I'm a 21 year old male, 5'8, around 155 lbs, with 7-8% body fat. I've been swimming now for about 1 year total. My background is in cross country, basketball, and track. I've dropped my times quite a bit in a year;
50 free from 28 high to 26.69
100 free from 1:10 to 1:00.89
200 free from 2:24 to 2:16
500 free from 7:00 to 6:19
I'm from Missouri and I've got one more semester at a community college to get my associates degree, then I plan on transferring to Drury Univesity or Missouri State. I really want to walk on to one of their teams and I figure my best choice is to go the distance route, the 500 and up to have a chance at making one of these teams. Right now I'm swimming 30,000yds/m a week and doing dryland work (weights) 3x a week. My stroke is very solid, keeping me injury free (knock on wood), and I figure I can get up to around 50,000+ yds a week by the start of summer and train like a madman this summer before fall semester. I can swim with a masters team once a week without having to pay a monthly fee and the rest of my training is solo. My test meet will be the end of July, Show-me-State games in Columbia. Any words of advice?
Parents
Former Member
I just wanted to reiterate some of the encouragement that has been given on this board. I'm doing a 5:40 on the 500y now, and it's taken me about a year to get to that time from not being able to complete it at all! despite that not-so-great time, I was a real fast swimmer 10 years ago, hoping to get back to those times. the moral is, despite where you (or I) are now, we are capable of much, much better. i think you have less of a struggle than i do over the next couple months because you are already in great shape for endurance exercise, and I'm still working towards that. just work hard on your technique. it helped me to pick up "swimming fastest". i would just encourage you to get the most out of your workouts with proper nutrition, and do your best to avoid getting sick-the last thing you need is any interruption to your workout regimen. Good luck!
I just wanted to reiterate some of the encouragement that has been given on this board. I'm doing a 5:40 on the 500y now, and it's taken me about a year to get to that time from not being able to complete it at all! despite that not-so-great time, I was a real fast swimmer 10 years ago, hoping to get back to those times. the moral is, despite where you (or I) are now, we are capable of much, much better. i think you have less of a struggle than i do over the next couple months because you are already in great shape for endurance exercise, and I'm still working towards that. just work hard on your technique. it helped me to pick up "swimming fastest". i would just encourage you to get the most out of your workouts with proper nutrition, and do your best to avoid getting sick-the last thing you need is any interruption to your workout regimen. Good luck!
