First a little background. I was a very competitive swimmer back in high school and part of college, back when I had 6 pack abs and was just a little too cocky for my own good. I actually think its one reason I got bigger, I stopped swimming to focus on school, but kept eating like I was swimming 8 miles a day.
Anyway, over the past decade, I have tried to lose weight probably about 2 dozen times. Every time I try to incorporate swimming as my main form of exercise as that is what has always been easiest for me to consistently do. So I have quite a bit of experience getting into the pool after not swimming for long periods of time and trying to “get back into swimming shape”
Well after 3 months of keto I hit the point where I want to exercise, I have added in biking, but not swimming until today. It was VASTLY different than any time I have gotten back in the pool after a long break.
Normally, my first day back in the pool involves me swimming 50s(2 laps) until I cant swim any more. Usually I swim a decent speed but burn out at the second lap. And usually I cant even get through the 2 laps after about 10 of them. So I get about 500 yards in. I slowly work my endurance back up and get to the 2000 yard mark after a couple weeks.
This time however, I found i physically could not swim at my “normal” speed. I would start swimming and halfway across the pool my arms and legs would just feel super worn out. At first I was worried, thinking that this was worse than I had ever been. But I warmed up and slowed my speed down to a moderate pace, about 75% my normal “cruise” speed, which I would say is probably 50% my normal fast speed, so not slow, but not quick. I found I could keep this up very easily. built up to 100s, and 200s, which would never be possible getting back into the pool before. And an even better bonus, I hit 2000 yards easily, and felt like I could have done more, if I didn’t have to go to work. It was great, felt much better than starting out in the past.
It makes sense to me, before I was a glucose burner, so I had that high intensity burning fuel and could go fast for quick bursts, but would fade out over time. Hence the quick speed sprint type work out I did. Now being a fat burner, I physically cant get to those higher intensities(yet) but if I slow down and keep a steady pace going I can just keep going and going.
Any other keto swimmers out there? What was your experience? I look forward to seeing how it unfolds as i keep hitting the pool going forward.