Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

Wow! Looks amazing Hissy!

Thank you for the all tips over the last few weeks. I had a bit of a break through this morning. I had a feeling that continuous crawl was now just a mental hurdle to get over so went for it. Having not done more than 6 lengths previously I decided to do 8. That was easy enough so I then went for 16. Lost count & my Garmin told me I did 18! Did a final 4 & got out.

Really pleased. Just like when I did 20 mins running going C25k. Next swim I’m going to go for it & see if I can do all 30 crawl. All this just as I’ve had the green light from the physio to start running again. Will have to keep swimming too now!

Where are you Hissy? Natural swimming pool sounds great - I've got swimmer's itch from the water at the weekend

Sitting by a natural swimming pool.

No lanes, no black lines (urchins are spectacularly disorganised, I’ve tried, but they’re a little prickly when you try and boss em about)

Have swum into caves, around points, to and from islands, more and further and wilder than I’ve ever Swum before.

Well chuffed with the progress tbh

Have super dooper fun everyone 🌞

Well done tizwozliz especially in the wet n windy conditions! Great time and placing.
We’ve just abandoned a wet n wild campsite a night early as forecast continued to be dire...! Typical flipping school hols after wks of sunshine.

Swim went pretty well, although the organisation was fairly rubbish. Went without a wetsuit which was definitely the right decision for me. Very choppy, they changed the course to help a little but meant we had to get out and run around then get back in again for a second lap.

2nd in my age group, 10th female overall (should have been 9th but the direction to the finish mat was non existent!) Took 45 and a half minutes or so, pleased with that, wanted to do under 50 and weather wasn't helpful and sighting on the course was rubbish.

2.5k open water swim today, of course it's windy and throwing it down after weeks of glorious weather!

Quick 1k before last day at school pick up. Gets more challenging fitting in swims now. But I just joined different pool which is mostly one depth so if I do go with kids the youngest can stand up in 75% of the pool so I can get some Lengths in.

Went for a quick swim with teen daughter this morning: lucky enough to have the pool to ourselves! There’s a fun session a bit later which I expect is why no children & it’s not normally open mid morning term time. Wonder if it’ll stay this quiet all summer? Will go more often if it does!

Nice mile swim tonight worked on F.C. catch and was counting strokes I’m very consistent at 21 per 25m but it feels slow hence why I think I’m gliding /stalling abit within the stroke.

Theres a nice gym near me with a glorious outdoor pool! But way out of my price range.

Enjoy x

Can swim in an outdoor pool at the gym by my new job so that makes me happy. No timing clock though so need to work something else out as without a clock i just end up plodding.

2.5k open water race coming up this weekend, water is reportedly about 21/22 so think I'm going to ditch the wetsuit for it.

Ta. Was just curious.
If it's a "timing" thing, that's another way I'd spectacularly fail, tbh!

The push and underwater kick/wiggle is used to get speed and propulsion as it’s faster than swimming

The glide that’s being talked about in strokes is the bit of technique that takes the smooth and streamlined body position and uses the propulsion and speed to slip through the water before the next stroke. You have to get it right, time the stroke too quickly and you lose the smooth speed in the glide, too slow and momentum is lost.

Look at swim smooth/total immersion, that might help show you what I mean

(I tried to google this, honest, but can't find a thing that gives definite answer)

I think the glide thingie is something to do when folk turn around at the ends, not done at other times.

Is the glide supposed to make you faster than going straight into your stroke, or is it supposed to just be a regular rest moment in the middle of the set? It looks like a little rest for most.

ie, What's the point of gliding? How does it help you swim?

I can't glide, btw, I can't go underwater for any time. I can see in Olympics that elite swimmers seem to glide away from walls extremely fast, though.

I’ve used tempo training, it’s part of total immersion training, it’s a little distracting at first

I need to get mine back from the oh

Might take it on hols with me to focus on plopping along for longer ...

The swim smooth stuff about over gliding is a bit of nonsense I’ve been told

Look at total immersion, it teaches the importance of smoothness and using the glide

In conventional swimming too glide is important- breaststroke for example

I also have a sneaking suspicion that css may not be the answer, looking at sets with it on paper it doesn’t make sense that it would enhance speed over all.

Thanks for the swimsmooth link doorknob I watched it and then a couple more and realised I’m a “glider” so it’s really given me some good ideas & drills to work on with my stroke. I even fitted the “analytical” job/mindset but not the tall man description.. does anyone else use a tempo trainer? I’m tempted after watching the videos, and to see if my daughter may like to try it. The only thing I’m not sure about is if I’d hear the thing beeping as I have hearing issues, wear ear plugs, and struggle with higher pitch noises.

I managed about 20 minutes in the sea on Sunday. Love the sea waves but can't take the cold. Brrrrr!!!
My pool is very busy at 6:30am on weekdays
I am another one who has done her fastest ever lengths after a stupid row with someone
I never heard of CSS before... Is this right link? I don't see how one does that in shared public lanes.

This same bloke competed in a club champ, won everything he entered, but wasn’t happy with the times

When he went to gb Masters he was with much faster swimmers, so swam even faster and won most of his races.

His “encouragement” when he’s setting out sets is “good... now SWIM FASTER!”

Do you train alone? Or are you in a club? It really helps to have others to train with.

Me and my oh are about same standard, sometimes he’s faster, sometimes I am. I’m better at some strokes than him, him in others :) it helps a lot to get us each better but by bit

Swim over the top of them! It actually IS your place to suggest she moves when you are TWICE as fast as her.

Ffs, I’m not quick and I could even backstroke faster than her fc

A 3m 100m is not “fast”

My team mate with the medals is super generous with me and the oh, helps train, gives technical tweaks and tips to help us swim faster. Has all the time in the world

BUT... even he told someone to ftfo out of his lane as he needed to swim and slowcoach wasn’t allowing him to.

Yes, I've always thought that swimming faster is the way to swim faster but that's sort of the opposite to what doing repeats at css pace says. I was sceptical to start with and I've given it a go and it just doesn't work for me.

My main issue now is that at the sessions I go to the 'fast' lane is full of quite slow people so it's difficult to even do a clear 100. Today there was a lady who was doing 100's off about 3 minutes. I asked if she would mind moving down to the medium lane (1 other person in that lane) and got told it wasn't my place to tell her to move and it was extremely rude to even ask nicely!!

Pub to Club! We were going to try that, but having done Henley last weekend I know I’m not ready

I do find swimming upstream hard work, but if you get through that it’s easier when it’s all down steam to a pub!

We’re on holiday next week so it was a little tight to enter and still get focused on packing etc, but as I say, I’m not up to it yet.

I’ve not tried css though, I didn’t know how effective it would be, interesting to hear your take on it

Tiz My team mate gave the 4321 session to build speed (he won 6 medals at gb masters, 4 gold, 2 silver) and he says that’s what he does to get his speed up, to swim faster, it’s just a case of swimming faster, more often then for longer

Sounds like you’re about to hit an up phase, so carry on doing what you’re doing and I think the time will come

Ah, when i say swim smooth sets i just mean the ones they suggest on their css-training page

e.g.
10x200m with 20sec recovery
or
5x400m with 40sec recovery
or
20x100m with 10sec recovery

I don't follow their stroke methodology