Sudden loss of the swimming rhythm
Bartol
PolandNew Member
Hi,
that's my first post here, I am rather rookie in comparison with majority of you when it comes to swimming. However I must share something that made me feel even more virgin swimmer that I used to be.
I like sport and have strict agenda that I follow every day after work. I swim (pool) 3 times / week. Freestyle, each training between 2 and 2,6 km, average pace 2:10 min / 100 m. My Garmin indicated my trainings are not productive, I also feel that was too easy, boring, no adrenaline etc.
That is why I started intervals - 100 m at full speed (for me it means 1:42 / 100 m 
), then rest and again. It started to be rewarding until I lost ability to keep breathing rhythm and started being fatigue after 100 m with old pace (2:10 min / 100 m). I feel like a p*ssy
I am 36 yo, I have been swimming for 30 years (for fun, amateur's way of keeping endurance) and now I do not know what happed.
Have anyone of you have had experience of that kind? Any smart piece of advice?
Thanks and best regards from Poland.
Comments
I've ran into that issue quite a few times for a few years when I was no longer swimming "competitively" in college and more so just doing it for fun and exercise. I felt extremely unmotivated and basically that I was plateauing.
Honestly, my extremely unprofessional opinion makes it sound like you might be a little burnt out from swimming intervals/laps by yourself.
There were a few things that helped me get out of the funk. Just switching it up and lifting and running instead. Doing some different strength activity still kept me physically active as I took a little bit of a break from swimming. Secondly, I joined a masters team! I don't know if you have any other groups where you are that you can swim with, but having friends/other swimmers around doing the same workout has helped my motivation and my mental health a ton. It is a great motivator to find a group like that in my opinion. We meet every other morning and just do a practice together for an hour.
Join a masters team. It’s the best money you’ll ever spend training. It’s hard to get faster by yourself. Having a coach and people to train with will help out tremendously in every way possible.
I think what you're feeling is part of the normal process of gaining fitness! If I've been swimming my default pace with no speed work for a while (happens to me every off season, I get lazy), as soon as I start adding in speed work my default pace starts to feel like trash. It lasts a week or two, maybe three depending on how long I've been lazy for, and then my body catches up. Adding in that speed work stresses the muscles as you encourage them to adapt to the faster pace, and you can feel the effects of that even when you swim slower. I bet if you keep at it and just accept you'll feel like rubbish for a couple weeks, you'll find that default pace will not only feel better but might be a little faster, too.