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What everyone else said is awesome advice. Here's my take on all of it:

A few years back I got into great shape swimming, then got a girlfriend, got out of shape. Broke up, then was in below average shape last April. I have consistently gone 1-3 days a week, also with a few weeks missed interspersed in that time due to life being life. After getting back into better shape and the swing of things, if I missed a week, I'd make my second workout of the next week ultra grueling. Now 9 months later, at 31, I'm easily in the best shape I've ever been in, both in cardio and muscle. My workouts have morphed and grown with me and my boredom of swimming laps as my sole form of exercise. (Working as a bartender, it's demanding, but not enough to be a "workout")

1: Everyone's suggestion on this is great. Don't overdue it so you burn out and hate in 2 weeks in. Make it routine, learn to look forward to walking out of the gym feeling like a champion on the days you really wanted to stay in bed.

I feel anything more than 2 days a week is awesome, maybe every other day. Find what works for you. I aim to make my workouts last anywhere from 45min to 60+.

When I started out using swimming as a workout, I was never formally trained or on a swim team, I just like being in water. I used this website: Swimplan.com It helped me learn new strokes, pool equipment and drills. I sprung for the paid version after a few months and loved it when I started going 7 days a week for a little while. Always something new and challenging. The site really helped me dial in my skills, along with youtube-ing anything I was struggling with. For example, because of using the pull buoy, I have a deeper understanding of how my hips should roll during normal freestyle swimming.

Few things to keep in mind during your workout. In the beginning you can be more lenient on yourself, but start paying attention to how long your rests are lasting. The pool I go to has a giant digital lap clock on the edge of the pool. I use that constantly to make sure I am not resting for too long.

2: The Speedo Vanquisher is the goggle I love to use. For the first month or so they stay fog free for me. After that I use the spit technique by licking my finger and wiping the goggle with it and not rinsing.

When I started getting bored of the laps, I bought The Diver MP3 player. I have owned a few underwater mp3 players, so far I like these the most. The earphone part of the kit are a bit weird, but have outlasted the previous brand. My oppionion, if you get an underwater mp3 player, be prepared to be buying replacement headsets, they don't last forever.

3: I think if you keep a weekly routine of swimming, pushing yourself to higher goals when things start getting easy, swimming is one of the best workouts you can get. Hands down. I feel incredible.

Bonus round. Disclaimer, I am a huge nerd

I have recently gotten very bored with swimming laps, I hit my goals of swimming a mile, then started swimming miles every session. Then I figured out how to do the butterfly, set goals to dial the stroke in and swim a 50 meter without stopping. Hit that goal quickly.

I decided to bring dungeons and dragons creativity to the pool with me. After I push off from the wall I imagine I am swimming out into a beautiful tropical bay, the shallow end is transformed to coral reef, aka, no standing, shit hurts. Any rests are done treading water not to exceed 10-30 seconds (depending what activity I am resting up for) Then I pretend, something along the lines of, I am fixing a boat or recovering heavy cargo from the bottom of the bay.

To do this, I use weight belts meant for your arms or legs, clip two together and make a belt from it. I use 2x5lbs for a 10lbs belt and a 2x10lbs for a 20lbs belt and a 10 lbs dive brick. I throw them in the deep end prior to starting. I also will use 3-10 kids dive sticks, toss them in the deep end along with my flippers. If I want a sip of water, this is done while treading water also. I will also do pull-ups out of the water with and without weight belts on. Usually around 3 sets of ten.

I can share what a workout looks like if anyone is interested, they are fantastically difficult and a lot of fun.

The acceptable house rules may vary from place to place. If you are alone in a lane, enjoy it! But mostly like you may need to share. In some places sharing means each stay to half of the lane, only 2 people per lane. In other places, sharing means going in a circle around the lane, that way 3+ can share. In the later case, hopefully people are near your pace, but more diligence is needed to know when to pull over and let faster people by. (Stop at the walls, not the middle.) Can also ask the lifeguard on duty what the lap rules/practices are.

You can also do a workout with sets in a lap pool. I know it was something that I was concerned about when I got back into swimming a few years ago. I used a book that provided some structure for independent training, Swim Workouts for Triathletes. I found it pushed me to do better distance, but not too much on speed.

My other suggestion for you, join a masters program. They provide the structure you've had in the past. Your speed/pace doesn't matter, there are people of all levels. My masters team has people that do training sets of 100 Free anywhere from 2:30 to 1:00. This has helped me get faster and swim better distances. For reference, when I joined last year, my 100 yard training pace was 1:45, now sitting around 1:30. I also tried out open water swimming and absolutely love it. I swam a 1 mile and 2 mile "race" last summer. Super fun! The other fun part of a masters team, it is pretty social. I've met some awesome folks of all ages since joining.

I previously used the Water Fi iPod Shuffle. The player was great, but as with most waterproof earbuds, the sound was pretty poor.

Ultimately, I had the best luck with these headphones, they're a good seal, the wrap around design meant each side kept the other in and the short cord was clearly designed for clipping a player on your goggles.

That said, every traditional ear bud I used would eventually let some water in, at which point everything fell apart.

I had played with bone conduction headphones before. The old ones I'd tried had great sound, but were incredibly underpowered and hard to hear (especially for the price). When my shuffle finally died (which took way longer than I expected considering it was exclusively a workout unit and took a ton of abuse), I decided to check out the Finis Neptune.

The interface for loading songs is a little fiddly and after a reboot it can take a couple of clips to get back to playing music, but in the pool the buttons are really intuitive, the sound is really clean for waterproof phones and everything stays in place during longs swims (not, I have relatively thick hair and don't use a cap).

That all said, I have yet to find in water headphones that you don't lose high ranges in when swimming, so I tend to listen to bass heavier stuff and avoid spoken word more often than not (but that's my mileage).

tl;dr: I'd recommend a waterproofed ipod shuffle with aftermarket wraparound headphones if you want a device you can use on land. I've find the Finis Neptune is great if you want a dedicated pool device

honestly, i am not breaststroker, but my other brother was and my coach (who went to OT) was. they say that a big thing to drop time is breaking down the stroke. they did a lot of breaststroke drills in practice including: breaststroke arms with a flutter kick and breaststroke arms with fly kick.

a big thing in all strokes are tempo trainers. you can have the most perfect technique but if the speed isnt there than the time will suffer. ill attach a link to a tempo trainer if you want one (amazon has the best prices).

i also think having a good coach who knows what he is talking about is a good way to improve; i have always benefited from being videotaped as well, so i can see exactly where i nee improvement. hope this helps:) best of luck!!

https://www.amazon.com/FINIS-1-05-120-Tempo-Trainer-Pro/dp/B005TVYVI2/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1538069462&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=tempo+trainers&psc=1

Personally, I have had more success focusing on what the arms should be doing rather than focusing on what the elbow shouldn't be doing. You want to "reach over the barrel" and put your forearm and hand in a position where they can act as a paddle, pulling straight back. When your elbow drops, you are pushing down on the water as much as pulling back.

Different visualizations,cues, and drills click for different people. By far my favorite resource on developing a strong pull (which centers around a high elbow catch) is this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1369332046&sr=8-3&keywords=sheila+taormina

I would recommend looking up "high elbow catch" on youtube. There are many excellent instructional videos out there. I'd also recommend looking at videos of elite swimmers, like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvM3JYC--hM

Or any of the swimmers here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G52cmjq7wsc

You are right that limited flexibility can hinder the correct pulling position. You will get more flexible just by swimming, but you can also do stretches out of the pool to improve flexibility quicker. The book I linked to mentions some of these stretches. This is also a good protocol:

http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1939&mid=9757&ItemId=5179

Ooh, my time to shine! Swimming hair care expert here- swim 6x a week for ~90 minutes a session in chlorinated pools and still maintain shiny gorgeous locks. Do the following and you'll be good:

• wet hair before you put cap on. Completely soak it to saturate the hair follicle.
  
• after swimming rinse well, apply conditioner when you shower and rinse out, then lightly apply and leave in this stuff - to entire length of hair, concentrating a bit more at the ends
  
  
• on weekends or when you have time, apply castor oil to roots and jojoba oil to middle and ends, leave on for 30 minutes and rinse out. Personally I like to put this on and let it soak while I hit up the eucalyptus steam room, cold plunge ice bath pool and then the dry cedar sauna. Pro Tip: grab a plastic bag if your pool provides them for you to store wet swimsuits in, and wrap that around the top of your head after putting on oil while you hit the sauna/steam- boom, instant hot oil treatment! :)
  
• air dry as often as possible, blowdry as infrequently as possible
  
• detangle GENTLY using mainly your fingers and not brushing tangles out harshly with brush to decrease breakage
  
• when you tie hair back do so loosely, not tight
  
• wait a few days between shampoos, use dry shampoo to soak up oil if necessary
  
• get your thyroid checked and have PCP run regular lab work to make sure nothing else is underlying cause

If you want to build up some arm/should muscle quickly in the pool, spend $10 on a nice set of paddles, I like these and do some pulling sets. If you're working out at any kind of a decent facility, odds are good they have pull buoys for public use, but it is still worth getting your own. Put the pull buoy between your thighs, just above your kness and (protip) cross your legs loosely at the ankle. Now do this set (I call it a 1/1-5/5): Swim one 25 easy and one 25 fast, then two 25s easy and two 25s fast... all the way up to 5/5. That's a 750 meter set and you WILL feel it and it will feel amazing and get you jacked quick.

Note: I see your are swimming in a 50 meter pool, so adjust the set for that or else you will end up with a 1500 meter pull set (which is totally fine, but will likely be your entire workout). Also, my definition of jacked may not be your own- I've been a swimmer forever and a day but I'm a girl, so our definitions of big shoulders probably differ. Also, I wrote this like you are a less-than-competitive level swimmer, apologies if you aren't.

A binder of workouts would be good. His own gear would be a great gift: they sell pull buoys, fins, [kickboards] (http://swimming.epicsports.com/prod/32101/the-finals-kickboard-swim-training-aids.html), and a mesh bag to put it all in.

Swim lessons aren't a BAD idea, but sometimes swim instructors aren't very good. What your husband probably needs is an actual coach. I know there are some sites (can't find them right now) that you can send in an underwater video of his swimming stroke to be analyzed by a professional (but that might be annoying?). This site has lots of swimming technique videos. I have some of these videos and they are actually pretty good.

I hope that helps!

I have really long hair and have tried different caps. I did an Amazon review with pictures for the Aegend long hair cap comparing it to the TYR long hair, Friendly Swede and Lahtek. I’ve never tried regular size caps, but if you just have a big head but not a lot of hair I’d say the Friendly Swede might be the best (of the ones i have tried) because it doesn’t have the bump out. I don’t know if it will help but you can find the images in the reviews here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TNNVKLF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_mKcxDbSX788ZN

(sorry I don’t know how to link to an individual review and hope this is allowed)

I don't know how broke you are, but I just bought these a couple of weeks ago and they've been amazing. They work perfectly. And pretty cheap IMO. I recommend them.

You'll want a dedicated waterproof mp3 player because the Bluetooth in your phone only has a range of about 10m. If you still want your phone poolside, just get one of these.

I don't know what your budget is, but I've used these and they're pretty great. Snug fit, doesn't come off from water resistance, and audio quality is good.

We must evaluate the automatic swimming watch and lap counter more objectively. The automatic swimming watch, such as SWIMMO, is good. And the lap counter is also good enough. Depends on your swimming level and your choice.

Automatic swimming watches, which detect your turning and stroke with embedded sensor/ accelerometer, work perfectly for some normal-to-advanced swimmer. If your turning skill or stroke skill wasn't good enough, or swimming in a crowded pool, the sensor will always can't detect your action efficiently, and will record mistake.

But as to lap counter, such as COUNTU Goal, it is manual operating. You know, lap counter fit for any level swimmer, pretty easy to use. Like COUNTU, it can alarm you according to preset lap or time. I thought lap counter is enough for the majority.

I wear a Casio W800H-1AV all the time when I guard and teach. It has a stopwatch which I've used to time myself doing lap swims. I`ve swam tons of lengths, dove down 5m, and spent hours in the water with it without any problem.

It's $12.19 right now on amazon

It's 100m Water Resistant, the only thing to note is that the watch face can get scratched pretty easy. But it's really easy to use and it's cheap.

Absolutely love it and highly recommend it. Sometimes I don't know what I'd do without it.

I use COUNTU Goal as my daily swimming tracker. It’s finger ring device and fairly easy to use. COUNTU Goal has a very useful function, lap/time vibrate alarm function.

COUNTU Goal can record the following swimming matrix: Total time, Total laps, Average time for each lap, Fastest lap time, slowest lap time, Individual lap time for every lap…

As for automatic tracker, they always lost track because of swimmer's technique level or pool environment. So I recommend COUNTU Goal more.

Hope useful. Good luck.

Okay! My first swim trip with my new 8Gb SYRYN MP3 player and Swimbuds earphones. It went really well. I had my music loaded up, set to shuffle, and clipped the mp3 player to the back of my goggles. I pressed "play" (easy to do even with the player behind my head) and the first song that came up was the Boccherini section from the end of the movie "Master and Commander" (I'm a big O'Brian fan). Not quite in keeping with the rest of my workout music (more hard rock), but I have a few odd songs on there, and this suited me perfectly. I dove in to the first few strummed bars and took a long deep swim under the glassy surface of the water as the cello started.

Overall, having music with me really helped the time go by, and I did swim further -- i did my first 500 today. That's still kind of big for me.

I had to reseat one of the earbuds once, and I think I will try a spot of petroleum jelly on them as the directions suggest, but overall it was terrific. Honestly, having music with me while I swam on top of or beneath the water was really kind of magical.

I occasionally use this mp3 player. It works pretty well, and I like the earphones that come with it. They sort of double as ear plugs. They're the kind of 'athletic' earphones that have a bit that curves around the back of your ear. Dunno how effective this is at holding them in place----I always wear them under my swim cap, which does a pretty good job of keeping everything where it is.

I'm a couple months in practicing on my own. I had lessons as a kid, but hadn't really swum more than a few meters (other than lounging around) in twenty years.

I've gone from around 90 seconds to go 50m to about 55s, swimming twice a week for half an hour. I feel like I'm making slow but steady progress, but I also am reading quite a bit from the library. The drill structure in Total Immersion sounds goofy, but is very rewarding so far. It does assume some swimming experience. And Swimming Fastest is huge but very detailed on proper form.

I never really felt like Youtube videos could explain what and why things were happening. I need really, really slow-motion that I can watch for multiple swimmers to see what they do differently, and the same. That doesn't seem to exist at high rez.

My team used these and they were great. Surprisingly comfortable and easy to adjust and clean. Wore this for many many laps, probably should get a new one now that you mention it.

I recommend COUNTU Goal, even though it can't match your requirement.

COUNTU Goal can record the following swimming matrix: Total time, Total laps, Average time for each lap, Fastest lap time, slowest lap time, Individual lap time for every lap… More important function is its vibrate alarm function according to your preset lap or time.

It's very easy to use, and very tiny device like a finger ring. More important, only $38.

Hope helpful.

This book is great for technique and has some good swim workouts. 60 feet is a bit short but fine to get started. You're actually better off not pushing off the wall as far and really trying to get some good long strokes in. http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1377476163&sr=8-5&keywords=swim+training

spartanKid at least is too young to remember the Man From Atlantis TV program.... :-)

Ernie Maglischo's Swimming Fastest is the definitive swimming book and based the measurements/studies you've talked about. People such as Doc Counsilman spent their career on the fluid mechanics measurements of swimming. It's only recently (last 10/15 years) for example that the actual propulsive forces have been properly identified.

It is actually a great book, particularly enjoyable to those of us with a geekish aspect, I think you'd enjoy it. Long chapters on drag forces, propulsive forces, biological energy systems, metabolic training effects along with the specific strokes, distance & sprint training etc.

Here's what I do

• Buy a cheap waterproof digital watch.
  
• Put the watch into "set time" or "set alarm" mode.
  
• Toggle to the "set minutes" and initialize it to "00"
  
• Every LENGTH advance the "set minutes" by one.
  
  Provided your watch is like most watches, it will allow you to linger in the set alarm mode for 60 seconds before timing out. Also, the advance-minute-button is easy to memorize and easy to reach as you push off the wall on your turns. Since you advance every length, and your lengths are faster than 60 seconds, you never timeout, and your count is preserved.
  
  As long as you can do a LENGTH in 60 seconds, your golden. There is an added benefit of a parity-bit. You should always be able to tell based on which side of the pool you are on whether the count should be odd or even. This means you can know if you forgot a length by simply verifying the odd/even. Obviously it rolls every 60 lengths, but it should be obvious what "60" you are on based upon the hour hand.
  
  To try it out, grab a cheap watch and try it at your dinning room table. You will know pretty quick if it will work or not. If not, take it back for another.
  
  I'm using something from Target called Armitron, fwiw.

Might be jumping into this discussion too late - but, I'm a 35 year old returning to swimming after a ~15 year hiatus. I've been running in the meantime, and have followed an '80/20' plan for running, meaning 80% of my running is at low intensity and 20% is at high intensity. This seems to be a pretty popular breakdown in the running community. I believe mainly influence by this book: https://www.amazon.com/80-20-Running-Stronger-Training-ebook/dp/B00IIVFAEY

I've been structuring my swims similarly. Is there any I should avoid this breakdown and do more high intensity swims? For both running and swimming I'm focused on distance as I figure my endurance will taper off less as I age than strength and sprinting.

I use the plain old bodywash provided by the gym in their showers, but the key is to really hydrate with lotion after you get out of the shower and dry off.

I use this stuff all over my body, this stuff on my knees, elbows and bottoms of my feet and this stuff on my hair. Seems to do the trick- skin stays nice and soft and I no longer get comments saying, "you smell like a pool." Oh, also shower BEFORE the pool so you're wet when you get in, helps protect your hair from absorbing the chlorine.

I've used a rash guard in the past, just a cheap one from Amazon. They make them in long-sleeve style if you'd like to have your arms covered. Size up if you want it looser, though if it's too loose it will flap around when you swim and that can be distracting.

https://www.amazon.com/Kanu-Surf-Womens-Breeze-Rashguard/dp/B00ABBTVLC

I also found knee-length women's swim shorts with a built-in panty that worked really good, as I was very self-conscious about my thighs.

I'm of the opinion that you should wear whatever you're comfortable in. If you want to be covered up, cool! If you want to wear something with less coverage, great! You should be doing this for you, so pbbt if anybody else has something to say about it.

While you learn the strokes, try swimming with a front-mounted snorkel, e.g.: http://www.amazon.com/FINIS-1-05-009-Yellow-Finis-Swimmers-Snorkel/dp/B004O6G95Q

This article seems pretty decent on explaining the benefits: http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2010/09/10/time-start-training-snorkel/

You can also try doing drills to practice breathing to the side. One trick I use when teaching swim lessons is to get a "noodle" or kickboard and hold it out in front of you with your arms completely extended.

While leaving one arm holding onto the noodle or kick board, take the other arm and do a freestyle stroke and then breathe to the side. Once your arm is back on the kickboard then your face should be back in the water.

Example image

Lastly, don't give up! Good luck :)

For your purpose, swimming lap counter is recommended.

I use COUNTU Goal as my daily swimming tracker. COUNTU Goal can record Total time, Total laps, Average time for each lap, Fastest lap time, slowest lap time, Individual lap time for every lap…. Plus it has a very useful function, lap/time vibrate alarm function.

As for me, this small finger ring tracker is very useful. Hope helpful.

My workout is only swimming. I had Garmin device previously. Honestly, they are good, but a little expensive. And mostly, I only want to record my lap number and time. So currently, I always use COUNTU Goal as my daily swimming device.

COUNTU Goal is finger ring device, pretty small. It can record Total time, Total laps, Average time for each lap, Fastest lap time, slowest lap time, Individual lap time for every lap and a very useful function, lap/time vibrate alarm function.

I thought it's enough for my swimming workout.

I'm one of the co-founders of Underwater Audio. We recently released a product called Fitgoo which is designed to help create a more watertight fit with earbud headphones while you swim. Some of our customers have told us it works great for earplugs as well. Fitgoo won't fix the issue of earplugs wearing out, but it may help them work for you longer.

https://www.amazon.com/FitGoo-earbud-insertion-helper-2-pack/dp/B0743NWGMJ/

Edit: grammar

This book

Though designed for triathletes, it actually has a wide variety of workouts. I found it great at offering a structure and variety. I did about every workout in the book before I joined a masters team.

Best part about the book, it can get wet! So can bring it poolside.

I use this product: https://www.amazon.com/AquaGuard-Pre-Swim-Hair-Defense-pack/dp/B01BMYYHAG/ref=sr_1_1_sspa

It works really well. It says you can use in either wet or dry hair but I recommend not trying to put it in dry hair, you use so much more of it that way. Get your hair wet first, then Aquaguard, then cap :)

https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Workouts-Triathletes-Practical-Endurance/dp/1934030759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523529405&sr=8-1&keywords=swim+for+triathlete


I really liked this book before I joined a Masters program. Good structure and nice planning.

Currently, I use COUNTU Goal to record my swimming workout. COUNTU Goal is an durable and easy to use sports timer and lap counter, it can record Total time, Total laps, Average time for each lap, Fastest lap time, slowest lap time, Individual lap time for every lap… More important function is its vibrate alarm function according to your preset lap or time. But it’s not an automatic device through inertial sensor, and you need to press button to record laps when turning.

Actually, I used automatic swimming watch to record my workout, such as Garmin and Fitbit. But I found they make mistake occasionally, if your turning action is not so good, or some person push in the pool. So I thought maybe manual device is suit for me better.

Hope my experience is helpful for you.

A phone in a water proof case is exactly what I do. I have a clear waterproof pouch that I put my phone in and a makeshift mount made of a large binder clip with large bolts zip tied to the arms. You can adjust the angle of the shot by moving the arms. The bolts weigh the phone down and act as feet so your phone stays upright.

I find that the front facing camera works best because it's a wider angle and you can see your shot as you adjust your phone on the bottom of the pool.

I just finished reading Swim Speed Secrets, which talks a lot about the pull phase of swimming as being the part where most of your speed is coming from. I have been doing tris for a couple years now and wanted to start to focus in on my swimming technique more. I liked the book for this and I am already seeing some improvement.

I know some people don't like this book because it leaves out some of the other parts of the stroke, but I think as long as you are aware of that it is a good read.

http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Swimmers-Triathletes/dp/1934030880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463164698&sr=8-1&keywords=swim+speed+secrets

Must be COUNTU Goal.

I use COUNTU Goal as my daily swimming tracker. It’s finger ring device and fairly easy to use. COUNTU Goal has a very useful function, lap/time vibrate alarm function. Would recommend.

I've had this mp3 player for the past two years - pretty good sound quality while swimming. It also comes with different ear tips so you can switch up between land/water use.

http://www.amazon.com/JLAB-Waterproof-Sweatproof-Sports-Headphones/dp/B007VQPNGC/

Thanks for the info, I'm going to keep an eye on the 920xt as prep for next tri season.

I meant tempo, not pace. I guess vibration for tempo would nuke the battery. I was thinking of one of these: http://www.amazon.com/FINIS-1-05-120-Tempo-Trainer-Pro/dp/B005TVYVI2

Thanks again!

Hi /u/murphalicious55, I'm not sure if I am in any position to give advice, since I've been swimming for a small period of time.

These are the things that I did:

1.- Swim more. I go to the pool 4 times a week, and I average around 2500yd per session.

2.- No lollygagging in the pool. I use to swim with a team of Triathletes, but I found that I tend to socialize more when other people are around, and I would take very long breaks at the wall. When I'm alone, I just keep on doing my own thing.

3.- I bought a book. I bought this book and it's companion workout book. Really good information.

4.- I have a friend that has been a swimmer since he was a kid, he is a very competitive Age Grouper in Ironman 70.3 races, he's usually 1st or 2nd out of the water. About 2 times a month he comes to the pool with me and shows me some drills, and also takes a look at my stroke and tries to correct it.

I'm planning a 3 month swimming block that will begin in October, and I will concentrate on the swim and see if I can reach my goal of swimming 25min for the 1500m swim in an Olympic Tri. That's a 1:31/100yd pace (1:40/100m).

Look into a masters program/team. They take people of all levels, so don't be fooled by the masters name.

If you don't want to join a masters team or there isn't a swim team nearby, look into books or online workouts that cater to multiple weeks and variation. Before I joined a masters team, I was using Swim Workouts for Triathletes. I know you mentioned, you won't or can't do triathlons, but this book provides nice structured swim workouts.

I have heard that this ipod with these works well, I haven't purchased them myself though!

Grab your self a book..

http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Workouts-Triathletes-Practical-Endurance/dp/1934030759/186-7165363-8813231?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

( This particular one is all free-style.. but you should get the point )

I just have this for timing laps. https://www.amazon.com/Casio-W800H-1AV-Classic-Sport-Watch/dp/B001AWZDA4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1468958264&sr=8-2&keywords=casio+watch

I think the only reason I'd consider anything more expensive is if it tracked HR.