[Introduction] New to Group, Not to Swimming :-)
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aSearch4Me
Posts: 397 Member
A brief history: I swam year-round competitively from the time I was 9 through 18 years old. I’m pretty sure chlorine is embedded in my DNA with how much of my childhood was spent in a pool. I decided to stop swimming competitively when I was 18, because I wasn’t “scholarship good” and because I discovered that having time to hang out with friends who weren’t swimmers was pretty fun…more fun than 5am swim practices to a teenager, anyway. In college, I swam 3-4 days a week for exercise until my small college decided to close the pool permanently my sophomore year. Since the school was in a rural area, there were no other pool options. So when I was 20, I fell out of the habit of swimming…and I never went back.
Over the next 12 years, I gained over 100 pounds to my top weight that I hit earlier this year. I had crash dieted & did random fitness programs over the years, and I would have a little bit of success… but then an injury, a life-event, or some other excuse would cause me to yo-yo back up.
In early May this year, I realized that I HAD to make a change. I started with changing my diet—I switched from a reduced-carb diet to a LCHF diet (for other health reasons, as advised & monitored by a physician specialist. Please don’t judge.). For physical fitness I started with upping my walking, and then mid-June, I joined a gym with a pool.
My first time back in the water was on 6/18/15. It was…interesting. You don’t realize just how badly you are out of shape, until you get back in the water. I had grandiose plans for that first swim of warming up with 100yds, a short rest, and then alternating 500yd freestyle with 100yds backstroke or breaststroke with short breaks in between sets. My first workout was actually: freestyle 50yds, stand-wheezing-at-the-end-of-the-lane-for-3-minutes while I catch my breath, repeat/try not to drown over the next 45 minutes.
Out of shape, didn’t even begin to explain it. Since that time, I’m still slow, but I’m improving bit by bit. My endurance has bumped up a bit (still not where I’d like it yet), but my butterfly stroke is still criminal…I can only do it for 25 yards…and I only do it if I’m the only one in the pool…and I still catch the lifeguard snickering.
But I’ll get there…
I am trying to swim 3-4 days a week, and then walk/jog & strength train 2-3 days a week.
The good news, since recommitting myself to a healthier/more active life in May, I’m down 32 pounds. It’s not quite as high as I’d like it to be, but I also wasn’t as vigilant in July as I should have been (multiple vacation/traveling days), and I own that.
I’m hoping I can find great inspiration from this group, workout ideas, tips, and comradery. Thanks for letting me join in your journey!
Over the next 12 years, I gained over 100 pounds to my top weight that I hit earlier this year. I had crash dieted & did random fitness programs over the years, and I would have a little bit of success… but then an injury, a life-event, or some other excuse would cause me to yo-yo back up.
In early May this year, I realized that I HAD to make a change. I started with changing my diet—I switched from a reduced-carb diet to a LCHF diet (for other health reasons, as advised & monitored by a physician specialist. Please don’t judge.). For physical fitness I started with upping my walking, and then mid-June, I joined a gym with a pool.
My first time back in the water was on 6/18/15. It was…interesting. You don’t realize just how badly you are out of shape, until you get back in the water. I had grandiose plans for that first swim of warming up with 100yds, a short rest, and then alternating 500yd freestyle with 100yds backstroke or breaststroke with short breaks in between sets. My first workout was actually: freestyle 50yds, stand-wheezing-at-the-end-of-the-lane-for-3-minutes while I catch my breath, repeat/try not to drown over the next 45 minutes.
Out of shape, didn’t even begin to explain it. Since that time, I’m still slow, but I’m improving bit by bit. My endurance has bumped up a bit (still not where I’d like it yet), but my butterfly stroke is still criminal…I can only do it for 25 yards…and I only do it if I’m the only one in the pool…and I still catch the lifeguard snickering.
But I’ll get there…I am trying to swim 3-4 days a week, and then walk/jog & strength train 2-3 days a week.
The good news, since recommitting myself to a healthier/more active life in May, I’m down 32 pounds. It’s not quite as high as I’d like it to be, but I also wasn’t as vigilant in July as I should have been (multiple vacation/traveling days), and I own that.
I’m hoping I can find great inspiration from this group, workout ideas, tips, and comradery. Thanks for letting me join in your journey!
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Welcome to the group, and you've already made tremendous progress and lost a ton of weight already - 32 pounds!
I smiled as I read this part:aSearch4Me wrote: »
My first time back in the water was on 6/18/15. It was…interesting. You don’t realize just how badly you are out of shape, until you get back in the water. I had grandiose plans for that first swim of warming up with 100yds, a short rest, and then alternating 500yd freestyle with 100yds backstroke or breaststroke with short breaks in between sets. My first workout was actually: freestyle 50yds, stand-wheezing-at-the-end-of-the-lane-for-3-minutes while I catch my breath, repeat/try not to drown over the next 45 minutes.
Even after a few years back, I still feel like that after a few weeks away!
You'll regain your stamina faster than you may expect!
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This is fantastic! Welcome! I am new to swimming for exercise/weight loss, my first day in the pool was 7/21/15!
I have had great success in the past on a LCHF diet, and I loved it! But with my current work situation, I can't keep up with the water intake and bathroom breaks needed without getting performance managed for too much break time
So great hearing how much success you have had already!0 -
Welcome back to the pool!aSearch4Me wrote: »but my butterfly stroke is still criminal…I can only do it for 25 yards…and I only do it if I’m the only one in the pool…and I still catch the lifeguard snickering. But I’ll get there…
I resemble this remark.
Although--one thing I find fascinating--coming back to swimming as an adult (also an ex-competitive swimmer), I am MUCH more aware of the biomechanics of the strokes, especially fly. Like when I was swimming as a teenager, it was a brute force upper body struggle. Now I really get how, and how much, of fly is powered by the hips in kicking. (I'm still at 25-yds-at-a-time, though. You'll notice on the reporting thread--I do 25+75yd IMs, because i have to rest after fly). Have you noticed any differences like that?
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Thanks @AquaticQuests I guess I should clarify that the 32#'s is from my highest recorded weight, which was at a doctor's office in April. I've only lost 26 of those 32 since the beginning of May. Still not shabby...I won't complain. And I've been out of the pool for the past 1.5 weeks for vacation, so tonight's workout is going to be one of those square-one struggles. lol
Thanks @MarissaTriesAgain I'm excited that you're a new swimmer! You will learn to LOVE it. I was surprised at how quickly the "chlorine addiction" kicked back in this time around, despite a decade+ of being out of the pool! With the LCHF diet, I'm lucky that my bathroom breaks aren't monitored. I work in healthcare & we are encouraged to get 10k steps a day in...so part of those steps are walking to a bathroom, frequently
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@cheshirecatastrophe Heh...I used to coach/teach swimming in high school (sadly, I think I made more per hour than I do now, I just didn't work as many hours...lol), so I had to "break-down" strokes a lot, so I probably thought more about biomechanics than the average teenager. Now, I'm reminded of proper mechanics often, because if I let my freestyle stroke get wonky, I start feeling it pretty quickly in my "old" shoulders. Now my lack of Fly Success? That is purely due to a ridiculously weak core/hip structure from years of laziness...lol...and I'm very mechanically aware of that weakness as I'm floundering & chicken-winging all over the place, lol.
I like the idea of a quick breather after the fly in the IM. I may throw that into my swim tonight (depending how many people are in the pool ). I tried doing a "reverse 100 IM" the other week so the fly would be at the end...but I just got incredibly nauseated from the "back--> turn over & flipturn-->try swimming fly" sequence for some reason? My inner-ears said "No" to that one. Plus, it felt weird... 0 -
Welcome to the group! Someday I want to learn how to fly. I tried earlier in life, failed miserably, and decided that since I wasn't swimming competitively there was no reason to learn.
Regarding the old shoulders - yup! I can tell when my mechanics start to break down because OUCH.0 -
Let me add my welcome! I'm headed back to the pool tomorrow morning after a week's vacation. I expect some resting in there for sure. I didn't start swimming until around age 39-40. Now I'm 50 and hooked. I learned butterfly but not well, and like you, won't do it if there are lots of people watching or after the sun rises. Really, I've kind of given up on it because of the strain it puts on my shoulders and the need for CPR if I swim more than 25 yds of it. Our regular life guard calls it "the dumbest stroke ever invented" and I laugh every time he says that. I'm also have a pretty pathetic breast stroke but my freestyle and backstroke aren't awful but they are slow.
Just so you know, this group is the least "judgy" of any I have encountered. We all just feel the pull of the water.0
