Started swimming again this year in an effort to get in better shape. Haven't done it since college (I'm 43), and that was just for exercise. Did it as a kid, now my kids also swim. At any rate, I'm just doing laps right now. Usually 6 sets of 500, occasionally only 5 and occasionally 7 or 8. ~5 days a week when life doesn't get in the way (so about 15,000 yards per week). About 25% ***, 25% back, and 50% free. I have occasionally thrown some fly in there, but I just can't do it without it fatiguing me to the point where the remainder of the set is very suboptimal.
At any rate, I am wondering at what point I should start looking to transition to doing workouts, rather than just laps. There is no Masters program that will work for me, so I'd just be following the posted workouts from the forums. Should I just jump right in? Should I start from "week 1," or just hit it right in the middle? Also, should I just be looking mostly at the general workouts, of mixing it up with the IM workouts to get more strokes, or start with general and slowly work my way towards the IM stuff?
Anything y'all need to know to help guide me the right way?
Alright, I'll refrain from sarcasm here. This is a real thing, here. I know I have work to do, and like I said, the lack of any contrast on the wall makes it more challenging. While I assume I'll get better at judging that from the end of teh stripe on the bottom, I seem to have an issue coming off of teh wall. I hurt my shoulder, again, today. Only this time it really hurt. When I pushed off, my left arm shot over across my body and pulled the back of my shoulder. It hurt. Like seriously hurt. I felt it pull. I haven't done flip turns in over 30 years, so I am getting all kinds of stuff all kinds of wrong. I was able to finish what I was doing this morning, but I need to address this.
Until I can work with someone, or get some video, is there anything that jumps out at anyone that I can work on? I don't think I've been coming off of the wall straight (which y'all might have deduced!). Does it sound like I"m trying to twist during the turn, rather than after? Should I just do touch turns until I get back in the pool that has the X on the wall, and then work on it, bringing it back to this pool?
Two things that I KNOW I am doing wrong: 1. I often pick up my head to look for the wall (I'm still a little "afraid" of it, as I jammed a couple of fingers a couple of months ago trying to relearn before I punted on them). I'm turning too early. I'm still well ahead of the wall. Those two might be related. But I'm not sure what I may be doing to have my arm cross over like that, and enough to hurt myself.
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, Elaine. Thanks for teh compliments! I've lucked out pretty much my whole life on teh family thing. And one has to be a parent to fully appreciate the sacrifices one's own parents made, so I'm much more appreciative of Mom as an adult than I was as a kid. I don't know how she managed it all.
I swam for awhile in a pool without the end of pool "targets". I had some tiles that were left from tiling the bathroom that I put in the swim bag and took to the pool. i would put some down at the end of the pool and some down 3 feet out and then I had something to watch for. In terms of the shoulder injury, I it sounds like you are not getting your arms locked in streamlined position before pushing off. Work on making sure your arms are set before the push.
Alright, I'll refrain from sarcasm here. This is a real thing, here. I know I have work to do, and like I said, the lack of any contrast on the wall makes it more challenging. While I assume I'll get better at judging that from the end of teh stripe on the bottom, I seem to have an issue coming off of teh wall. I hurt my shoulder, again, today. Only this time it really hurt. When I pushed off, my left arm shot over across my body and pulled the back of my shoulder. It hurt. Like seriously hurt. I felt it pull. I haven't done flip turns in over 30 years, so I am getting all kinds of stuff all kinds of wrong. I was able to finish what I was doing this morning, but I need to address this.
Until I can work with someone, or get some video, is there anything that jumps out at anyone that I can work on? I don't think I've been coming off of the wall straight (which y'all might have deduced!). Does it sound like I"m trying to twist during the turn, rather than after? Should I just do touch turns until I get back in the pool that has the X on the wall, and then work on it, bringing it back to this pool?
Two things that I KNOW I am doing wrong: 1. I often pick up my head to look for the wall (I'm still a little "afraid" of it, as I jammed a couple of fingers a couple of months ago trying to relearn before I punted on them). I'm turning too early. I'm still well ahead of the wall. Those two might be related. But I'm not sure what I may be doing to have my arm cross over like that, and enough to hurt myself.
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, Elaine. Thanks for teh compliments! I've lucked out pretty much my whole life on teh family thing. And one has to be a parent to fully appreciate the sacrifices one's own parents made, so I'm much more appreciative of Mom as an adult than I was as a kid. I don't know how she managed it all.
I swam for awhile in a pool without the end of pool "targets". I had some tiles that were left from tiling the bathroom that I put in the swim bag and took to the pool. i would put some down at the end of the pool and some down 3 feet out and then I had something to watch for. In terms of the shoulder injury, I it sounds like you are not getting your arms locked in streamlined position before pushing off. Work on making sure your arms are set before the push.
