Hey guys! I'm a skinny, unathletic 28yo that just started swimming. I swam on my own for a couple months and just joined a masters team (w/ coach) a couple weeks ago. I'm mainly doing this for fitness right now, but I would like to try and improve as much as I can. I'm very slow - around 2mins/100m in my attempts at "fast" sets :eek:. Doing anything more than 2:20/100 for any length of time feels like I'm killing myself.
I guess I'm wondering what reasonable goals would be in 1 month, 3 month, 1 year for an average person in my position. Is it reasonable to expect that I can achieve halfway reasonable times? I worry that I might be one of those people that just has a really low aerobic ceiling or something.
Also, how often should I be practicing? I've been swimming 3 times a week (an hour a practice right now, around 2000m). Should I increase this soon or wait? If so, how soon?
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Thanks so much for all the responses! As for the technique, my coach has identified several things to work on - most often head position, and breathing technique. She has also said that I dont have much of a kick, which makes sense, as I feel like I hold back some on kicking in order to keep from being worn out. We havent talked much about the specifics of kicking, though she has had me do kick drills, some with fins (which happen to turn my legs into jelly after a few laps).
I hadnt even thought of weight training, but I guess it would make a lot of sense given my lack of body muscle. Ive been trying to put on weight, but with no real plan of how to do it.
I know there is supposed to be video as a part of our program, Ill have to look into that more.
I guess the main reason I was wondering about the times was because of how suprised I was at how slow I actually was compared to times I see on here. It's hard to imagine that technique improvements could shave so MUCH time given how much effort I had to put in for that lousy 2 min 100 but given what everyone said here I guess it must be true. Ande asked WHAT I wanted to improve in. I guess Im not sure yet - I havent swam enough to really knkw what my strengths and weaknesses are.
Ill ask the coach about increasing workouts per week; we certainly have lots of times to choose from.
Thanks so much for all the responses! As for the technique, my coach has identified several things to work on - most often head position, and breathing technique. She has also said that I dont have much of a kick, which makes sense, as I feel like I hold back some on kicking in order to keep from being worn out. We havent talked much about the specifics of kicking, though she has had me do kick drills, some with fins (which happen to turn my legs into jelly after a few laps).
I hadnt even thought of weight training, but I guess it would make a lot of sense given my lack of body muscle. Ive been trying to put on weight, but with no real plan of how to do it.
I know there is supposed to be video as a part of our program, Ill have to look into that more.
I guess the main reason I was wondering about the times was because of how suprised I was at how slow I actually was compared to times I see on here. It's hard to imagine that technique improvements could shave so MUCH time given how much effort I had to put in for that lousy 2 min 100 but given what everyone said here I guess it must be true. Ande asked WHAT I wanted to improve in. I guess Im not sure yet - I havent swam enough to really knkw what my strengths and weaknesses are.
Ill ask the coach about increasing workouts per week; we certainly have lots of times to choose from.
