Swimming slump

I know some people are skeptical of chiropractors, but I came back from a long business trip this summer (from India) with a back/neck/shoulders that were wrenched beyond belief. I couldn't even swim butterfly and breaststroke was painful, but doable. I tried sports massages for a couple of weeks in a row, kept the training light and it was getting no better. I then went to a chiropractor who was a former collegiate swimmer himself. While I wasn't fixed in a single session, I started feeling improvement immediately and was back to normal after about a month. . Got a good guy certified in ART. He's been working diligently on me.

Lots of good comments thank you. I really want to do the swim for the environment in may. If i can take a break and still put in enough swimming to complete 7.5 miles in good standing then that will be the plan. But is tha possible at this point. The 50k is just for fun. i'm not killing myself, i'm just out there running trails for about 6 hours. This neck issue has got to stop though.

I have also developed quite the neck and upper back pain. Can't seen to solve that either but, it's keeping up at night now. I know some people are skeptical of chiropractors, but I came back from a long business trip this summer (from India) with a back/neck/shoulders that were wrenched beyond belief. I couldn't even swim butterfly and breaststroke was painful, but doable. I tried sports massages for a couple of weeks in a row, kept the training light and it was getting no better. I then went to a chiropractor who was a former collegiate swimmer himself. While I wasn't fixed in a single session, I started feeling improvement immediately and was back to normal after about a month. Select your chiropractor with care, though. My advice would be to get recommendations from swimmers or athletes like yourself to find a doc whose practice (& ideally experience) includes a lot of athletes. Years back I had tried another chiropractor to no improvement. I think the reason for success this time was this guy's experience as a swimmer and the fact he works with both "older" athletes like me and younger athletes.

Christian, I developed neck and shoulder pain during my swimming and this turned out to be a side affect of my head position. I was holding my head too high in the water and as a result my back muscles tightened up. Also, what kind of stretching do you do? Any yoga? If not you might want to consider adding stretching and/or yoga to your routine.

I will back off a bit. With regards to the running i'm putting about 26-30 miles a week in. I got a 50k in january. My fear is getting derrailed for a long spring OWS. If you back way off the swimming for a month or two and focus on training for and running your 50k, you will still have plenty of time to ramp up the swimming again for spring and summer OW season. Use the time you might have been swimming to do whatever you need to do to get that neck and upper back pain under control, so that when you are ready to swim more again you can do it.

I say treat yourself to a nice massage a couple times over the holidays. If it is keeping you up at night, maybe a trip to the doctor is needed. Maybe not swim so much, but do some more quality work until you feel like the slump went away. Add in another activity such as light jogging, elliptical, or whatever... give yourself a bit to bounce back.

The human body is a wondeful thing. It will tell you when it's in trouble. Right now your body is screaming at you: I need recovery AND rest. I've been there. It's a week or two process to get out of. Try this Week one: Keep your yardage the same, but your goal is recovery swimming. Add 10 seconds to your 100 base intervals and add 10 seconds to your swim time. If you are averaging 1:15s on 1:25, shoot for 1:25s on 1:35. Same yardage, recovery swimming to get the gunk outta your muscles. Week two: cut the yardage to 50 to 60% of what you are doing. Do day 1 and 3 of your three day week with a good warm up and do short sets of short sprints (good effort, not necessarily AFAP), long rest. So maybe 8x50 on 2:00 trying to hold low 30s. On day 2, do another recovery day as the week before, but again, 50-60% of your normal yardage. You need rest and recovery. And probably the full two weeks. You don't have to stop swimming, just take it easy. Give yourself a little break. Report back in two weeks, okay? Looking for a little motivational help or a solution. I am slowing down. Sometimes it's difficult to even get through a warmup. I only swim 3x a week, 4-5k. I can repeat 1:15's all day, 5 months ago I was repeating 1:05 on sets of hard 500's w/o issue. I don't understand. I have also developed quite the neck and upper back pain. Can't seen to solve that either but, it's keeping up at night now. I do speed work, i do distance. What do y'all think. :badday:

I will back off a bit. With regards to the running i'm putting about 26-30 miles a week in. I got a 50k in january. My fear is getting derrailed for a long spring OWS. Nice thing is that my wife does massage therapy:) So far so good, keep them coming. Thanks.

Backing off now will allow your training adaptations to kick in. These adaptations mostly take place during recovery periods. That then allows you to stack more training on top of what you've already done afterwards. Train, recover, adapt, repeat. I will back off a bit. With regards to the running i'm putting about 26-30 miles a week in. I got a 50k in january. My fear is getting derrailed for a long spring OWS. Nice thing is that my wife does massage therapy:) So far so good, keep them coming. Thanks.

Yes, I agree that a GOOD chiropractor can work wonders. Mrs. Glider is a chiropractor, and a pretty good one IMHO. Just ask CreamPuff:) I know some people are skeptical of chiropractors, but I came back from a long business trip this summer (from India) with a back/neck/shoulders that were wrenched beyond belief. I couldn't even swim butterfly and breaststroke was painful, but doable. I tried sports massages for a couple of weeks in a row, kept the training light and it was getting no better. I then went to a chiropractor who was a former collegiate swimmer himself. While I wasn't fixed in a single session, I started feeling improvement immediately and was back to normal after about a month. Select your chiropractor with care, though. My advice would be to get recommendations from swimmers or athletes like yourself to find a doc whose practice (& ideally experience) includes a lot of athletes. Years back I had tried another chiropractor to no improvement. I think the reason for success this time was this guy's experience as a swimmer and the fact he works with both "older" athletes like me and younger athletes.