Guidance Please...Overwhelmed!

I get up M-F 4:30am to swim for 1.5 hours...generally getting in 3200-3800 yds depending on what I am working on. I have been snagging workouts here and there and adding or taking away as needed. I do have a small gym located in my garage, and have access to a gym. My dryland right now is a strength training M,W,F afternoons, but as far effective not quite sure. I am looking to compete, and actually did my first meet this past weekend which was ok, but I now have a baseline to work from. I am 32 and needing to lose 15 pounds which is slowly coming down. Here is a snapshot of my times thus far: 100 IM 1:17:05 100 Bk 1:17:01 200 Fr 2:35:88 100 Fr 1:09:86 The one thing I learned from this past weekend was, my starts great my breakout NOT GREAT, and oh my wall work...HELP! I was suffering from some shoulder irritation 2 weeks out to this past meet which yesterday seemed to have miraculously disappeared yesterday although I am going to continue with my kick sessions for awhile. SDK's are my foremost goal for the moment because that is where I seemed to have been loosing my speed well and the crappy turns..ugggh! I hope this gives a little bit of insight on where I am coming from. :) Diana, I think you are on the right track and it sounds like you even know what you need to be working on. Shoulder problems. Make sure your stroke technique is good as well as your lifting technique. If you are crossing over in your stroke, it will probably irritate your shoulder. If you are entering too close to your midline, that might also bother your shoulder. I recently moved my hand entry outward, and this has really helped my shoulders. If you take a kickboard and swim catchup, my index fingers would just hit/hold the kick board on the sides, and it feels like you are swimming with your arms going in a Y down the pool. It is very difficult for some people to make this change. Lifting, the key is keeping your elbows in close to the body. For shoulder press this means elbow pointing forward. Look for videos by Mark Rippetoe on YouTube. There are a lot of videos on youtube, especially shoulder press, of people with horrible form. Proper form will save your shoulders. As for turns and break outs, what can I tell you on a forum? Accelerate into the wall, tuck your head, tight ball, plant your feet firmly, you should be in a deep squat, push off the wall hard, flat back, tight streamline, hard kick and explode into the first stroke? If that was really helpful, then a book on competitive swimming would be a valuable purchase, but I expect you already knew all that. You probably need to find a way to either watch yourself (waterproof video camera is less than $200 these days) or find someone who can give you feedback. In summary, stick with what you are doing :)

I get up M-F 4:30am to swim for 1.5 hours...generally getting in 3200-3800 yds depending on what I am working on. I have been snagging workouts here and there and adding or taking away as needed. I do have a small gym located in my garage, and have access to a gym. My dryland right now is a strength training M,W,F afternoons, but as far effective not quite sure. I am looking to compete, and actually did my first meet this past weekend which was ok, but I now have a baseline to work from. I am 32 and needing to lose 15 pounds which is slowly coming down. Here is a snapshot of my times thus far: 100 IM 1:17:05 100 Bk 1:17:01 200 Fr 2:35:88 100 Fr 1:09:86 The one thing I learned from this past weekend was, my starts great my breakout NOT GREAT, and oh my wall work...HELP! I was suffering from some shoulder irritation 2 weeks out to this past meet which yesterday seemed to have miraculously disappeared yesterday although I am going to continue with my kick sessions for awhile. SDK's are my foremost goal for the moment because that is where I seemed to have been loosing my speed well and the crappy turns..ugggh! I hope this gives a little bit of insight on where I am coming from. :) Diana, I think you are on the right track and it sounds like you even know what you need to be working on. Shoulder problems. Make sure your stroke technique is good as well as your lifting technique. If you are crossing over in your stroke, it will probably irritate your shoulder. If you are entering too close to your midline, that might also bother your shoulder. I recently moved my hand entry outward, and this has really helped my shoulders. If you take a kickboard and swim catchup, my index fingers would just hit/hold the kick board on the sides, and it feels like you are swimming with your arms going in a Y down the pool. It is very difficult for some people to make this change. Lifting, the key is keeping your elbows in close to the body. For shoulder press this means elbow pointing forward. Look for videos by Mark Rippetoe on YouTube. There are a lot of videos on youtube, especially shoulder press, of people with horrible form. Proper form will save your shoulders. As for turns and break outs, what can I tell you on a forum? Accelerate into the wall, tuck your head, tight ball, plant your feet firmly, you should be in a deep squat, push off the wall hard, flat back, tight streamline, hard kick and explode into the first stroke? If that was really helpful, then a book on competitive swimming would be a valuable purchase, but I expect you already knew all that. You probably need to find a way to either watch yourself (waterproof video camera is less than $200 these days) or find someone who can give you feedback. In summary, stick with what you are doing :)