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Dying after taking a month off?

htimpaired
htimpaired Posts: 1,404 Member
edited December 2 in Social Groups
So I stopped swimming for a month, wanted to focus on running. So I've been running 3-4 days a week and lifting weights. Today I went to the pool, and I felt like I was going to drown! I could barely squeak out 150 yards at a time before having to stop. My heart was racing. My arms felt shaky. I expected to feel like this when I started swimming again after 18 years off, but only one month? I was cranking out 2500 yards a session easily last month.

Is this something others have experienced?

Replies

  • NoelFigart1
    NoelFigart1 Posts: 1,276 Member
    Probably you lost your feel for the water. It'll come back pretty soon.
  • emmab0902
    emmab0902 Posts: 2,338 Member
    Yep. Other fitness doesn't translate back to the pool for some annoying reason.
  • mpeters1965
    mpeters1965 Posts: 370 Member
    Definitely. A week, fine. Two weeks, not too bad. A month, yikes! It doesn't seem to matter what you did that month, either.
  • Robertus
    Robertus Posts: 558 Member
    In HS, the guys on the track team used to call it "swimmers' legs." If they tried to keep swimming competitively, they said it deadened their legs for sprints. Totally different use of the leg muscles. I never had a problem doing swimming and long-distance running, but I never tried to do sprints. But it is a very different use of the leg muscles. Likewise, most lifting routines are a very different use of the upper body and arm muscles. It is hard to design a lifting program that will increase (or even maintain) swimming performance. I think it is best to keep a well rounded approach to swimming and running and/or biking. I swim freestyle almost exclusively, which doesn't do much for my legs, so I really benefit from a lot of biking, especially long and steep hill-climbs. I find the two very complementary and would not want to focus one one to the exclusion of the others. I can't run anymore or I would also do lots of that--it was my first love. They are all great for cardiorespiratory fitness but very different muscle mechanics.
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
    Been there sort of. Missed a month due to China trip. (except this last trip)
    And it always seemed to take a month to get back to where I was before the trips.
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