getting started again

Question
Hi George,

Thanks for the in encouragement. Do you have any suggestions of how many laps to start with to help me slowly get back.

Today I did 150yds. the first 100yds felt good, the next 50yds was interesting. Timed a 50yds @ .37 and swam 1x50yds backstroke and easy 2x50 freestyle/breast,just to bring my heart rate down, and not croke. I know one problem I'm having is just to go easy. I tend to swim fast and have trouble pacing myself - guess that's the sprinter in me. Flipturns are good then of course get challenging. I tend to get tired and start breathing wrong, water up the nose in not good.

Any suggestions on how to pace myself until I can get stronger and how many times a week should I practice? Also any recommend weight I should lose,to be able to compete? I know that's a loaded question, but I figure we're not married to each other, so your safe.LOL, Currently I'm 5'3 @127 lbs. I think I should try to get down to 115lbs.  

Answer
It looks like you started at 400 yards which isn't bad.  Try to keep calm and pace yourself.  Try to keep building from there, if you can get to around 1000 yards a day you would be doing great.  Start with a 200yd warm up and end with a 200yd cool down, mix up the strokes during your work out and mix up your distances between 25 and 100yds.
The weight(115lbs) would be ideal for you, just remember that muscle is heavier than fat so you need to keep that in mind also.
Best of luck
George