re: swimming ache/pain

It's possible that you just strained your traps/upper lats and it'll be fine, but it's possible you could have hurt your rotator cuff. I'd suggest talking to your doctor about it. How bad is the pain? How long have you had this pain? If it is a rotator cuff problem, and you ignore it, you WILL pay for it later in life.

ACK! Get thee to a doctor if it keeps up. I ignored the pain, thinking that it would go away -because, really, most muscular aches and pains do. But I had damaged the rotator cuff and now I'm in physical therapy and can only swim once a week (and the physical therapist didn't really WANT me to do that, but conceded.) Trust me. Catching it sooner rather than later would have been better.

She (the therapist) did mention that had I worked on upper body strength a little more carefully and regularly, this probably wouldn't have happened. And then there's my competitive streak, which REQUIRED that I keep up with my stronger, taller, faster husband.... but that's another story.

Andrea

This is quite common for swimmers actually!
I get this every now and then.
My best advice is to breath bilaterally.
This will balance out your stroke, and take the pressure off the lat that's bothering you.
Bilateral breathing takes a little practice, but it will pay off in many ways. I wrote an article on that you can read at http://www.triswimcoach.com/tsc/bilateral_breathing.html.

Good luck!
Kevin
www.triswimcoach.com

oops...thanks for correcting that!

Thank you everyone for your useful suggestions. I will monitor this and watch out. If it does continue, I will see the doctor before I do a number on me. I don't want to be finished before I even get started!