Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

Well done skigirl – such great progress in just three months!

Thanks avocado I will try that next time. I was lucky last night I ended up with a lane to myself in the last half hour of the session which was brill as I was on a mission to do a mile in 45mins. It was my self-imposed Swimathon target and I did it with 5mins left till closing time. It was all F.C. and did total of 66L in the end. I was really pleased as when I signed up 3mths ago I was only upto 40L of F.C. so a 50% increase was a push for me (& I cycled up a big hill earlier in the day )
Did anyone else do Swimathon stuff over the weekend? How did the relay go rights? At DD club 5xkid relay did 166L in 55mins! They were aged 11-14!

I'm leaning towards the 2.5k but not made a decision yet.

I used to live on a lake and swum everyday through the warmer months and that's somewhere with venomous water snakes. At least in the UK it's only really the cold you have to worry about

tizwoz have you decided on your open water event? Maybe you should challenge yourself with the 2.5km (says me who is a little bit frightened of swimming in open water!).

Skigirl – I suddenly remembered a very good tip for getting faster while doing my lengths to day: get ||sandwiched|| between two very fast swimmers! It makes such a difference. Yesterday there were just two of us in the fast lane and it ended up being quite a leisurely swim, today there were about five people - two of them are particularly fast – and I felt properly pushed! I also realise that I've made small adjustments to my stroke over time: putting my arms in the water curved so they enter the water in line with my eyes rather than straight and in line with my ears (focusses on pulling the water in the right place), bilateral breathing, and also really thinking about lifting my bottom up which in turn brings my legs (and kick) up towards the surface.

Had a good swim today working on my arm pull and pushing the water away at the end. made my left arm ache but got a good 35minset in before I took over the kids in the pool from DH.

Planning on doing some open water swim events this year but not sure what distance to go for.

The local one has 1.5k and 2.5k options. I've done quite a few 1.5k events so might be nice to do something again to assess where I am against a previous baseline. At the same time, 2.5 k is a bit more of a challenge. Decisions, decisions....

Thanks there’s some good ideas here which i will use. Yes I do need to try some sprint sessions and I’ve been trying to work on my kick but after last nights session I don’t think it’s an issue. It’s the arm catch that I’ll keep working on now. I’ve learnt a lot from you-tube so I may have another look around thanks guys I was feeling bit fed up last night but I’ll get back in the pool tom.

I also watch loads of technique videos and have built up to much higher intensity swims since using a pull buoy. Because of my peculiar hatred of wet skin I cannot swim for more than 35 or so minutes so I have had to make the 35 minutes I do work harder for me.

The pull buoy was a revelation. I had no idea how much kicking slows me down! I try to work on my kicks with a kick board but find myself only able to manage one lenght of the pool before I give up and go back to working on my arm catch instead. When I swim without the buoy I now concentrate on getting my legs higher and my body more horizontal in the water by getting my head tucked in and my bum cheeks flexed as if I was trying to hold a coin between them and my toes pointed. I am working so much harder than before and I now get out of breath and feel my heart rate going up on each set of 100m that I do.

There are loads of swimming technique videos on you tube- some better than others. Ignore the ones that advise swimming with a kickboard out in front of outstretched arms, it can hurt your shoulders and your legs go down when they need to be horizontal.

I've got faster just by swimming regularly. I give a lift to the pool to a neighbour who is much more strategic though and he does the sprint lengths like lljkk said and he has also been using a float to just focus on strengthening his kick at the moment. He watches lots of YouTube videos on improving technique.

Thanks for the info on swim tag, SwimIO and Strava, I'll take a look at them all and get back into it.

Intervals in the pool just like running intervals, to go faster.

More time in pool is good, too, but intervals are useful. Eg., every 7th length can be a kill yourself one . To go faster you need to.. go faster.

Glad you have RL support rights and hope you can find a stress relief that’s not exercise too.

whitetee I just count time or lengths and manually add mine to Strava to keep an idea on totals.

Advice please how do I get faster? I had coaching session tonight but didn’t get much out of it as the others are mainly learning the basics which I’ve taught myself and the guy said I had gd technique & a low stroke rate (17 in a 20m pool) which is all well and good but I want to get quicker?! Do I just have to spend hours swimming lengths? I do upto 8L kicking when I go, and around 30-35L of F.C. plus couple of breaststroke L. Average 40L in half hour but want to feel a lot more comfortable in the “fast” lane, I think it’s technique but I can’t work out the next tweak needed on my arm pull? With running I could see a linear progression but I’m feeling abit frustrated/impatient with swimming any helpful tips from those on here swimming further and quicker do I just need more time in the pool?? I think I just had a frustrating session tonight hmmm

There is SwimIO the app. But I don't find it great, so far I have apparently swum the Great Barrier Reef! But that means nothing to me in real terms.

I've not found any straightforward way for tracking/logging swims I'm afraid PlainWhiteTee. My local pools aren't signed up to Swimtag.

Welcome PlainWhiteTea. I switched to swimming when I hurt my ankle running and haven't looked back. I get Swimtag with my membership and that is a good tracker, as lljkk says.

The local pool probably has some kind of programmes on offer, PlainWhite. Ring & ask. With swimtag, they send you challenges to take part in so you don't even need local people to compare to.

Can I join you on this thread? I use to swim loads when I was younger but fell away from it for years. I'm now 50 and in reasonable shape, but looking to tone up a bit as I'm definitely less fit than I used to be/would like to be. I started walking and cycling recently, but tore ligaments in my foot a couple of weeks ago so had to stop all that. I'm contemplating the local pool, but could do with some support and encouragement and advice on any training programmes or apps to track progress and goal setting.

@rights I really hope you are back in the pool soon and that this is not something serious. When you get into the fit zone and then a doctor tells you not to, it is a wake up call.

RoW: I'd try to remember if this is the most disappointing news I got all year (no swimming for a week), then I'd be a very lucky gal. Maybe even scale that down to 'this month'. My lack of swimming in last fortnight is also due to a false-alarm health scare. (sigh)

Bodies are very curious things, aren't they?! I'm getting my VO2MAX tested soon. Quite looking forward to it.

Take care of yourself, Rights. That all sounds really grim but glad you've got support in real life – and in cyber life from us too!

Where have I been? Well, we had a week in Portugal over the Easter hols for my 40th. And the Mumsnet Talk app on my phone needs me to log in again for some reason and I haven't got round to doing it! So only found you all again via my computer.

Good swim today after a very crowded pool on Tuesday. 2km in 39:16 so I'm pleased with that. And the sun was catching the pool water again too and for some reason that makes me very happy!

My bloods were taken because I'm not looking after myself very well.
I am coping with the aftermath of my abusive marriage (and continued agro) in unhealthy ways. The main concern with elevated CK levels is that it can indicate heart problems. This is very, very unlikely in my case, but the only way to rule it out is to have the level measure when I've been rested for a week or so.

Don't want to derail the thread. I'm OK, I'm being supported very well.

My sport is so important to me for so, so many reasons. You all get that I think.

I am going swimming today, first proper swim for 2 weeks!! (Long story why). Really looking forward to it, in spite of lovely sunshine beckoning me outside instead. I chatted with someone who swims 9-10k/week last night nutter with no life. On top of other IronMan training.

RightsOfWomen: why were your creatine kinase levels measured? Looks like serious stuff not to mess with doctor's advice, though.

I’d not heard of the condition before and just googled it. Doesn’t sound good, I hope the down time helps, it must be really hard to manage when you need the exercise buzz to make life enjoyable.

I made a deal with my GP. Unfortunately I forgot that I also had a planned long w/e walking with my good friend. We've planned this since last year. I start my week off exercise 8th May.

I will discuss with my MH nurse next week.