I wouldn't recommend swimming if you are having chest pains.

1st. Avoid swimming with a cold

2nd Avoid swimming with pull buoy.

If I am recovering from a chest infection, the LAST thing I would want to do is to scorch my lung tissue with chlorine fumes.

I'd think easy spinning would be the best way to transition back to the Land of the Living.

My $0.02

Brian

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Swim. Bike. Run. Repeat as necessary.
Welcome to the Church of Briantriology!

Seconding this. Maybe because swimming is where I struggle most, but it's the first to go to shit when I'm not feeling well, and where I require the most oxygen. It's where I feel it the most if my asthma flares up even a tiny bit. No way would I swim if my lungs felt bad. Bike first, definitely.

I'd avoid the pool, too. No fun at all - hard enough to breath when you're coughing or sneezing.

If I'm took sick to SBR but not sick enough to be bedridden, I actually get a lot of benefit by doing easier-effort pulls on my Vasa trainer. I know, you don't have one, but for those that do, it's a really nice thing to do when you're sick since you can keep it easy enough not to huff and puff, but the machine puts enough load on your swim muscles that they still get a very good muscular endurance workout that'll have you rearing to go when you hit the pool again.

You might try 100yd interval repeats at max effort. Do at least 20 of these minimum. It should help clear things out.

Everyone is different. Lots of "don't swim, it makes it worse" comments, but when I have a bad head cold the pool clears my sinuses and takes care of my headache for a while. I go in stopped up and hurting and come out breathing fine with a runny nose. My wife pointed out one day that I just cleared my sinuses in the NYSC pool, which is kind of gross, so I just don't think about that. I certainly don't tell my pool mates.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Sprint underwater dolphin kick, on your back....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

This workout would help you


– 10×100 super easy warm-up on 2:10
– 10×100 as 25 sprint / 75 easy on 2:10
Fuel break
– 30×100 swim on 2:00, steady pace
Fuel break
– 15×100 buoy/band on 2:00, steady pace
Fuel break
– 30×100 paddles/buoy/band on 1:45
– 5×100 easy cool-down as 50 kick/50 easy swim with 10 sec rest
10,000 meters (skip the fuel breaks-those are for wimps)

Best drill is probably to get out of the pool and go rest more. Maybe do some easy trainer riding.

If you insist on swimming, I don't think there's any reason to go in and drill only. This is a great opportunity to try some new skills. Jason suggested underwater sprint dolphin kick on your back. Do that, use fins if necessary.

Pull buoy isn't really a drilling tool, particularly not if you can't maintain/mock the new body position when you take it out.

Try a workout like this:

warmup: 400swim/300kick/200pull/100swim
drill/technique/skill set: fins on, 8x150 as 50 dolphin kick on your back, 50 10kick switch, 50 swim focus on good form and pulling water
main set: 40x50 (first 16 every 4th hard, then 12 every 3rd hard, 8 every other hard, 4 all hard). Use an interval that gives 10 seconds of rest on the cruise and 15 seconds for fast. You can mix in a pull buoy here, maybe use it for the first half of each round (ie the first 8/6/4/2)
cooldown 200ez

That's a 4400 yard workout. If you can't get in and swim hard a little, I'd stay away from the pool until you're feeling better. The pool has the ability to magnify "feeling not so great" into "feeling awful and hating life".

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Nonstop butterfly, full wetsuit, pull buoy and hand paddles, no goggles. That will kill anything in your body that shouldn't be there. Like aqua-chemo. If you live, you'll be faster.

Or if you want to take it easy, then just 45 minutes of flutter kick in place in the deep end, with a cinder block overhead in each hand. Breathe on the :55.

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thanks for the suggestions, and all the other general concerns about my health. I'm not having a heart attack, and I'm not coughing & snotting up the pool. From an outsider's point of view, I appear perfectly normal. I'm prone to these infections, I get them every few years, and as I get older they take their time going away - and it's frustrating.

I swam 850Y today, with my longest "interval" being 150Y, which was a start. I've only tried kicking on my back once, not a strong suit as I pinball off the lane ropes. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I can just feel whatever swim form I have managed to build slowly slipping away, and it's so hard (for me) to get it back.

I'll continue to leave the buoy at home though.

Big difference between a head cold and a chest cold.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

1X2000 with a pull buoy.

If you are doing sets there's always the temptation to push too hard or the risk of setting too aggressive an interval for your current illness. Just do a "pool spin" and turn the arms some.

After, spend some time in the sauna. Let the heat help kill what's in your lungs.

+1 on the trainer as a better first step back.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)