Hi everyone...
Tonight is my very first masters swim practice and I'm really quite nervous.
While I've been a competitive swimmer since the age of 5, swam on a US team, competed in both long course and short course US Nationals, and then went and swam in college.....I'm a nervous wreck about tonight's practice. Although I have more than enough swimming experience, I'm terrified that I won't fit in with the master's team.
I've been "out of the water" for 6 years now and I'm very out of shape and I've gained a considerable amount of weight. I can't believe that I've allowed myself to get like this, but it obviously didn't happen over night. So I've been doing cardio and weights at the gym to get myself back in shape but it doesn't seem to be working very well. I realized how much I miss swimming and that I'd like to get back into the sport and thats how I got interested in masters swimming. I'm excited to swim for me...not for the coaches, not for my parents. I'm looking forward to ENJOYING swimming, rather than dreading practices and having kick boards thrown at me if I have to stop during a set. I'm excited to meet people and have fun.....but I'm still so nervous to step foot onto the pool deck.
I guess I'm mostly embarassed. I know its silly to be like this, but I'm afraid everyone will be in good shape and I'll get run over during the practices. I'm wondering if maybe I should put off swimming for a little while until I can lose some more weight.
Can anyone please shed some light on their first masters practice and what you might have been feeling?
I really appreciate any help or advice that you can give me. Thank you!
Parents
Former Member
You didn't get out of shape overnight so give yourself some time to get back. You'll be adding stress to your body with your swim workouts so don't add too much more stress to it by adding extra dryland workouts and not getting enough calories to fuel you too.
Working on your own in the lap lane will help you stay within your limits so you don't overextend to where you have to take some days off for muscle soreness or picking up some colds. If the group wasn't tapering, I would suggest modeling your swims after what the group is doing. I wouldn't suggest race pace or lactate tolerance sets just yet. Long slow swims; some work in all 4 strokes; some kicking and pulling; some stroke drills. Flipturns and kicking dolphin on your back to get your abs conditioned. Some butterfly sprints to build strength.
What works for me is to try to get more fruits and vegetables and cut down on fatty or sugary foods and (alas!) alcohol. Food is fuel. Calories matter.
The other Masters swimmers probably don't know what your old times were and don't care. I remember starting up very out-of-shape and being really embarrassed when the coach looked me over head-to-toe and rolled his eyes, but he really enjoyed helping me drop my times and get back into it. It was a great experience.
Good luck!
You didn't get out of shape overnight so give yourself some time to get back. You'll be adding stress to your body with your swim workouts so don't add too much more stress to it by adding extra dryland workouts and not getting enough calories to fuel you too.
Working on your own in the lap lane will help you stay within your limits so you don't overextend to where you have to take some days off for muscle soreness or picking up some colds. If the group wasn't tapering, I would suggest modeling your swims after what the group is doing. I wouldn't suggest race pace or lactate tolerance sets just yet. Long slow swims; some work in all 4 strokes; some kicking and pulling; some stroke drills. Flipturns and kicking dolphin on your back to get your abs conditioned. Some butterfly sprints to build strength.
What works for me is to try to get more fruits and vegetables and cut down on fatty or sugary foods and (alas!) alcohol. Food is fuel. Calories matter.
The other Masters swimmers probably don't know what your old times were and don't care. I remember starting up very out-of-shape and being really embarrassed when the coach looked me over head-to-toe and rolled his eyes, but he really enjoyed helping me drop my times and get back into it. It was a great experience.
Good luck!
