Swimming fitness

[ozmart2009]

I'm a 51 year old male and have started swimming again because I incurred some chronic tendinitis from the gym. At first I was shocked at how low my aerobic fitness had dropped despite my gym work. I've been swimming almost every day now for 5 weeks, feel a lot better and have lost 2 KG. I'm not much of a swimmer really and can only really do a clunky sort of freestyle.

Right now I am doing 20 laps of a 25 metre pool but I need to rest for 2 minutes after every two laps (50 metres). This has my heart rate working at capacity and I am breathing hard.

I was thinking that the way to proceed might be to start reducing the rests gradually until I can swim more laps without a break, rather than just do more laps. My question is, is this a good strategy and secondly, how long can I expect to see some significant improvement of my aerobic capacity? Three months? Six?

Any feedback or advice would be helpful.

Cheers

[LisaS]

Have you picked up the Total Immersion book yet? Or visited the author's site. I found both really helpful when I returned to swimming at the beginning of summer.

[ozmart2009]

I came straight to this forum so don't know about the book or website. Can you supply the URL? Thks.

[LisaS]

http://www.totalimmersion.net/

[Ron Usher]

First, the TI program is excellent for technique. I highly recommend it. Here's some other thoughts...
1. Where was the tendinitis? Swimming can be very tough on shoulders so you need to be careful.
2. It sounds like you're having a breathing problem. Slow down, relax and make sure you completely exhale when you breath.
3. I think you should progress in a variety of ways. Use your idea on one day and then try some more, like:
a. Swim your two laps, grab a kickboard and kick with your head above water for 25 m to recover. Then repeat.
b. Use fins. It will make it easier to swim farther and will let you work on your stroke and breathing.
c. Try swimming 30 x 25 with 30 seconds rest. That cuts your rest in half and gives you another 250m.

Besides the weight loss and fitness do you have any other swimming goals?

[ozmart2009]

Thks Ron

I've been out of the pool for a week with a virus, so hopefully can pick things up again next week. I've have been working on my breathing..the main problem was my cardio fitness really was about as low as you could get!

The tendinitus is in my arm (tennis elbow) and is slowly improving although I do have a bad shoulder anyway, so am mindful of it.

Thanks for the suggestions - I will try and work them into my routine. My main goal is just to maintain my cardio fitness, and I'll compliment swimming with my usual gym workouts in a few months time when the tendonitus heals. Can't really afford the TI program right now as I'm doing a university degree and funds are a bit tight.

Thks again.