How do you know you're getting a "good workout" in when doing HIIT swimming?

I’m lucky enough to have a pool, in which I’ve swam every day of the last 5 days.

My overall fitness goal is to put on a fair amount of lean muscle. Normally, it’s hard for me to gain weight, but I started seeing some more in the love handles so I decided it was time to add some cardio.

Enter swimming. I don’t have a lap pool but I’ve been doing intervals of 50-75m of freestyle as hard as I can go and then about 15-20m of breaststroke at about 60-70 percent. I’m up to 10 of these intervals. The main point I seem to be snagged on is the rest period, which I attribute to just being generally out of shape in terms of HIIT fitness. I need to rest for a good 70 to 80 seconds before I keep going.

It feels like I’m getting a good workout. My heart feels like it’s pounding out of my chest, the last couple strokes feel like I’m going to die, and I am VERY hungry afterwards. It also generally feels like I’ve done a hard workout.

That said, I know the wiki says people just starting out can feel as though they’re exerting themselves more than they actually are. Is there a way you guys know that you’re getting a good HIIT workout in?

submitted by /u/Coldbrewaccount
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