So I am going to do a meet in November. The first meet in 17 years. A little about me; Swam summer league for 6 years as a kid, but never did year-round training. Lifted a fair amount of weights for the past decade and a half, but mostly been a mix of fat and muscle. Current stats are: 35 years old, 5’9” (that doesn’t actually change) 250 lbs, 400 lb squat and 300 lb bench. Fairly brick shaped. Training for the past month has been anywhere from 1000 to 1600 yds, mostly 12-1400 range. Most freestyle, bit of ***, less fly, a 50 of backstroke. The quandary that I face is that I know I am going to get my clock cleaned, but I would like to get some base times for performance measurement. I have trouble increasing yardage right now, because I know I also need to put time in at speed to train that effectively as well. My gut feeling is that the next six weeks should be more about fast training to maximize ability for short swims. I am looking at the 50 fly, ***, freestyle, and maybe throw in a 100 IM for giggles. At this point and time, I have no interest in ever being a distance swimmer. I have also put some effort into the sdk, between info here and seeing it’s effectiveness in the Olympics. I do remember the backstroker in Seoul cranking with his kick. I feel like my conditioning should improve fairly rapidly with speed work simply because it is so low at this point. But I will accept suggestions. By the way, I am unaffiliated, so practicing dives at the local 24 hour fitness occurs when no one else is around.
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Good luck with your first meet! I started in a pretty similar place... 5'9", 245 (I'm down to 230, alright!), a long absence from the pool, training by myself, and worried that my pride might not be able to handle an aquatic beating from a 60 year old. I just did my first race in 10 years last weekend (open water 1 miler in Long Beach) and it went really well. Everyone at the event was super cool and laid back. Nobody is going to give you a hard time if you're a little slow. Now I'm prepping for my first regular meet on Oct. 5th (pentathlon in Davis).
I think that you should keep doing what you're doing in the pool and once you get that first race out of your system it will really help you figure out what you need to do in practice. Plus, at least for me, I was so wired after racing that it has really helped me focus and motivated me to swim harder when I practice.
I can't wait to do this pentathlon I'm signed up for just so I have some baseline numbers that will let me know where I'm really at when pushed at a race pace.
Good luck with your first meet! I started in a pretty similar place... 5'9", 245 (I'm down to 230, alright!), a long absence from the pool, training by myself, and worried that my pride might not be able to handle an aquatic beating from a 60 year old. I just did my first race in 10 years last weekend (open water 1 miler in Long Beach) and it went really well. Everyone at the event was super cool and laid back. Nobody is going to give you a hard time if you're a little slow. Now I'm prepping for my first regular meet on Oct. 5th (pentathlon in Davis).
I think that you should keep doing what you're doing in the pool and once you get that first race out of your system it will really help you figure out what you need to do in practice. Plus, at least for me, I was so wired after racing that it has really helped me focus and motivated me to swim harder when I practice.
I can't wait to do this pentathlon I'm signed up for just so I have some baseline numbers that will let me know where I'm really at when pushed at a race pace.
