Hi,
I'm an 18 year old looking to compete on a local club team. I have never swam or played any sports before, and I have been training since mid-August. At first, I could barely swim 25 m and now I'm doing 50s. I have a personal trainer who's working with me, and the coach has watched me before. He told me that I need to work on endurance, because I can't repeatedly do 50s or even 100s with short rest. How long do you all think it would take if I trained extremely hard to do this? What do I need to do to make this happen? Thanks for the help
I would listen to the trainer you are paying.
Do you do any cardio training? Do you run or bike?
It will take time to build up to more endurance.
Are you swimming on the team now?
Do you go to the gym to work on building muscles?
I'm not running or biking or doing anything like that, and I was planning to start lifting weights for swimming. And I'm not on the team yet, the coach told me to work on things and that in a month or two he will reevaluate my abilities and decide what to do. I only see my trainer twice a week for 30 mins so I can't really ask too much because my time is limited, I just want to know what more I can do and how to do it in the least amount of time possible. I'm more than willing to work as hard as is possible to do this
JAA,
Like Orca said...as such a newcomer to any kind of activity requiring some degree of endurance...you need to work on/increase your endurance. For new want-to-be runners there is a program called the Couch to 5k program (C25K). It's a simple training program that gradually gets non-runners (couch potatoes) to running a non-stop 5k (3.1 miles) over a nine week period. As a 40+ year running I never used it. BUT, it gets rave reviews by those who do complete it. But that's for runners. For swimmers, I came across a similar program. Again, I've been swimming for more than 40 years and never tried it. But look at it an give it a try -- ruthkazez.com/.../ZeroTo1mile.html
The bottom line is that it just takes time and dedication to achieve endurance in any activity. When trying to do too much too soon (TMTS) you're inviting injury. Good luck and keep us apprised of your training.
Edited to add that...after looking more closely at this plan, and your own current abilities...I think that you may need to adjust it a bit to fit your needs -- it calls for swimming repeat 100s at the very beginning, but you're still working up to that. Nevertheless...it looks like a good plan to get you where you want to be for inclusion on the team.
Dan
Thanks for the advice! My trainer currently works with me on my stroke, and helping me with a plan to get better in swimming. I have to lift on my own but she made me a lifting plan I just have to do it
It's going to take lots of swimming to become a swimmer, and you can do it. Anything like weight training is going to take away from time and energy you could be using in the pool and is of little, if any, benefit to reaching your immediate goal of swimming 50 and 100 repeats. You'll create an entirely new set of swimming muscles in the water and, as you've probably found, be really sore! That's OK and good; means you're making progress. Lot's of ways to approach it. Maybe work your way up to a continuous 400. Pace doesn't matter, just get through it without stopping. Makes those 50s and 100s seem a lot shorter and will build strength and endurance. Good luck - you can do this!
