Swimming laps in pool- what should I get?

[Poconnor]

After too much money I got the pool up and looking good. The wife and grand kids are happy. I have started swimming laps for exercise. It doesn’t seem to aggravate most of my old injuries. Suggestions for an underwater speaker for music? Or should I look for a waterproof iPod? Snorkel? Anything else? I need the music to get me through the boredom. I’m not at the point of just enjoying the zone yet

[RJ]

Ref Snorkle: Skip the crap at Target and Costco. It's cheap trash.

Find a local SCUBA store, and talk to the counter guy about what they recommend for students. They often have "packages" for sale.

Warning: It will not be cheap. But it will last quite a long while, and (if you ever take up diving) you can use it then.

PS Do me a favor and wear your snorkle on the left side of your mask. You will not look like a noob. :) (SCUBA regulator hoses always come from the right side).

[blues]

Ref Snorkle: Skip the crap at Target and Costco. It's cheap trash.

Find a local SCUBA store, and talk to the counter guy about what they recommend for students. They often have "packages" for sale.

Warning: It will not be cheap. But it will last quite a long while, and (if you ever take up diving) you can use it then.

PS Do me a favor and wear your snorkle on the left side of your mask. You will not look like a noob. :) (SCUBA regulator hoses always come from the right side).

Yeah, and wear a BC so you don't sink when you get tired...Rich, Rich, Rich...;)

[trailrunner]

I used to swim with a masters' swim team.

In terms of equipment, you really don't need much. We would do sets with kick boards, fins, pull boys, and snorkels. The swimming snorkel is not your typical skin diving snorkel, but instead sits in front of your face to teach you to keep your head down (good form) and to swim symmetrically. I think I used this one:

https://www.kiefer.com/finis-swimmer-s-snorkel

One coach I had didn't let us use a kick board for kick sets. He thought it promoted poor form because it teaches you to keep your head up and your feet and legs low. He also didn't like us using pull buoys since it artificially gave us good form. Other coaches didn't care. TBH, you don't really need any equipment other than goggles.

I never used headphones while I swam. I used to run and ride long distances and learned how to entertain myself, even while staring at the bottom of the pool. One of the ladies I swam with had a some sort of waterproof headphone and mp3 player, but I don't know what it was.

Almost all the swim training I did was based on sets. Swimming for an hour can get boring, and sets can break it up, and you can work on specific things, such as sprints or distance. When I swam with the team, the benefit that the coach provided was a structured workout. One day might be sprints, one day might be distance, one day might be stroke work. After a while I learned how to make my own workouts and I would fill in as coach sometimes, and when I traveled and swam on my own, I'd make up a workout. For a while I was getting a weekly email with swim sets. A typical set might look like:

600 warm up
3x3x100 descend within each set (swim 3 100s, each one a little (not a lot, maybe 5 seconds) faster, then repeat 3 times)
4x100 drills (e.g. catch-up, swim L side down, R side back)
3x200 on a certain time, e.g., 3:30 or 4:00 (using a pace clock, swim a 200, leaving every 3 minutes, 30 seconds)
200 cool down
----
2700 total

This might sound complicated, but it's really not. Learn how to use a pace clock or the large electronic clock that is often mounted on a wall.