Pool swimmers: how much and how often?

[Firesidefox]

Posting here for traffic.

I've started swimming in my local pool as I had to give up running, and I'm interested to know how much others do.

(I get that this is a 'piece of string' type question, but never mind).

For those who regularly swim in a pool for exercise, how much do you do? Eg time/distance.

And how often do you go?

I'm mid-40s and after a slow start I've got up to swimming 1km twice a week. I also go on my Wattbike a couple of times a week.

(This is the ideal - last week I had a cold and felt shattered so did nothing).

Please tell me what you do as I have no swimming friends so no one to compare myself to, and I can't find any swimming forums either - when I ran I used to go to Runner's World for info.

Thanks

I swim once a week. Pre-covid I did 50 lengths in 35 minutes. Now, though, I get cramp very quickly in my legs if I use them to push off so I don’t push off at all. I’m up to half a mile in 30 minutes. I only go once a week because I don’t enjoy anymore than that.

I go 3 or 4 times a week. Generally swim for an hour. In a club session I'll do between 2.5km and 2.75km. if on my own more like 3km. The club sessions are better workouts but hard to replicate in a public session.

I'm a runner who also swims to give my legs a bit of respite! I swim once a week for a mile in under 40 minutes. Short runs of 4 miles at least twice a week plus longer weekend run. I really miss the swim session if I don't do it.

When I pool swam I would do a mile (64 lengths in about 40-45 mins. I would classify myself as a good but not brilliant swimmer.

I haven't been in a pool for over 2 years and now do all my swimming in the sea, all year round. I'm on holiday in a few weeks time to a place with a pool so I'm interested to see if it's made a difference.

Also to say that my swimming would be a mixture of strokes and some drills, I wasn't going for speed.

I now go to the gym but at your age (52 now!) I swam a mile 5 mornings a week in around 35-40 mins

Interesting to hear about shoulder injuries from swimming. I started in June and have recently been diagnosed with rotator cuff injury (must be from swimming as that's the only real exercise I do 😁). Is this common and can anything help? Sorry to hijack thread.

Well done that's a lot of swimming!

I bought a speedo Aqua beat... thank me later 😁

I can swim for hours listening to music!
If you want to swim faster or for longer try using 0.5-1kg ankle & wrist weights, it creates a great resistance.

I try to swim 3x a week. I try to mix it up, but usually swim 50-80 lengths each time, usually FC but add in a number of breaststroke and backstroke. I practise technique, endurance, speed depending on what I need and what my body feels like. I have noticed I'm better in the evenings than in the mornings, it can take me 20-30 lengths to get a rhythm going.

4 or 5 days a week. Usually an hour in which I swim 3km if I’m doing breaststroke, and about 3.2 doing front crawl. Sometimes I can only do half an hour, so I aim for a mile then (1.6km)- sometimes I don’t quite make the distance.

I’m an injured runner and I think this just about makes up for what I was doing (50km a week). I find it harder to maintain a peak heart rate in the pool though.

I do it as long as my rubber ring stays inflated,

or until I'm chucked out for weeing in the pool.
Again.

Generally twice a week, although I haven’t managed it for the last 2 weeks.

I swim 2km of breaststroke in 50 minutes.

Once the lido’s open I go 3-4 times a week.

My DC have lessons twice a week for 45 mins so I swim the whole time they're in their lessons. I also swim with a friend for about an hour once a week but swim a bit slower as we have a chat.
I'm not skilled at all though, I just do the sticking your head out of the water breast stroke.

I do between 40/50 lengths twice a week. That takes me about half an hour/35 minutes. Pretty slow and steady but it suits me.

I was doing 40 lengths in about 45 mins 3 times a week. Upped it to 60 lengths and completely buggered my shoulders. I'm still not right so have been off for a few weeks

I think 30-40 lengths is all I can comfortably cope with.

Love all the info on here. Thank you all so much. It's really inspiring.

I swim a lot and started with maybe doing 30 minutes at a time, had some lessons to improve my technique and now regularly swim 4-8km a week. I did my first 10km swim marathon last year

My advice would be to swim based on time rather than distance as it can be variable in the pool depending on how busy the lane is. Even now I swim to the time I have available rather than doing a set distance IYSWIM to maximise what I can get done.

That's good advice @DDfollowed

I'm on a swimming phase due to a running injury and it's good for mobilising and cardio. Weight bearing strength work is important for general health and bone density too.

I took up open water swimming last summer which is great as there's no lane rage Obviously this is not the greatest time of year for it for fitness, and fully neoprened up, I'm lasting about 20-25 minutes.

So I've headed to the pool too. I agree with the point about it depending on others. My pool programme is very busy with very set sessions, and it is the luck of who's also there. I'm faster than average but no match for a splashy front-crawl man so I do have to either go full pelt or time laps to let the fastest pass.

I've noticed since I started the open water swimming that my stroke has sped up (no rests or pushing off!) But where I lose time in the pool is from turning and guaging an efficient distance without risking smacking into the wall.

There's a long-running pool swimmers thread in the Exercise topic but it has gone quiet.

I swim for half an hour three times a week. No idea what the distance is though.

I started in June to try to strengthen my lungs which gave a lot of scar tissue due to repeated pleurisy due to Lupus flares.
It's a 20m pool and I average 56 lengths, its usually 45 minutes and 3-4 times a week.

I swim somewhere between 3-6 times a week. Experimenting with swimming more often but for shorter distances/time. Currently doing around 6km a week - longest swim is 2.5km and shortest around 1km.

Definitely try and vary speed though - good for fitness eg throw in some sprints, increases in speed and try and get out of breath on some bits.

I go 5ish times a week- 3 days on 1 day off. Sometimes 2 on and 1 off if I'm tired. I swim for 45- 50 mins and am about 35 secs a length. I can only swim breaststroke because of a dodgy shoulder.
I'm 53 and have been doing this for the last4/5 years. I have never been fitter. I have my MP3 ear phones in when I'm swimming and it takes all my stress away.

3 times a week, between 2.5 & 3k a session (so 100-120 lengths of our 25m pool). The pool limits sessions to 50 minutes approx. I bring a workout with me, so it’ll include drills, some kick/pull, and then different sets which may focus on speed, or endurance, or whatever. Can be challenging in a public lane swim, but I do my best & to be considerate of others.

Currently laid up with a leg fracture & I miss swimming SO MUCH!!

I never count laps or use the special watch someone bought me. I find I just get stressed if I have a bad swim. I know in my head what a bad swim feels like I just don't want to have the stats to obsess about. At the moment I am a middle aged vigilante trying to rid the pool of terrible male behaviour. I swim at our gym and it has no lifeguard but post New Year the men being dicks have been out in force.