Any advice for a backslider?

Hi, thank you for the replies. In response to a previous question, I'm 33, no family and work full time. I work nights, so that wipes out morning practices that area Masters teams offer. When I did train, I trained on my own.

Finding my inner fish-- Thanks for the help! I was used to swimming 3000-4000 yards 4-5 times a week, so when I get back in, I'll try 1500 a few times a week. Having a hard time with motivation; that might come from training on my own, but at the same time, I don't want to have team members see how fat/slow I've become! Thanks again for the advice. I'm still just unsure what sort of a workout to start with -- long slow swims to improve my cardio or interval training. Any thoughts anyone?

Hi all, Between a lengthy bout of bronchitis, job changes and adjusting to new schedules, I haven't swam with any consistency in about a year. I'd like to get back into competition shape -- which entails losing about 15 pounds and gaining back the muscle I lost -- in time for a meet next March or April. Anyone else ever gone through this? How do you work back a schedule of swimming 1-1.5 hours a day and lifting three days a week without doing too much too quickly and burning out or injuring yourself (or giving up because you feel like you're so far away from "good shape"?) Any ideas of what sort of yardage/intervals to start with? I appreciate the help -- I'm so ready to stop being a couch potato, but I'm not sure where to start. It would help to know how old you are, do you work full time, have a family?

You didn't get out of shape overnight, so give yourself some time to get back into it. Advise no more than 10% increase each week in either distance or intensity. Wake up your swim muscles with some technique drills and some low-intensity intervals / longer swims; then in successive weeks ratchet it down and put in a few sprints and more intense, longer sets. Seems like if I try a more drastic approach I will get sick or get sore shoulders or some other interruption which slows my overall improvement. I am working to get back in shape after basically a 10-year slump where I wasn't getting into the water more than a few times a month and my appetite went out of control with many many pounds gained. I've been back in for 6 months and have made good progress but it is going to be probably a 2-year long haul to reach my long-term conditioning/weight goals. Everything happens slower at age 50+. So my current get-back-into-it workouts are geared more towards losing weight while maximizing my pleasure-of-swimming. I do a lot of kicking including dolphin-on-back; I do a main set of 1000-2000y of some combination of 100's-200's in free, IM, back; total distance 2500-3700. Some days I tear into it and try to redline my heart; others I just swim through it.

I would work on ramping up the cardio vascular first, before doing sprint intervals. Work on drills for technique which will help. Try adding 100 yards a work-out a week. So this week if you are at 1500 each work-out, then do 1600 each work-out next week. For adding days, I would take that a bit slower and see how you feel. I know a lot of people don't advocate stretching, but after a long lay off, you are bound to be stiff, so make sure you stretch afterwards. About 4 years ago I got pneumonia in March, and it was May before I could get back into a regular routine. I started with a measley 1000 yards, but by the end of the summer I was back at it.

My running coach's frequent answer to my wanting to progress faster than a post-injury/illness body wanted to: "small steps." I have begun to recognize that as the way to go. As Donna says, it's better at times like that to readjust your goals than set something so ambitious that you get discouraged. Maybe you were swimming 3000-4000 yards at one point, but now 1200 to 1500 might feel ambitious. But doing those shorter swims at least will get you back into the pool and then you can gradually increase the time. When I'd come back from running injuries, I'd be thinking "what's up? ten miles felt easy and now three miles feels hard!" but the distances would come back. I had a really bad cold/bronchitis for about a month in Feb., and coming back was pretty hard...in both swimming and running. In swimming, I'd do 1000 yards and feel the way I had when I did 3000! But hey, I figured if that's what I had, that's what I had, and more would come. And it did. Also, in running, I ran in a half marathon in March only b/c I'd signed up for it before I got sick, and I figured I'd just run/walk. It was SLOOOOOW. But I expected it to be, so didn't worry too much about the time. By May, I ran in a 10 mile race that although still slower than I wanted was at least all running, and I felt much stronger. Bottom line, we do these things not only to keep ourselves in shape but presumably also because they're fun--no one will fire us for swimming or running not as fast as our goal times or not as far as we wanted. This is a gift we give ourselves, but we who do this tend to become perfectionist and want a lot from ourselves. This can help us stay motivated but also becomes a roadblock when we hold ourselves to standards that don't reflect the realities of our lives. Resetting the bar low... sometimes ridiculously low, what we absolutely KNOW we can do ... can help us just enjoy the experience and give ourselves time to re-grow into the more ambitious goals.

Do not worry about what use to be. Today is today and you move forward from there. Your team mates will be glad to see you back in the water trying to improve yourself. Be proud that you are making the effort. I broke my arm, wrist, and hand in May and have just returned to the pool six days ago. That was humbling. It is amazing how much muscle mass that has disappeared. The first day all I could do was stand in the pool and stroke gently with my hands. That little motion was very painful. I went from being some what competitive to nothing. I am now working my way back slowly and shall persivere and so shall you.

In the past, I, too, have had to stop/re-start swim training because we get huge storms here for several months and I can't swim in the ocean (no pools here). The thing I always know and do is what I consider baby steps. My initial goals are not news-worthy. I'll plan on swimming a mile or much less, 3xweek until my body gets accustomed to my moving it again. The same for weights. I train according to how I feel; my body always lets me know when I am on target or doing too much. I make weekly and monthly goals only and when I meet them, I add more training to the mix. This keeps me from having any past injuries resurface. I actually started re-swimming again mid-May after a month off. Yesterday, I swam my first 6.10 miles which my body is telling me today was a bit too much (LOL).

Hi all, Between a lengthy bout of bronchitis, job changes and adjusting to new schedules, I haven't swam with any consistency in about a year. I'd like to get back into competition shape -- which entails losing about 15 pounds and gaining back the muscle I lost -- in time for a meet next March or April. Anyone else ever gone through this? How do you work back a schedule of swimming 1-1.5 hours a day and lifting three days a week without doing too much too quickly and burning out or injuring yourself (or giving up because you feel like you're so far away from "good shape"?) Any ideas of what sort of yardage/intervals to start with? I appreciate the help -- I'm so ready to stop being a couch potato, but I'm not sure where to start. As Nike says, Just do it. Forget, for now, how fast you were before or what you used to do. At 33, you'll easily get back there; it may just take a bit of time. I agree with Susan, I wouldn't start with sprints. No reason not to do some cardio and intervals, just make them reasonable and ramp it up slowly. Don't swim 5x the first week or start with 4000 yards. When I went back to swimming two years ago, it took a few months to get in decent swimming shape. But I didn't realize I should also have done rotator cuff exercises and immediately came down with a severe bout of tendonitis and ended up in PT. So start slow and build up gradually. Do your RC and scapular exercises. Get fit for swimming before you expect swimming to make you fit! Go to it. You'll be sprinting fast soon enough. :groovy:

And something to remember when you do your 1500 yards tomorrow: no matter how slowly you swim them, give yourself a HUGE pat on the back for making the choice to do them! Every step is a step closer to where you want to be! :cheerleader: