***UPDATE – Read more in the following post, but I recently discovered that this pool is actually measured in METERS and not yards. That makes a huge difference!****
Anyone who follows me on Instagram has seen my occasional updates on getting back into swimming after taking an extended break (related to COVID-19 shut downs). I’ve taken breaks from swimming in the past, but truth be told, it’s been a tough process this time around. A little bit of background — I swam very consistently from late 2013 to early 2018 before deciding to take a bit of an extended break. I started up swimming again in fall 2019, took a break, and then started again during summer 2020 before taking another break after 2 months. Over the past few years, it seems that circumstances have aligned to make swimming more intermittent than consistent for me, so it’s been tough getting back into the flow of things (no pun intended!).
Fortunately, with vaccinations rising, and COVID-19 infections decreasing, it’s felt like less of a risk to visit a public pool. As with many things, the hardest part is just getting started, so I went ahead and took the plunge (pun not really intended, I promise) and got back into the pool. This time around, I started swimming again on 4/19/21. My endurance was very poor (I had a hard time making it past 50 yards at a time, and my pace per hundred yards was about 2:15). One month later on 5/19/21, I did my first 1000 yard benchmark time trial swim. The time still wasn’t amazing (I’m about 3 minutes slower than my PB) but it definitely counts as progress relative to the challenges of our current era!
Over the past month I increased my swim endurance and managed to drop about 20 seconds from my pace per 100 yards (going from 2:15 to 1:55) so as promised, I’m providing an update along with some of the tips that have worked for me to make gains after my long hiatus away from the sport.
1. Swim Frequently
I tend to be a “head first” kind of athlete and I really didn’t give myself much of a choice when it came to getting back into the flow of swimming. I immediately committed myself to swimming 4 sessions per week, at a minimum of 45 minutes per session (this was the most time allowed by my local gym on weekdays), with a double session up to 90 minutes once a week. Swimming 4 times per week allowed for two days of swimming back-to-back, with a day of rest in between the other swim sessions. The frequent repetition of immersion allowed my body to get back into the flow of things much more easily, and by the middle of my third week, I felt strong in the water again.
2. Focus on Building Strength
As a vegan athlete, I’ve found that I tend to lose a lot of muscle easily if I’m not actively keeping up with it, so I started adding a weight routine that immediately follows my swim workouts (with maybe a quick break to eat a protein bar). I focused on doing angled, “sorta” pull-ups (sometimes called “Aussies” or “Body Rows”), switching between using bicep muscles and tricep muscles. Additionally, I did a lot of reps with small free weights to strengthen my shoulders. For those of you that like to see numbers, here’s what my post-swim strength work would look like:
Arm strength workouts for swimmers:
Aussies (aka Body Rows)
- 4 x 10 sets of chin up pulls
- 4 x 10 sets of pull up pulls
Two 5lb Free Weights (5lbs for me – but do what feels comfortable)
Repeat 2x Through:
- 20 front raises
- 40 tricep extensions
- 20 shoulder adductions (or “Flies”)
- 40 tricep extensions
- 20 overhead presses
- 40 tricep extensions
On non-swim days, I worked on my legs and core.
None of these sets are meant to bulk anyone up. If anything, just a bit of light toning to help the arms get used to the idea of accumulated fatigue. In a perfect world, this fatigue would be generated strictly from swimming, but unfortunately 45 minutes isn’t enough to get me to that point just yet.
3. Work on Skill Drills in the Water
It’s funny because anyone who swam with me during my earlier Tower 26 days knows how much I LOVE (hate) doing swim drills. I vigorously avoided pull sets, kick sets, snorkel sets — pretty much anything that wasn’t strict swimming.
However, like it or not, I’ve found these drills really helpful for helping to get my body used to the feel of water once again. I try to do some form of a kick drill during each session (alternating between kicking with fins or just kicking with a kick board).
Generally I will do some manner of the follow as part of the warm up for each swim session:
- 500 yards kick/swim warm up, broken down as: 100 backstroke kick with fins, 100 swim, 75 kick, 75 swim, 50 kick, 50 swim, 25 kick, 25 swim (with descending rest intervals as :20, :15, :10, :05 before resuming each kick set).
- 400 yards kick/swim warm up, broken down as: 4×100 of 25 kick with board, 50 swim, 25 kick with board
- 4 rounds of vertical kicking warm up, broken down as: :30 vertical kick, 50 swim, :20 rest (4 times through).
I also used a lot of pulling drills to break up swim sets, typically swimming in increments of 250 yards. Either 1 250 set or multiples with breaks in between.
4. Ditch the Watch
This one was tough for me. I like to train with numbers and data, and even during long swims in the pool I learned how to breathe such that I could always face the clock and know what my pace was. I recently got a new Garmin, so I was eager to use it in the pool. However, I quickly learned that the watch was more of a distraction than a benefit.
I found myself rushing to complete sets (and losing form) for the sake of taking a glimpse at my watch. Even when I told myself explicitly not to do this, it still happened. And despite my strong efforts, my times were still disappointingly slow for really simple sets and distances (100s, 200s, and 300s). I thought about how Coach Gerry himself had always scolded those who prioritized watches over clocks in the pool, so finally I decided to give it up and swim the old fashioned way.
And honestly, the results were instant. Just removing the mental burden this timepiece seemed to force me to relax, and focus on form in the water rather than time, and then, as you can imagine, as form improved, my times came down on their own.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Look Foolish
Too many people let these sorts of fears get in the way of going to the gym to live a healthy lifestyle. I will say that it’s absolutely possible to live a healthy lifestyle without going a gym, however, no one should think that they need to avoid going to the gym just because other people there might look cooler or stronger or better than they are. Easier said than done, right? Here’s my advice: there will always be someone stronger, there will always be someone faster, and there will always be someone better. It’s necessary to keep this sort of perspective in mind, and at the end of the day, find a way to ignore the haters (although there probably aren’t any actual haters – most other gym goers are there for the same reasons you are – to get fit and mind their business. Don’t worry about what they think).
For me, it was really tough to return to swim basics after so many years of training and so many accomplishments that I worked hard for. But ultimately I knew that I couldn’t let pride get in the way, and that I had to be humble and accept the circumstances of my fitness before I could ever hope to improve. A huge part of endurance training is the mental aspect. You aren’t just an Ironman on the day you cross the finish line – you need to be Ironman on days that you drag yourself out of bed to go to a workout you really wish you could skip. You’re Ironman on the days that you push through to finish a workout that you didn’t think you could handle. And you’re Ironman on the days that you might look and feel like a fool but you keep going anyway and know that for every bad workout there is a good one, and that you’re just paying forward the effort.
Getting better at anything is as much a mental journey as a physical one. Find the right mindset for success and your results will align accordingly.
Just keep swimming!
How is everyone else handling the return to swim post-Covid lockdown? Are your times returning the way you’d hoped? Let me know in the comments!
