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!
Originally posted by postcollegeswimr
First off, I'd like to thank ALL of you for your great responses and your encouragement. It sure isn't easy getting back into the pool after so many years of not swimming, but you're all right...you have to start somewhere.
Well I came into last night's practice and introduced myself to the coach. I gave him a little bit of my background in swimming and told him I literally have not touched water in 6 years. There were 6 lanes reserved for the team's workout and 2 open lap lanes for regular gym members to do laps. The coach told me to do some laps in the open lanes and he'd watch me and see how I did. After about 500 yards or so I was really hurting and could feel how out of shape I was. He told me I did well after such a long time out of the water and that I would probably fit into one of the middle lanes for the workout. The team is currently doing a taper so the yardage isn't as high as usual, but I still didn't think I could endure a 2 hour workout.
So I swam for 90 minutes on my own doing laps to try and build up my endurance. The coach said I should give myself a few weeks of practicing on my own and then I could join the team for workouts.
I'm proud of myself for going, and I kept trying to tell myself that I have to start somewhere and I can't keep putting it off. I just can't believe I let myself get this out of shape and gain so much weight.
I've been trying to eat healthier and cut down on proportion sizes. I'm going to start doing some walking on my hour lunch break to try and accelerate my weight loss. Are there any suggestions that you could give to help me lose weight but without over-doing it? Also, how many times a week would you recommend that I swim to get myself back into "swimming mode" but again without over-doing it?
If you want to lose weight, you need to know what you are putting in your mouth. You need to keep a food diary for at least a week and be honest about it. Take a look at what you are eating, when you are eating, and focus on cutting out 500 calories a day, preferably from the non-healthy catagory.
A lot of people dislike food journaling, and that is fine, but doing it every now and then gets you focused on what you are putting in your mouth. Without that in black and white, we tend to have selective memory of what we ate and then say, I don't know why I can't lose.
Also, start looking into ways to do resistance training. Walking at lunch....great, add some walking lunges in your walk, stop and do wall push-ups or dips off a bench. Do crunches when you are watching TV.
Originally posted by postcollegeswimr
First off, I'd like to thank ALL of you for your great responses and your encouragement. It sure isn't easy getting back into the pool after so many years of not swimming, but you're all right...you have to start somewhere.
Well I came into last night's practice and introduced myself to the coach. I gave him a little bit of my background in swimming and told him I literally have not touched water in 6 years. There were 6 lanes reserved for the team's workout and 2 open lap lanes for regular gym members to do laps. The coach told me to do some laps in the open lanes and he'd watch me and see how I did. After about 500 yards or so I was really hurting and could feel how out of shape I was. He told me I did well after such a long time out of the water and that I would probably fit into one of the middle lanes for the workout. The team is currently doing a taper so the yardage isn't as high as usual, but I still didn't think I could endure a 2 hour workout.
So I swam for 90 minutes on my own doing laps to try and build up my endurance. The coach said I should give myself a few weeks of practicing on my own and then I could join the team for workouts.
I'm proud of myself for going, and I kept trying to tell myself that I have to start somewhere and I can't keep putting it off. I just can't believe I let myself get this out of shape and gain so much weight.
I've been trying to eat healthier and cut down on proportion sizes. I'm going to start doing some walking on my hour lunch break to try and accelerate my weight loss. Are there any suggestions that you could give to help me lose weight but without over-doing it? Also, how many times a week would you recommend that I swim to get myself back into "swimming mode" but again without over-doing it?
If you want to lose weight, you need to know what you are putting in your mouth. You need to keep a food diary for at least a week and be honest about it. Take a look at what you are eating, when you are eating, and focus on cutting out 500 calories a day, preferably from the non-healthy catagory.
A lot of people dislike food journaling, and that is fine, but doing it every now and then gets you focused on what you are putting in your mouth. Without that in black and white, we tend to have selective memory of what we ate and then say, I don't know why I can't lose.
Also, start looking into ways to do resistance training. Walking at lunch....great, add some walking lunges in your walk, stop and do wall push-ups or dips off a bench. Do crunches when you are watching TV.
