Bored and achy doing breaststroke

[purplepidjin]

Once a week, I go swimming. I swim 64 lengths (one mile) for two reasons: I go with a friend who has a 5mo ebf baby, and it's her only "adult" time (her DP works away so we go when he is around to spend time with his dd); and because a friend of ours recently returned from Afghanistan seriously injured, so we're gaining sponsorship for Help For Heroes, aiming to swim 6400 lengths (100 miles) between a small group of us.

I don't enjoy swimming, but am not going to give up because I'm doing it for good reasons on top of the obvious fitness ones. How do I improve my stamina so I can get finished quicker? How do I get faster so I'm not either stuck behind someone in the slow lane or being overtaken/holding other people up in the fast lane?

I'm very splashy at backstroke, and I hate splashy swimmers so try to minimise that. I have to wear my glasses in the pool or I bump into things and get a headache (can't afford prescription goggles) so front crawl is out, plus I'm no quicker at that than the breaststroke and get water up my nose which makes me hate the experience even more.

Anyone got any suggestions, please? I've already calculated what fraction of the distance each length is Thank you!

Hello! IME breaststroke can strain the neck a little, as there is a very limited range of movement in the stroke - especially if you're trying to keep your head out of the water.

Front crawl is honestly better fitness wise - once you get the hang of it you can count strokes so you don't hit the end of the pool. I wear glasses out of the pool, my eyesight is dreadful - depending on your prescription did you know you can get standard goggles of a particular strength rather than having them made up? So - one of my eyes is -5.5, the other is -6.25, I wear a - 5.5 and they're fine and not so expensive.

Water up the nose - you can get an inexpensive nose clip, or even better blow air slowly out of your nose. If air is coming out water can't get in!

You will honestly struggle to get faster with breaststroke holding your head out of the water, with crawl once you've got the technique you can train by doing sprints at intervals during your swim, building up your sprinting distance and/or time.

Good luck, HTH.

Go to www.speedo.co.uk and search for optical goggles - £18 and available in -1.5 to - 8.0. If that's too expensive, just try the stroke counting (for back or front crawl) it's surprisingly accurate.

I know this sounds a little patronising but I had a real eureka moment about swimming faster when I started back a few years ago - it was swimming faster! If I increased my stroke rate then I would get quicker.

Front crawl is the fastest and most efficient stroke to use, so if you get some prescription goggles and count strokes you should be ok. You shouldn't get water up your nose as you should be breathing out slowly the whole time your face is in the water, just inhaling when you rotate to breathe. If you struggle with the technique it might be worth taking lessons - lots of Local Authorities offer them for adults to improve their stroke.

My friend I swim with is an instructor, so I might see if she minds giving me a few tips in between her 128 lengths a week

Hmm, I wonder if Mum Santa's finished my Christmas stocking yet?