swim fitness

Question
hi,
i'm using swimming as my main activity to regain some fitness and lose a few extra kilos.
What is the best way to go about it?
My routine at the moment:
freestyle(flippers) 100m - then stretch arms shoulders(muscles need me to)
freestyle (flippers)100m against the clock. I leave on the 0, when i get back have to leave on the 11. I keep going till i get down to 8 or 9.
kickboard - 200 to 400m
freestyle 4 or 6 x 50m sprints using the clock as above.
freestlye (no flippers) 200-400m, depends how tired i am.

Using the clock this way i find i am getting about 5-10sec recovery before i have to go again. I gets me breathing hard.

Is there anything else i could do to mix it up a bit.
I do a few laps of backstroke as well - for shoulders. Sometimes i'll do the breaststroke kick with the flippers on - its a great leg workout - well it feels that way.

Anything you can suggest to improve fitness would be great.
As for technique - i get back and forth with out drowning at this stage.

thanks for your time
lisa

Answer
Lisa,
Thanks for writing me.  I am sorry that it tooke a day to get back to you.  I am going to answer your question in four parts: workouts, clock work, technique, and weight loss.

1. Workouts.  The way you described your workouts was confusing to me.  I think that you are talking about doing a total of about 1200 meters per workout.  That is a good start.  I would suggest that you warm up a little more though.  Warming up and warming down are great times to work on your stroke and technique.  I think that the overall structure of your workout sounds good.  Here is what I like to do in order
a. Warm up (about 200-400 meters)
b. Short set (about 500 meters)...do lots of 25's, 50's, and 100's.  The idea is to get your heart rate up here.
c. Main set. (about 500-800 meters).  This should be where you work on going as hard as possible.  Stroke technique is important, but speed and strength are most important here.
d. Kick set (about 200-400 meters)
e. Warm down (about 200 meters)
This will give you a work out from 1600 to 2300 meters.  Use this as a skeleton workout to add and subtrat from.

2. Clockwork.  It sounds like you have the basic idea of what the clock is about, but I would suggest doing interval training.  Do all of your 100's on the same interval.  Don't think about shortening your interval...think about decreasing your time to swim the distance.  Your rest should go up slightly, but you should be working harder too.  Does this make sense?

3. Technique.  It is very hard to critique technique on here.  I would suggest you ask a local swim coach or someone with experience to help you out.  Here are a few tips though.  Lengthen your stroke out.  Make sure you are pulling with your entire arm length.  Relax your neck.  Don't tense up when swimming.  Swimming is about finesse.  Again, I would need to truly see your stroke to critique it.

4. Weight loss.  Swimming is a good way to AID in weight loss.  Unfortunately it will not take all of your weight off.  You need to include some sort of resistance training outside of the water (like weights), a proper diet, and possibly an alternate aerobic exercise as well.  Swimming is great to help tone and lose a bit of weight, but due to the nature of the sport you can't lose all weight needed.  A healthy combination of multiple exercises will help.

I hope that I have been some help.  PLEASE write back if you need clarification or have further questions.  I am more than happy to help out.

Swim Hard!
Eric