Hi Fellow Master's Swimmers!
I'm a fairly new swimmer and started to regularly swim since the March of this year. I've been slowly working on improving my freestyle technique and my endurance. I have to say that I have seen slow improvements in my technique. focusing mainly on my balance -- keeping my head down and engaging my core to keep me balanced. I'm working on my breathing but I still have some breathlessness after swimming 25 yards. At the beginning of my swimming adventure, I was sucking air after completing a length. Today, I am winded, but not as much. Nonetheless, I still have some breathlessness. My endurance has improved as I was able to swim 200 yards total, but now swim to 600-700 yards. And my rest intervals after each length have shortened to seconds. So, I am happy about the improvements. However, I am having this mental/psychological block of continually swim with no rest. I know I can do it and I have the endurance, but I just have this barrier or maybe a fear of continually swim. What am I afraid of? And I'm not sure how to break through this mental barrier. Any suggestions?
I am currently swimming 2-3 times a week. Each session is about a hour and about 600-700 yards. Most of my workout is drills on improving my balance mixed with drills to improve my pull/catch, rotations. And kicking drills too. I did take a few private lessons and was fortunate to find a great Master's team that was able to practice with and the coach has been great with giving me guidance on my technical improvement.
Anyway, I've enjoyed my swimming adventure. I actually like working out and look forward to my swimming workouts!
Cheers!
Thanks Airborne18th. I will be more conscious about my breathing, engaging my diaphragm. Aah...good idea. I track my running progress by time instead of distance, why not my swimming progress? I'll take that in my next swimming session. Cheers!
The short answer about time vs distance is that workouts are fundamentally about the amount of time and intensity. You need to build your endurance base, and swimming continuously is more important than pace or distance at this point. It is about doing work at an aerobic steady state, and every week increasing the amount of work.. building aerobic capacity..
And working on your core muscles is never a waste of time.. breathing and your swimming form are both relying on you to work your core.. Your breathing when stressed from working out requires different muscles than when you are just sitting around or walking around.. ( it is why people get side stitches when they workout.. weak breathing muscles ).
Thanks Airborne18th. I will be more conscious about my breathing, engaging my diaphragm. Aah...good idea. I track my running progress by time instead of distance, why not my swimming progress? I'll take that in my next swimming session. Cheers!
The short answer about time vs distance is that workouts are fundamentally about the amount of time and intensity. You need to build your endurance base, and swimming continuously is more important than pace or distance at this point. It is about doing work at an aerobic steady state, and every week increasing the amount of work.. building aerobic capacity..
And working on your core muscles is never a waste of time.. breathing and your swimming form are both relying on you to work your core.. Your breathing when stressed from working out requires different muscles than when you are just sitting around or walking around.. ( it is why people get side stitches when they workout.. weak breathing muscles ).
