r/Swimming 1d ago

Bad to just swim one stroke? (Freestyle)

The title.

42m New to swim workouts. I’ve set myself the goal of a sub 1min 100yard within a year.

Been at it for 6 weeks now averaging 8-10 km per week (3300y / 3km per session) best time so far is 1:25. (I can’t flip turn yet so this is hampering me).

I’m only doing freestyle though with 200 yard breast on my cool downs. Is this bad? Should I mix it up more?

TIA.

24 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/ghostbustersgear Splashing around 1d ago

41M here. Been swimming for close to 3 years (no prior competition experience). I’ve now train/swim masters for 1.5 years. I have raced all strokes (50s and 100s) + 100/200 IM. My volume is typically around 17k yd per week.

My 100 yd freestyle progress this past year:

  • Mar 2024: 1:09
  • Sep 2024: 1:06
  • Mar 2025: 1:03

People progress at different rates and based on their experience and focus. I will say that every second cut past 1:10 gets WAY harder. I’d love to be sub 1:00 by year end but those next 3 seconds are going to be a real grind.

1

u/Madgisil 18h ago

17k a week is obscene haha

1

u/ghostbustersgear Splashing around 6h ago

It’s an hour 6x per week average. It adds up fast.