Back in the water

I am trying to restart my swimming program; I had stayed out of the water (save one time) for several months.

Right now, I've worked up to 1800 yds (pathetic) and hope to eventually reach 3000 yds again.

This week I've done a series of drills, freestyle 50's and 100's, and then some 100 IM reps. When I can finally get established, I'll go back to using the programs in these books:

Fitness Swimming by Hines (a friend of mine, Greg White, gave me a workout with Hines's group, The Houston H2O Masters Swimming group. This book has illustrations and drills, but the focus is only on the crawl stroke.

The Fit Swimmer by Brems. This book has mostly workout ideas and uses all four strokes. There isn't much stroke instruction though.

I also found the Total Immersion Butterfly video to be very useful; at least I can do a lap or two of fly semi-competently.

No, I am not nor never have been a good swimmer; my best 1000 (practice) is 15:37 (years ago) and in a meet 15:59. I've done one openwater 5K swim; the Big Shoulders (Chicago) in 1:43. I did it during one of the correct course length years (2001).

This morning I did a 500 yard warm up and then a 1000 yd time trial. It was ugly; 17:47, and the first half (8:57) was even uglier. But during the second half I seemed to improve and my stroke got a bit longer. At the end of 2005 I had worked down to 16:51.