One of the first things I noticed when I got back in the pool after my 7 year hiatus is that most aspects of my swimming technique were still intact, but my endurance was just pitiful. I felt great for the first 200-300 yards, but then I just couldn’t move my arms. They were like bricks, fighting as hard as they could to abide by the law of gravity, and bring my out of shape ass to the bottom of the pool. I fought through that initial stage and took baby steps, 100 yards at a time, eventually completing an actual workout. Once I got through those first few painful workouts, it was time to actually work on building my endurance to a manageable level. In order to get myself over the 2,000 yd workout hurdle, I had to really focus on every aspect of my swimming workouts. When I did that, I found that there are really two keys to building your swimming endurance…
1. Good Swimming Technique
2. Swim Workout Consistency
The first thing that I noticed happen as I was getting tired in my workouts was that my technique would just fall apart. In freestyle, my strokes would get short and choppy. My head position would be all over the place. Just really sloppy and I’m kind of surprised the lifeguard didn’t jump in and try to save me. Kidding, but in all seriousness it was really having an adverse effect on my ability to complete my workouts. I eventually caught on to what was going on and I focused 100% on my swimming technique. Long strokes, pulling all the way through, elbows bent on the recovery, and a solid head position. I started my workouts like that, and as I started to get tired I kept that focus. I guarantee if you do that, good swimming technique will become second nature and your endurance will naturally build. The second aspect of this little endurance equation is really a no-brainer. You HAVE to be consistent to build any sort of stamina in the pool. Set a schedule for yourself, whether you swim 3x or 7x per week, and stick to it. If you are all over the place and missing a week or more at a time, you can’t realistically expect to build any sort of endurance. Also, make sure your workout distances are similar from workout to workout and that you build those distances as each week progresses. Good Luck!