How I Stay Motivated Swimming By Myself

When I started competitive swimming again about 6 years ago I was traveling a lot. My schedule was pretty crazy and in order to swim consistently I had to swim by myself. It wasn’t really possible for me to join a group.

Stay Motivated Training Alone

Group swimming is easier for me, as it is to most swimmers I talk with about it. When other swimmers asked me “where do you swim?”, and I responded “usually on my own”, they would raise their eyebrows and say how hard that must be. Let’s face it, it’s just easier to stay motivated with other swimmers keeping pace with you in your lane and next to you.

Over the years I’ve been able to join some established swim groups/teams and also create some small workout groups on my own. While it IS much easier to train with others, I still am forced to train on my own quite often if I want to get my training in.

I have learned over the days, and months, and years of training by myself to create strategies to keep me motivated and make my time in the water valuable.

Following are seven strategies I use to stay motivated while training by myself:

Have a workout ready before you get to the pool – I find it much easier to get my workout in if I have a pre determined workout ready when I get in the pool. Rather than try to come up with one during warmup.
Variety – I make it a point to have a variety of workouts so I don’t get bored
Structure – I plan a different type of workout for each day and try to make it consistent every week – For example, Mondays are distance free, Tuesday’s IM, Wednesdays breaststroke, Thursdays backstroke, Fridays sprint, Saturdays IM
Drills – Working out alone is a great time to practice those drills you find online and want to try. There are a lot of great drills that are way easier to try when you’re alone in your lane.
Sign up for meets – I find that when I have a race that I’m training for that it’s much easier to get motivated to train.
Easy days – I have been building easy days into my schedule when I’m swimming by myself. It’s hard for me to swim easy (I’m fairly intense), but I am feeling great in the water and believe these “rest” days are beneficial to me.
Use Training Tools – I use my alone time to practice with training tools, which is not always easy in a group practice. Fins, paddles, resistance cords and sometimes snorkels.

What strategies do you use to stay motivated when you train alone?