Could I be over training swimming long laps so soon

lamont28
lamont28 Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone, new to training these past 5 days, I've decided to get my 40 year old butt into shape and lose 60lbs. Ive taken up swimming again, after being a strong endurance swimmer when I was younger, I represented the British Army 25 years ago against the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force and always found it very natural to swim long distances frontcrawl (freestyle). Anyhow I've progressed my swimming these past 5 days, up to a pace of 50 lengths in a 25m pool in 45 minutes freestyle. (Bare in mind I haven't swam in over 8 years). But this evening my heart rate seems higher than normal, especially after playing with my kids I had to take a breather. Could I have pushed myself too far too fast ? I wasn't struggling in the water today, in fact I could have done 10-20 more lengths as I've missed swimming so much. Just wondered if anyone has had a similar event early on in training. I want to keep this up after getting the buzz for it again, I've heard of muscle memory and I can feel my body knowing what to do as if I've just plugged myself back into the game. So any advice anyone. Thank you

Replies

  • erimethia_fekre
    erimethia_fekre Posts: 317 Member
    edited September 2015
    I had the same thing happen when I began swimming again. After a few weeks it got better. What got me what the breathing. Before when I was an avid swimmer, I could do a few strokes before taking a breath but when first starting I had to take them more frequently. When I wasn't doing so I ran into the same problems you described. I'd stick with it for sure but be sure to give yourself enough rests and protein
  • lamont28
    lamont28 Posts: 5 Member
    Thank you, that's reassuring, I just worried that maybe my age and weight were a little against me to be so aggressive at the begging. But it was so hard not to keep going as my body seemed to respond so positively, I've lost 6.5lbs since Thursday and that's just down to eating well and swimming every morning for 45 minutes. Thank you again for taking the time to reply, I'm new here and it's so inspiring to be amongst so many proactive people xx
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    I have just started swimming 0-10 lengths last week. I haven't got the breathing to a comfortable level yet doing the front crawl, so I am doing mainly backstroke.
    Maybe if you alternated front and back, until everything falls into place, and your endurance is up, your heartbeat would be better post work out.

    Just a thought from a pure novice swimmer trying to build endurance etc. feel free to disregard it.

    Cheers, h.
  • cheshirecatastrophe
    cheshirecatastrophe Posts: 1,395 Member
    Sure, it's totally normal to have a higher heart rate in the evening on days you work out. Tons of other factors can affect how you're doing on any one day: incubating a background virus or bacterium, dehydration, temperature, etc.

    Sounds like you've earned yourself a rest day, though! Great job in the pool!

    Actual, physical overtraining takes a LONG time to develop. You surely did not get there in 5 days of swimming.

    If you're concerned, though, a good way to watch out for it is to measure your heart rate in the *morning*, before you even get out of bed. You should be somewhere around the same number most days. If it climbs 5-7 bpm and stays up there for multiple days (one aberrant day is just that, an aberration), then you might want to consider taking a couple days off. But trust me--you are nowhere *near* that.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    That's not overtraining. It doesn't even sound unusual, quite frankly
  • lamont28
    lamont28 Posts: 5 Member
    cheshirecatastrophe wrote: »
    Sure, it's totally normal to have a higher heart rate in the evening on days you work out. Tons of other factors can affect how you're doing on any one day: incubating a background virus or bacterium, dehydration, temperature, etc.

    Sounds like you've earned yourself a rest day, though! Great job in the pool!

    Actual, physical overtraining takes a LONG time to develop. You surely did not get there in 5 days of swimming.

    If you're concerned, though, a good way to watch out for it is to measure your heart rate in the *morning*, before you even get out of bed. You should be somewhere around the same number most days. If it climbs 5-7 bpm and stays up there for multiple days (one aberrant day is just that, an aberration), then you might want to consider taking a couple days off. But trust me--you are nowhere *near* that.

    Thank you, I have just read that resting heart rate theory and it looks like a reliable source of overtraining. It's reassuring to hear all your comments and I'll take them all on board thanks guys.
  • lamont28
    lamont28 Posts: 5 Member
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    I have just started swimming 0-10 lengths last week. I haven't got the breathing to a comfortable level yet doing the front crawl, so I am doing mainly backstroke.
    Maybe if you alternated front and back, until everything falls into place, and your endurance is up, your heartbeat would be better post work out.

    Just a thought from a pure novice swimmer trying to build endurance etc. feel free to disregard it.

    Cheers, h.

    Thank you, I'll take everyone's advice at the moment, but I'm sure it will settle down with repetition. But thanks for taking the time to answer this place is great motivation

Categories