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
Nancy,
You're right, I didn't get out of shape and overweight overnight so I'm obviously not going to lose the weight overnight. I need to be patient with myself, but I'm the type of person who wants to see results right away (I guess we all are, aren't we?).
Thank you for the advice on the workouts. I'm going to do some swimming on my own, like you said and concentrate on long swims rather than doing interval workouts. The kicking and drills are a great idea and will certainly help me tone other areas of my body.
I've been trying to eat a lot of chicken, fresh vegetables and fruit rather than processed foods that are high in sugar. Are there any other ideas that you might have to help me kick-start my weight loss? Its embarassing to admit to this, but I'm 5'3" and I weigh 190 lbs, which is really high for my height. I could afford to lose about 50 or so pounds, and I'm sure losing the weight will help ease the pressure on my shoulders when swimming.
Nancy,
You're right, I didn't get out of shape and overweight overnight so I'm obviously not going to lose the weight overnight. I need to be patient with myself, but I'm the type of person who wants to see results right away (I guess we all are, aren't we?).
Thank you for the advice on the workouts. I'm going to do some swimming on my own, like you said and concentrate on long swims rather than doing interval workouts. The kicking and drills are a great idea and will certainly help me tone other areas of my body.
I've been trying to eat a lot of chicken, fresh vegetables and fruit rather than processed foods that are high in sugar. Are there any other ideas that you might have to help me kick-start my weight loss? Its embarassing to admit to this, but I'm 5'3" and I weigh 190 lbs, which is really high for my height. I could afford to lose about 50 or so pounds, and I'm sure losing the weight will help ease the pressure on my shoulders when swimming.
