Let’s face it, swimming at the community pool day after day or even a couple times per week can get pretty redundant if you don’t have a plan. Lately I’ve been putting together different work-outs to vary things up and make swimming in the pool more fun. Here’s a new one we did today that will beat pool boredom and both my friend Wendy and I enjoyed:

Warm-up: 500 meters

Main Set:

  • 5 x 100 Race Pace (1000 meter race pace) w/20 sec recovery
  • 100 – Hand Drive
    • Start by kicking on the side one hand forward on hand back
    • Sneak trailing hand up the side
    • When hand gets to face start catch with lead hand
    • DRIVE recovery hand to full extension
  • 50/50/50 x 2
    • 50 using hand paddle and count your total strokes
    • 50 freestyle counting strokes keeping them as close to the same as with paddle
    • 50 fist counting strokes keeping them as close to the same as freestyle
    • REPEAT
  • 100 Race Pace – (match or beat fastest 100 in first set)

Cool Down: 500 (can break this up into breast, back or freestyle)

Total Meters: 2000

Surely there are a lot of you who swim more than I do. Do you have any tips for beginners? What are some of your favorite drills and ways to beat pool boredom? Leave them in the comments below.