 3 drills (25 drill/ 25 swim) one arm R, One arm L, catch-up, and then a ton of 50s… like 16 on 80s… super steady around 62 per… all of them felt reasonable easy… but not stupid easy…
I live in Portugal and our pools were closed for ages.
My time has been invested mostly in improving bike and run while getting my body fat to decent levels. It is going well. I just won my 55-59 AG in the local race of the Powerman Duathlon series.
I have a 70.3 in 1 month time and did my first come back swim yesterday and I am like 15 to 20 seconds per 100m slower.
Being competitive in that upcoming event is a major goal of mine so I need to get my swim at least to 35ish minutes (my best ever is upper 29).
The plan is to focus on speed and long endurance.
So I will do a lot of 25s as the main set 3 out of 4 sessions and the other will be “red mist style” 400m progressive intervals with high cadence and some sighting.
Do you think it makes sense to rebuild some swim fitness as fast as possible?
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First off, congratulations 
Secondly, I find the majority of my swim pace comes back simply with patience and frequent, short sessions rather than really hard swimming.
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This week I started with 100… was doing then on 2:30 intervals…
end up with 9… Slowest was 2:12, less slowest 2:06… Was feeling good with less than 30s rest between intervals…
I dont remember ever been able to do 9x100 at this consistent speed without feeling I was going fast or finishing feeling I was dying!
Now the questions…
should i stick to 50s, or are a progression from 50s to 100s natural?
@Joelrivera I use (well when I actually swim) a combination of 25s, 50s and 100s mostly, mainly because they are a different speeds or at least help the body learn there are different speeds in swimming. Because I used to be a sprint swimmer (way long time ago) I tend to do 25s and 50s, 100 is just too long…my brain cant fathom tri distances 
When i restart swimming I tend to mostly do 50s with 30 secs rest and progress first by increase the set size and then decreasing the rest time to 15s. After that i move up to 100 -reason is at speed at 100 and aove my technique starts to suffer. i use the 25s simply for all speed work and do them most session…also because i like them
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I did something similar with the 50s…
went from resting 30s between to do to a 75s rate… (between 58 and 63 intervals). Last time i did 19 of them… super consistent.
Thats when i moved to 100s… I did 9 @ 2.30 (2:06-2:12, but most were 2:08)
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I’ve been doing over/unders a lot lately in the pool. Yesterday I did 3 sets of 4x200 alternating Ironman and sprint tri paces. I’ve done the same set with 50s, 100s, and 400s. 10-20s rest between repeats, an extra 45s between rounds. I’m no sports scientist, but I enjoy doing these. Sound reasonable?
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If your technique is great… I think thats a great workout…
my technique is the garbage that the garbage didnt want…
so I need to focus on maintain the form instead of just swimming long…
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If you’re feeling dead after 50 there’s no need to push the distance. Work towards an easier technique/pace at 25 and 50 distance so you’re able to extend to 75 and 100 without exhaustion.
You’re a fit guy on your feet and on the bike, so its likely that you’re kicking too hard and have too high a stroke rate if you’re tired after 50. Relax, reach out, glide a little
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Define feeling dead…
I never felt I was out of breath doing the 50s… even 19 of them with less than 15s rest…
Granted…they were not all out efforts. More of mid, hopefully race level pace.
The 100s felt similar…
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Nice! I think then that the progression is going really well. I don’t think i will be hitting the pool before my sprint in September, but will do laps in my backyard pool - 11 yards lengths…or use a tether like @WildWill just to get water feel. I still have this ridiculous thought i could with a lot of work swim 50 like i used to in high school - not a chance!
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I so stoke about my perceived improvements.
Today I decided to add a bid of speed…
So did
10x25 ( 24s @ 45s rate)
6x50 (55s @ 70s rate)
3x100 ( 2.08 @ 2.30 rate)
Only the 25 felt like all out… The rest felt comfortable uncomfortable… But never felt extremely hard…
I asked A guy i know from the pool to take a look at my form… He said it looked much better than last year and that my legs are way higher and much better too
That made my day… Progress! Real progress!
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