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!
Erica -
When I started back to master's swimming it was after a 10 year layoff. I remember being frustrated at first because I, too, was impatient and looking for results. I swam about 3x per week for about 3 months before I attempted a meet (which happened to be our state meet). I did well enough that I really caught the bug again. I still took the summer off but started preparing for the next state meet in November. Soon, I was working out 5-6x per week and doing about 100,000 yards per month. I can remember not being able to lift my arms high enough to get them under my pillow at night but the hard work paid off as I was able to get within 1 second of my lifetime best in the 100 yard freestyle (as a 33 year old). Now, 6 years later, I'm still swimming and attempting to transition into a year round swimmer (seems like every year when I take a break, it gets harder and harder to get back in shape).
Anyway, my advice is to join the team ASAP. Don't worry that you think you need to build your endurance, it will come. Tell the coach you want to join and join now. Being part of the team will help motivate you to continue to show up. If you have friends (which you will develop) they help get thru the times you really don't feel like being there. In addition, they'll help you thru the plateaus that develop in the training. Good Luck and keep us posted. Just remember, the two hardest things about workouts are getting up in the morning and jumping into the pool. After that its all endorphins!
Erica -
When I started back to master's swimming it was after a 10 year layoff. I remember being frustrated at first because I, too, was impatient and looking for results. I swam about 3x per week for about 3 months before I attempted a meet (which happened to be our state meet). I did well enough that I really caught the bug again. I still took the summer off but started preparing for the next state meet in November. Soon, I was working out 5-6x per week and doing about 100,000 yards per month. I can remember not being able to lift my arms high enough to get them under my pillow at night but the hard work paid off as I was able to get within 1 second of my lifetime best in the 100 yard freestyle (as a 33 year old). Now, 6 years later, I'm still swimming and attempting to transition into a year round swimmer (seems like every year when I take a break, it gets harder and harder to get back in shape).
Anyway, my advice is to join the team ASAP. Don't worry that you think you need to build your endurance, it will come. Tell the coach you want to join and join now. Being part of the team will help motivate you to continue to show up. If you have friends (which you will develop) they help get thru the times you really don't feel like being there. In addition, they'll help you thru the plateaus that develop in the training. Good Luck and keep us posted. Just remember, the two hardest things about workouts are getting up in the morning and jumping into the pool. After that its all endorphins!
