Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

Hello swimmers! I've had a bit of a lazy week but went this morning and had a lovely swim. Just one other person in my lane and we were really well matched in speed. I managed 1 km breaststroke in 25 mins, and I'm feeling great now

Managed just under half a k last night in just over 20 minutes. Not too bad. Was sure I'd eaten enough but got quite shaky so must remember to eat a banana before I go next time.

Thanks corridgons that’s interesting. I’ve been looking at a few YouTube vids to help me swim smoother, Spotted this one last night and the bit about 3.5mins in when he breathes out of time I went “ah ha” that’s what I do! So I’m hoping I can go today and practice/think about the timing of my breath. The video before that one also talked about bilateral breathing which I’m struggling with and it’s not the neck turn but the body roll. I panic when trying to breathe to my left so I need to roll more not try yank my neck round so hopefully I can enjoy my swim and not overthink it all too much later.

We have sea swimming group where I live but I’m too scared at the moment to go, I think I’ll spend this year working on my technique then next year my goal maybe the sea swimming as it’s something I’ve never managed since an awful experience in the med when I was a young child swallowing lots of salt water after being sucked under by a wave.

Welcome Loopy. Hope your session this morning went well. There are a couple on here also swimming open water. I got chatting to someone at the pool this week and it turns out that she swims at the Saturday morning session at our local reservoir that I'd heard about. She said how friendly everyone was there, and how keen they were to give her tips on swimming in open water.

Interesting Corrigan. I'm conscious that my left arm doesn't feel like it is doing as well as the right arm (I am right handed). It feels a bit floppy and like it isn't going into the water at the right angle. It would be useful to see what I'm actually doing!

Hi hope you don't mind me joining you here.
I have a couple of open water events later this year and am a terrible swimmer, terrified of the open water, nothing is in my favour at the moment!
Just about to go to the pool now. Early morning training otherwise I'll find an excuse not to go later!

I had a really helpful video analysis session on Tuesday. I thought I could point out my faults to see if it helps anyone else. I was crossing over my arms at the front, which then leads to you doing a “scissor” kick at the back, increasing drag and slowing you down. The coach said to imagine swimming with you arms at the 10’clock position on the left and 2 o’clock on the right. It’s a really common fault. I also have problem with my arm recovery - as in I don’t have one! My forearm is still engaged and I was leading the recovery arm with my wrist and hand, it should be led by the elbow. She’s given me a couple of drills - one of which is the “scarecrow drill” where I try to get my forearm wrist and hand all floppy. Have a look at some videos of pros online to see what I mean about the floppy recovery arm (the one above the water).

She also advised me to increase my stroke rate. In the 90-00s the vogue was to have a lovely long, smooth stroke rate (think Ian Thorpe) but actually that doesn’t work for everyone. I do a lot of open water swimming and a higher stroke rate can be better there. She suggested about 65 strokes per minute and it feels really good.

For anyone who can’t get coaching, it could be helpful to get a friend video you with their phone and you can analyse your stroke, even better if the friend has a Go Pro and could do under water too.

I might see if I can get stills of my video to post so you can have a look at the faults and the fixes too. Might not be that clever though.

Oops posted too soon...
I’m hoping once I can get the arm working abit better I can start to up the pace a bit more.

Swam 1k 32mins hadn’t eaten properly due to work and ran out of energy half way through the set as I had set off fast. I have been working on my FC arm pull shape and something clicked

Turns out that the scary swimmer who was overtaking me last week with her complicated drills – and was there again today (although she only overtook me once) – was wearing a cap saying London Swimming Championships 2017! I felt marginally better! She was amazing: flippers, those hand things, legs only backstroke, legs only butterfly – a woman on a mission.

People who do fly in public sessions are just plain antisocial.

I've got my ocean swim on Sunday, which I've been training for since December. I'm a bit nervous tbh.

laughing at your man in the ladies tale rights
Did a run then swim morn it fits in with my eldest DDs activity but it’s not a relaxing swim as it’s SO busy whilst the training lanes for the kids are up so there’s only one adult public lane up and it had “mr ex-club man” who likes to do 50m butterfly sets down the middle of the small lane even though it’s PUBLIC swimming I feel like saying! There were only 4 of us in the lane and 3 of us were swimming same pace steady crawl and yes he was exceptionally fast & I had sympathy for him but he was just flipping rude grrrrr. There are plenty of much quieter evening sessions and masters times he could do his 50m butterfly sets in.....needless to say I didn’t enjoy the swim much as it all felt too tense.

Back from my 1K. End of the session so pool to myself!
The school lessons arrived just as I got out. Dear God, who'd be a swimming teacher!

Oh and a man...A MAN I TELL YOU...wandered into the women's loos (it's all quite open, just signage and walls rather than doors), went in a cubicle, didn't shut the door and started to get his willy out for a wee. Ahem I said, this is the women's. Then said I didn't really mind, but he could at least shut the door. He scuttled off.

No tips I'm afraid but I am .
I bet you'll come on leaps and bounds.

So I've booked myself in for some improver lessons to hopefully help with strokes etc ....any tips?

Made myself go tonight 1k done but took effort as tired after work and running this week.

I get your point lljkk! There are loads of 50m pools where I live so sets like that are do-able. I was overtaken a few times during that set by better swimmers. I stay in the Medium lane and there are usually 2-3 other swimmers in the lane. I often delay my start or start a little early so i’m not tailing people’s toes or pushing off in front of faster swimmers. I don’t think it would be possible in a busy pool in the UK. I think I would cause Swim rage - and rightly so!

lljjk I do sets like Corrigan but I'm almost always in a lane to myself or sharing with one other, and we split it. Advantages of going at a quiet time at a private club pool. It's my one luxury. No professional haircuts, and eBay clothes. Luckily I'm in a very casual dress workplace! My club has started a team challenge against another club on swimtag this month. Quite exciting.

Trying to say this kindly, Corrigan, but do you drive the other people in your lane nuts with that regime? Or do you only OW swim or in a pool always your own lane, so no space sharing? I read on another thread you're in sunny Oz .

I'm off for my morning plod (swim), soon. We will be maybe 5-8 people in one lane. Tend to have to points when we must wait for somone or must wait to overtake, so can't follow such a strictly timed routine.

I do baby triathlons. I don't know about GOOD triathletes, but at my events, seems like nobody is very good at more than one sport and most of the entrants can just about get around and are well pleased with that. Power? Ha!

Triathletes are a great example of why swimming is much more about technique than pure fitness. They can be so ridiculously fit but struggle with swimming as it’s not about just power.

I did this session on Tuesday:

Warm up: 200 free
Main set:
Part 1: 400,300,200,100 free with my Tempo Trainer set at 27:52 secs per 25m. 1 beep recovery between each set.
Part 2: 400,300,200,100 free on 27:27/25m
Part 3: 400,300,200,100 free on 27.02/25m
Part 4: 400,300,200,100 free on 26.77/25m

I missed out the 400m on Parts 1 and 2 as I was short on time. The Tempo Trainer is great for pacing, although the beep can mess with your head after a while, esp when the pace steps up.

Has anyone else tried training with one?

Thanks Orig I'm looking at doing some improver lessons as while I can swim well, my strokes are not very good, could do with some help, then hoping to go 3/4 times a week. Any help with training for fitness welcome....... please 💐

Avocado I've said this before, but you are FAST!

I haven't had lane issues at all lately. I've changed the sessions I go to since DS1 went to uni so maybe that's it.
I do always try and go towards the end of a session.

It's been a while since I've had a rant on women only night!

ps another trip to China/Hong Kong in April. Hoorah!

64 lengths (2112m) in 40m 14s today. Fast man was making the rest of us feel compelled to go faster too! Shattered now … Luckily not as busy as yesterday when 9 people were in the medium lane apparently. My neighbour said he could barely swim.

1km done and the pool is getting busier and busier, so it wasn't quite the relaxing early morning swim I was hoping for...

1k done and made new friends while discussing aqua gloves!
Am going to get more aids and see how many friends I can make!

So I did the Total Immersion day on Saturday and it was great. Everyone else (7 in total) were triathletes and none younger than 40 imo. Fit as buggery.

They really struggled with the TI technique as they had to unlearn their muscle memory; while fat old me toddled up and down and did all the drills with less problem - it was a challenge of course, and I'm sure I was far far from perfect, but it was v interesting to see the difference.

So I would absolutely 100% recommend a one day course in TI for people who are less confident in front crawl or who struggle to get a stroke that allows them to 'keep going' lengh after length. But if you're a confident and experienced swimmer of FC then i think you'd need to commit to ongoing training in TI before you could 'unlearn' your bad current techniques.