Swimming troubles/plateau

Question
So this is hard to explain but here I go,

I  have been swimming competitively since I was 6 yrs old. When I was around 9 or 10 I would say I peaked and was doing best times. As I aged up I still improved but hit a rough spot after my sophomore year of high school. During my junior and senior year I was still performing well as a sprint freestyler but was not sure if I wanted to continue with swimming. As I went off to college I decided to try swimming out and see how it goes. In college I got a lot stronger in the weight room due to performing different exercises than I was used to. As I came down to my taper meet I did not perform as well in my sprint freestyle events but dropped 10 seconds in my breastroke which I had not trained all year. This past year I focused more on breastroke and did alright in it. I ended up having a rough year and not finishing out the season though. So I ended up taking two months off because I was in need of a mental break. So my question is that I am back in the water and training for quite some time but am unable to go anywhere. I have trouble making basic aerobic bases such as 100s on 1:15. I have been trying to focus on technique but my freestyle feels stuck. No matter what I do I can't get faster. For example, a guy I know came to practice today and was beating me on an hour long long course practice. He has not touched water for about three months and had not been doing any aerobic exercise such as running. So why is it that he can beat me when I have been swimming everyday for about three months and running at least 3 times a week and lifting weights as well? Is the water telling me to quit? Thanks!

Answer
Hi,

I am not sure what your problem is either, but did you gain any muscle and/or bulk size from weight lifting. That happened to me and I had to lay off the weights and concentrate solely on swimming, or using a swim bench to replicate swim motion and endurance.

I am just wondering if the weights deplete your flexibility and endurance a bit.

Also breast stroke is one of those strokes that if you train it a lot you can get slower, so that probably accounts for you going faster.

I would drop the running and weights and concentrate on just swimming.

Thanks.