Swim Workout Tips For Training Alone

Motivation Tips For Training Alone

One of the challenging parts of Masters swimming is that I often have to train alone. That pesky work thing gets in the way and I’m not able to make a team practice. Maybe it’s a conference call, scheduled meeting, or I’m traveling. In those instances when I miss a team practice I know I still need to get my swim in. Let’s face it, like many activities swim training is much easier (and fun) when you are training with a workout group.

In talking with many of my Masters swimming friends, they often tell me they don’t know how they would be able to swim on their own without a workout group. I’ve often heard these friends say “Yeah, I had to swim alone this week and called it quits after 1500 yards”.

After thinking about their “amazement” about my ability to train effectively by myself I thought I’d share the techniques I use to get a good swim workout in when I’m training alone. I know there are a lot of swimmers out there who have to train alone at least part of the time. Or maybe even all of the time! Hopefully my experience can help you get the extra workout or two in to reach your swimming goals.

Swim Workout Tips For Training Alone

1. Write up a good workout – Don’t wing it at the last minute. Instead, write up a good workout. If you need ideas there are plenty of resources online. If you’re a US Masters swimmer, there are a ton of workouts on the usms.org website. Or you can just Google search Masters swimming workouts. Also you can download my favorite 7 workouts for free if you subscribe to my blog.
2. Put Swimming on Your Calendar – Plan out your week and add your swim workouts to your calendar. If you write it down on your calendar you’re much more likely to make it happen. Also, logging your swims on a calendar helps you track your swim training activities over time as well.
3. Play Mental Games – I often play little mental games to motivate myself during my workouts. Sometimes it’s “beating” the lap swimmer next to me. Or coming up with creative ways to descend a set. Or working on extra dolphin kicks off my turns.
4. Include Something Fun – When I swim alone I will always include something fun that I wouldn’t get the chance to do at a group workout. For example the other day I spent about 10 minutes working on some breaststroke drills. Or sometimes I’ll do something different with fins or paddles that I normally wouldn’t do in a group practice.
5. Write Down Your Goals – One of the things that has really helped me is writing down my swim goals. I find that when I write down my time goals and a goal date that I find it a lot easier to get the swims in I need to reach my goals.
6. Work on Technique – When I swim alone I focus more on technique and less on the clock. This is a great strategy to help pass the time when swimming alone.
7. Reward Yourself – If all else fails then rewarding yourself for a great workout can help. For me that might be a Starbucks coffee or Mr. Bagel everything bagel with peanut butter after my swim.

I’ve had great success over the years swim training by myself. As this has often been my only option, I’ve learned some strategies to help motivate myself to train hard alone. Hopefully I’ve shared a tip or two that will help you if you ever need to train alone.

What strategies do you use to help motivate yourself when you have to train alone?