In order to improve my cardiovascular health, I plan on running and swimming. I chose these activities because they are exercises that I enjoy doing and are easily accessible for me (I live near a track and have a membership to the YMCA).
             The advantages of running and swimming are the development of cardiovascular strength, the improvement of self-confidence, and the improvement of one's appearance. Also, running can be done anywhere, and really only requires shoes. Swimming works all muscles of the body (a lot can be exercised in a short period of time), and only really requires a swimsuit and a pool.
             Disadvantages of running are that it's horrible for joints and often people get bored doing the same thing over and over again. A major disadvantage to swimming is that it requires a pool. Most people don't' own their own pool, and even if they did, it would need to be an indoor pool to continue the use of this plan year-round (unpredictable weather circumstances occur all of the time). As a result, people often have to schedule times for swimming in accordance with open pool hours.
             I plan to swim twice a week for 45 minutes and run 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Intensity wise, 20 minutes of the swim will be done at a moderate pace, 15 at a fast pace, and 10 will be used for a cool down. As for running, 15 minutes will be done at a moderate pace, 10 at a fast pace (sprinting), and 5 slowly, as a cool down.
             The 15 minutes of swimming and 10 minutes of running will be my form of cardiovascular overload. Those 2 sets of time will be when I push myself the most, striving to become stronger in a good fashion. Over the time period in my fitness plan, I intend on increasing each of my overload periods of swimming and running by 1 ½ minutes each time I do them respectively. This will be my form of progression. As a form of specificity, running will be done mainly to strengthen my legs, and swimmin...