Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

Orig yes, I did the same take-two-conditioners-and-no-shampoo yesterday - my hair felt very odd all day.

A big welcome to the newcomers – and hello to the regulars. I've not done a triathlon, or swum 10km, nor do I have a workout so I'm not very helpful but I will offer lots of encouragement! I swim 2km in 40 mins three times a week, alternating a length of front crawl with a length of backstroke. Nora that is bad news about your pool! Could the community take it on? Our pool is run by Places for People (www.placesforpeople.co.uk/services/leisure_management.aspx) who seem to do an ok job.

Half Marathon (running)

What is HM please?

Lengths done : 40 = 1K
Time : 25 mins
Aches: legs for first 8 lengths
Busy factor : low
Lane wankers: zero
Shampoo bottles taken: zero
Conditioner bottles taken : two
Knickers taken : zero
8 year olds awake and sitting on stairs watching 8 out of 10 cats while big bro completely oblivious : one

A good start to my 2018 campaign!

orange I missed your post first time skimming through, sorry! Do you swim mostly front crawl or do you mix it up? For a mostly FC standard workout totaling 1500m, I would suggest something like this:

Warm up, easy pace, untimed: 100 swim, 50m kick, 50m pull, 50m swim
Drills: 25m each: 6 kicks to the stroke (really stretch and glide), racing dog paddle drill (FC where you keep your arms under the water returning them to the front, look it up on YouTube), catch up (each stroke completes at the front, i.e. only one arm moving at a time), then fingertip drag. Repeat for total 200m drill.
3x alternating 50m kick and pull
Main set: 300, 200, 100, 50 FC, increasing pace, 15-30 s rests in between depending how you feel and what your pace is like
Cool down: 100m easy pace

Hi all, I've been out of action all holiday with a chest infection. Was in the water for a planned usual 2 km swim just before Christmas and I almost passed out after 800m. I'm hoping to gradually get into the pool again starting tomorrow with maybe just a very slow 500m. My lungs are still pretty congested but I feel like the moist air would do me good.

Flip you approach long distance swimming the way you do a marathon. The best predictor of completing is racking up a steady distance every week. Take one of those marathon training calendar calculation web apps and calculate your planned training distances using a ratio of 10 to 26.2. You won't have any single swims of 10km in the plan, but it'll get you to ~8km. Also since it's outdoor swimming, when the weather warms up you should be doing at least one of your training swims outdoors every week. It's quite different to a pool. I'd also recommend training in a 50m pool if you can.

I've managed a few nice swims over the holiday but today it was so cold in my classroom I had to to bed to warm up instead of swimming :( I'm a bit cross with myself but I know I'll be back to normal (3 or 4) times a week by next week.

Our pool is once more under threat of closure and I am feeling weary at the idea of another campaign to keep it open and council owned. Our council want to sell it off as a community asset but they openly admit its a liability (80 years old and in need of major works). Their suggestion is that local swimmers drive to alternative pools 6 miles away when most people walk to this wonderful local pool. Yes it's tired and seen better days but it is much loved and we want it to stay open for our community to continue to enjoy swimming. I'm not sure I have another fight in me or that I want spend my later years running a swimming pool (via a committee etc) gah!

Happy ny and welcome new folks.

I’ve not been in the pool much just down to various life stuff in Dec but was great to get 1k mostly FC done this week really helped stretch out the running legs. I’m also HM training for my first mid-feb so using swimming to support that mainly. (Name changed from TriGirl)

Welcome orange building and flip

Not sure where all the regulars are, but am sure things will pick up soon.

Am off for my first 1K of the year this evening.

orange I came to swimming having always been a reluctant and not very competent swimmer. I am yet to do a tri though.
Others are better placed to advise on getting the best out of your single swim a week. I am a runner so try and use my swims to relax and stretch out my legs while giving my upper body a good work out. I use a pull buoy every other 100m. Other than that I just go up and down! I believe mixing it up (stroke and effort) is the most effective, a bit like running really.

What HM are you doing?

building I can feel your happiness at being able to get back into swimming in your post. Congratulations. It sounds like you have a good plan to get your fitness back. What does the swimathon entail?

Flip 10K swim!!! THUD. I have no idea how to train for that. Hopefully others will come along.

Hi - do you mind if I join you? I just posted another post about a long-distance swim before I found you here. I'm a fairly mediocre swimmer but needed something to keep me motivated on the exercise front so signed up for a 10km river swim. It's not until September so I'm hoping I've got enough time to train. I'm relatively fit but have always run rather than swam but training for a marathon last year was so draining and everything hurt so I thought I'd try swimming.

Any tips? I did 2kms this morning but it took me an hour. I'm not worried about speed so much though to be fair.

A belated Happy New Year to you all.

Hello all, I am so excited to have found you. I have always enjoyed swimming for fitness (at a moderate level) but then was very poorly for a few years and unable to exert myself at all. Have been getting back into exercise slowly and have started swimming once a week or so. Have just registered with the swimathon and am utterly thrilled.

At the moment I do around 500m in 25 minutes while my dd has her swimming lesson, usually just breaststroke with a couple of lengths of crawl. Don't feel wiped out afterwards (which is good, that is my main aim for now). Planning on keeping that up for January and then increasing somehow but not exactly sure how... Will decide that later.

Just joining, if I may.
I've swum once or twice a week over the last year while training for sprint tri's - from struggling over 50m to managing 1500m. I had training plans for the tris, but am switching back to a running plan as I'm doing a half in March.

I plan to keep swimming once per week but won't have the plans to guide me. Whats the best way to ensure I'm progressing or at least gaining some training effect - don't want to add distance each week but would like some structure. Any tips on good routines/workouts?

Sorted. Small = youth (ha bloody ha!), Medium = woman, Large = men and women with large hands.

Ordered.

Anyone else want to share their goals for the coming year, swim wise?

Oh god...they come in sizes!

Just found this "Swimmers wear gloves during training to increase water resistance, with the webbed fingers spreading wide to create more drag. The added resistance provides more work for the upper body, giving the shoulders, arms, chest and back an intense workout and toning muscles well beyond normal swimming."

YES! This is what I need. Watch our Adlington!

I had to re-register and now can't use rightsofwomen. It's me though!

So, overall I think I missed swimming on average twice a week about 8 times in 2017, which is what my goal was. I don't feel at all discouraged by this and still feel I met my goal : "try" and swim twice a week. The missed ones were not due to being idle, but just not being able to fit it in or choosing to prioritise my running if I had to choose. And yes, there was the odd time when I did skip it in favour of staying at home and resting, and that's OK too.

I will stick with the same goal this year.

My Q. As a runner I really don't need to work my legs in the pool. I use my pull buoy which gives my legs a rest.
I was thinking of getting some aqua gloves, but I not really sure why - just that they will be a different experience which mixes things up a bit.
Truth be told, I need to shake things up a bit by mixing my sessions up instead of just swimming 40 lengths at the same speed using the same stroke. I don't have particular race or target goals, but will do some open water races I think.

my pool had 8-19 people in it, yesterday for lanes, about avg, I think.
Meg: are you a 2km in 40 minute swimmer?

Happy Christmas everyone!

Thankyou Avocado...it is a long time- wish I had used more moisturiser! Levels of chlorine have vastly improved, reduced so no more bleached blonde brown hair although either would be preferable to my grey. It hasnt given me beach ready body - more East German female swimmer -but it has saved my sanity on a few occasions.

Hi pinkgin not an annoyance -triathletes tend to swim with discipline, awareness of lane etiquette etc...and swim outdoors for long periods. It's the people starting or getting back into.. quite often chatty, swim two abreast and often in the wrong lane. You must have come across this?

Think pools should prep themselves for this in January - maybe some proper structured group sessions for returners in separate area of the pool??

Meg I see your point but if your specifically referring to me it couldn’t be further from the truth! I am training for a triathlon so I have to include swimming... sorry if that is an annoyance to you.

We were saying just today at the fairly quiet pool that come January there will be twenty more people in the pool for a few weeks! 35 years is very impressive, Meg.

Oh no - the new year new me swimmers! I know it is a good thing but my heart sinks on January when the pool is super busy. But there are worse things. Just realised the other day that I have been swimming regularly for nearly 35 years - only break when pregnant. Another 35 please..

Welcome Sodaface. Swimming will make a perfect New Year's Resolution (if you believe in such things)!