First a little bit about myself, I was a swimmer since I was 4 and started competitively when I turned 10, attended Junior Olympics (placed 4th 3 consecutive years in a row in Mid-Atlnatic) and Eastern Zones up until I reached high school at which point I swam competitively for my high school which was in the highest division in PA, did districts and eventually states in my sophomore year, practiced as you would expect of any top level swimming program, year round, 6 days a week, over 5 thousand yards a practice (don't remember exact numbers).
My dilemma now is that I have been out of the pool for about 3 years when I went off to university and did all the unhealthy things that a college student does. I am trying to get a beach lifeguarding job this summer and the tryouts are on June 11th (a week from today). I went to the pool today and could hardly get through a hundred at warm up pace without my arms just dogging out on me. My old coach whom I still keep in touch with told me that it was just because I have been out of the water for so long my muscles aren't used to that type of strenuous activity and that I should just keep swimming for the week to get back into it and I should be fine. The thing that was worrying me for the tryouts is that I have to do a 400 meter ocean swim in less then 10 minutes.
Any competitive swimmer will tell you that that is a joke, but as per today at the pool, I was struggling to average 45 seconds a fifty at warm up pace. Is it simply, as my coach said, that I've been out of the pool too long, or is it that I am genuinely THAT out of shape that this beach lifeguarding will be a long shot.
Thanks for your input.
Well I've been at the pool every day for the past 5 days and surprisingly I'm consistently averaging 5:45 for a 400 after only such a short time so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do this at the shore. I Will keep this thread updated! Thanks for all the responses.
Congratulations, glad to hear you're "pretty confident"
you should be fine
you needed to train and prepare for it, but not too much or too hard.
look forward to hearing how you do, you should have several minutes to spare
Ande
Well I've been at the pool every day for the past 5 days and surprisingly I'm consistently averaging 5:45 for a 400 after only such a short time so I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do this at the shore. I Will keep this thread updated! Thanks for all the responses.
Is it simply, as my coach said, that I've been out of the pool too long, or is it that I am genuinely THAT out of shape that this beach lifeguarding will be a long shot.
Thanks for your input.
Do you have any further insight about this question? I do, but want to hear what you have to say first...
Do you have any further insight about this question? I do, but want to hear what you have to say first...
What do you mean? I don't have any further insight. Please share what you think, by the way, your workout has been working like a charm for me, I just add in a couple 200s at the end to get used to swimming more distance.
Getting closer - are you more ready now???
Yes I am, I've been to the pool every day just stretching out my muscles and getting them used to the motions of swimming again.
Also, I'm consistently doing between 5:45 and 6 minutes for a 400 at 75%, I'm feeling really good about this.
Passed everything with flying colors! Finished the 400 in 6:23, was third in the group. I start training on the 19th. Thanks everyone for your help it was greatly appreciated.
