Hello,
I have been taking swim lessons for about two months now. After twenty-one years of beating up my body running, I decided to give it a break by learning to swim. Well......
I now have pain in both achilles tendons. It is down low, on the back of my heels. I am still running, but only a fraction of the mileage I was doing before. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out how my limited amount of running has caused this heel pain. It all started about two months ago. So, I have put 2 and 2 together ... it must be the swimming, but how?
I am using flippers. Could that be it?
Please help. I'm tired of aching all the time!
Thanks,
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
I was addicted to fins because i have dinky feet and stiff ankles from so many years of running that i am a slow kicker. add a hard running workout on the same day as a swim and i'm even more of a slug!
I think fins definitely have their place, especially in the learning process. I attribute fins to being able to actually do fly. When i first tried to learn fly, i couldn't do the fly kick. Fins helped me do this. Now i can do fly and kick fly without them. I like fins for kicking fly on my back and stomach because it's such a great ab workout. I also like to do a sets of 50s free with fins focusing on actually kicking. it's a great lung buster and i think it helps with feeling what it is like to go faster.
But, i noticed that my flutter kick isn't getting any better. So, i decided that for the majority of my flutter/back flutter kicking, i am ditching the fins. It's been a tough wagon to get off of as i'm still incredibly slow. I'm doing sets of 25s kicking without a board. i find that as slow as i am without a board, i'm even slower with one! i also don't think it's as close to the position that you want to be in anyway and on a board, you don't have to deal with taking a breath..sadly i still need a few of those even for a 25!
I'd suggest keeping it simple. warm up, do some sets of flutter kick without a board and if you want to work on fly kick, then stick on the fins but don't do more than 100 or so at a time for a while. then you can start building up so hopefully, you won't get the achilles pain again.
Hi Cheryl,
I was addicted to fins because i have dinky feet and stiff ankles from so many years of running that i am a slow kicker. add a hard running workout on the same day as a swim and i'm even more of a slug!
I think fins definitely have their place, especially in the learning process. I attribute fins to being able to actually do fly. When i first tried to learn fly, i couldn't do the fly kick. Fins helped me do this. Now i can do fly and kick fly without them. I like fins for kicking fly on my back and stomach because it's such a great ab workout. I also like to do a sets of 50s free with fins focusing on actually kicking. it's a great lung buster and i think it helps with feeling what it is like to go faster.
But, i noticed that my flutter kick isn't getting any better. So, i decided that for the majority of my flutter/back flutter kicking, i am ditching the fins. It's been a tough wagon to get off of as i'm still incredibly slow. I'm doing sets of 25s kicking without a board. i find that as slow as i am without a board, i'm even slower with one! i also don't think it's as close to the position that you want to be in anyway and on a board, you don't have to deal with taking a breath..sadly i still need a few of those even for a 25!
I'd suggest keeping it simple. warm up, do some sets of flutter kick without a board and if you want to work on fly kick, then stick on the fins but don't do more than 100 or so at a time for a while. then you can start building up so hopefully, you won't get the achilles pain again.
