Training: How Many Laps Can You Do?

[MermaidAiera]

Hello again everyone~

I'm interested in hearing about other mers' training regiments/personal accomplishments, namely how many laps/yards you typically swim when you're training. Also, how much training/ability you had before you decided to get a tail--what made you feel like you were ready?

I want to get an idea of the scope of ability surrounding the typical mer, professional or not!

[fabianfrz]

For me, that depends on the monofin I use and the speed I am moving.
Assuming I am doing "normal" speed, with my Mermaid Kat Hydra I can currently swim around an hour then I leave the pool because I need a break because of temperature (not cramps etc.).
In contrast to that, with my Leaderfins Hyper (hard) Professional I can swim/dive 20 Minutes to an half hour now.

From this experience: The length depends on size and stiffness of your monofin as well as water temperature and physical abillities.

[fabianfrz]

FYI: How many laps is a bad question as there are different lengths of a lap. Common are 25m and 50m. Less common but also exist for example 20m and 40m.

[Mermaid Kane]

I don't know how many laps per se, but last Saturday I swam for four hours before dinner, ate food super quick, and dived back in for another three hours before the pool closed. >_> I was SO tired and SO sore afterward, but it was totally awesome and worth it!

[MermaidAiera]

Thank you for your input! It's always cool to hear about how people train; I don't do 100% monofin training, I stick lap swimming for the most part and throw in sets with equipment/breath holding. As for the lap question, I figured most people would be confused about meters/yards so I just dumbed it down to laps to simplify without really reading into it too much

I think I could benefit from adding more monofin training. Right now I work with the foil and competitor, but not for the entire 2 hours I'm in the pool. While I could add in more monofin work, it's just not smart for me to work only one aspect of my swimming too much, so I'm looking for the perfect balance!

[Lady_Jailyn]

I haven't been in the pool much in the past few weeks since my swim team started back up, but when I do get in the pool I try to do at least 2500m. That's without a monofin though. I try my best to work on all 4 strokes while I'm in the water.

[Echidna]

I train 2-3 times per week, starting with 30 minutes (about 15-20 laps, give or take a few depending on whether I wear fins or not) underwater dolphin and a breath-up time of around a minute in between dives.
Then 30 minutes waterballet techniques, then choreography rehearsal.
All in all usually 2 hours.
I'll do some deep dives too if possible, but most pools here are shallow sadly.

[MermaidCelesteFL]

I don't often do a lot of laps in my tail, but I do a TON of swimming. I do roughly three miles (200+ laps in a 25 yd pool) of freestyle nonstop each time I go to the gym. But, if I'm in a hurry, I'll change up my routine to include flippers and work on my different stroke kicks.

I also have a very active day job, so I spend every day swimming either way.

[Derek Broussard]

I totally read this question wrong! I thought you where asking how many laps underwater can we do!

For training I like to spend 1 hour working on just monofin technique. laps depend on how large the hotel pool is that I'm residing in that month. Here in Bogota, no pool, so no laps :P

[Derek Broussard]

[Mermaid Kane]

:0 it looks amazing! Good job! <3

[Derek Broussard]

Thank you

[TybeeMermaid]

For me, I don't actually do a lot of monofin training mostly because I'm already swimming 24+ hours a week with my college swim team. Since I'm a distance swimmer, I do a lot of distance workouts. I typically swim about 6,000-8,000 meters per practice. Sometimes I swim about 15,000 meters a day when we have morning and afternoon practice!

When I'm practicing, I like to really focus on my breathing and how my body feels. I'm really starting to pay attention to my heart rate and oxygen consumption. I guess my end goal of it all is to focus on keeping control over my body's energy systems. I don't like the feeling of my body going from the aerobic energy system to the anaerobic energy system because that means I'm gonna start feeling the effects of lactic acid building up. I know that it'll eventually become inevitable later in my races but I try to prolong it for as long as I can. It works pretty well for me. Especially in my mid-distance races like the 200 and sometimes the 500. I like to approach my races with a negative split strategy. It works really well since I've trained my body to hold out on transitioning the anaerobic energy system a little while longer than most of the other girls I race. I'm not as sore at the end of my races so I have that extra little push I need to pull away from them at the very end.

I really recommend it because it has transitioned really well for me when it comes to my mermaiding! My body doesn't use its' oxygen supply as fast and I'm able to hang out underwater a little while longer. When I'm in the water, relaxed, and not swimming race or practice pace, I can swim about 75-80 meters with my Mahina monofin on. If I'm racing fast then I can only do about 50 meters.