Swimmers unite!

[aristocat]

Any swimmers still here?

There were quite a few of us last year, just wondered if you are still here. I still go 3 or 4 times a week and love it :)

400 lengths kaizen?

As I am doing the Swimathon at 7am next Sunday I thought I best see what is was like to swim that early today!

The lanes were busy and I had to wait at the ends a lot for the guy in front to get far enough up the length before I got close to him! And it was good practice on the breathing front too for when the water is choppy. I certainly got a mouthful a couple of times!

Managed 90 lengths in the hour so didn't think that too bad in the circumstances

Just a quickie- Registration for the River Dart 10k swim opens on Tuesday at 7am - I think it's September 10th. It sells out very quickly so if anyone fancies it it's £75. Great atmosphere and organisation, and you swim with the tide to the sea so not as tough as it sounds. Food stops too and loads of support on the way.

Beautiful iconic swim in Devon

I'm off to get my long swim done, and I have a feeling it will be like yours dizzy - I've never been early on Sunday before....

Magimedi that photo looks lovely - whereabouts is it in Turkey?

Swimathon early next Sunday for me too - at the London Aquatic Centre used for the Olympics. It will be the first time I've been and am quite excited!

Also thrilled our local 50m outdoor pool re-opened for the summer last weekend. Had a lovely swim there yesterday morning and last weekend....swimming under blue sky definitely beats indoors. And good to swim in a 50m pool rather than 25m too.

Pootle I have PM'd you!

The River Dart 10k is on my to-do list although not this year. I will be venturing into open water for the first time this year and need to build up to some long distance swims .

It sounds wonderful though.

Kaizen - you doing it this year?

I think so, as it's pretty local to me. Not sure about the price though and it's a week after the Scilly isles swim challenge. Last year was my first year in open water and I got really fed up by September of looking down into murkyish water and lifting my bloody arms over my head. At least with running you get a better view (don't miss the injuries though)

Twice a week swimmer here: (I cycle to work during the week and then go for a swim -50-60 lengths- at the weekends).

Just wondering if anyone used one of those underwater MP3 players? Are they any good? I like the idea but don't want to spend half by swine fiddling with one! Also, I don't use goggles and reading reviews some of the players seem to rely on being clipped onto the goggle strap.

Badger

Caterina99 posted this a couple of pages ago:

*I just wanted to say that I got a waterproof MP3 player for Christmas. It took me a few attempts to get it to work for me because the earphones kept falling out , and wearing a swim hat (which I hate) didn't really help as it just rode up over my ears.

I bought an ear band-it (I'm in the US, so apologies if they are impossible to find in the UK). It's a neoprene head band basically that covers your ears and stops the earphones falling out. I love it and now I can listen to music the whole time and no itchy hat!*

Another 100 lengths today - my last session before the Swimathon on Sunday

It was a Women's Only session I went to and I won't be going back! There was a 3 lanes width section of the pool roped off and they were doing aqua-aerobics in the other section. I was first in so I started swimming up and down against the wall, until I was reprimanded by another lady who told me they swim round and round!

So, as they were all head up breaststrokers and I was front crawling I ended up having to swim up and down the middle but at each end either I had to wait for others to go past or they had to stop and wait for me to turn round. I was just a bit awkward for everybody involved when it could all have been avoided if I could have just stuck beside the wall!

I know it sounds like I wanted a separate lane to myself but in all honesty it wouldn't have affected their swimming if there had been one as there was only 4 or 5 other swimmers who would still have had 2 lanes to use. The evening women's session has separate lanes but a lot more frontcrawlers go!

That's so frustrating dizzy - did they not have a fast/slow lane?

Well done on still managing 100 lengths though

I have just taken delivery of a new pair of goggles and am ridiculously excited about trying them out in the pool tomorrow

Hello swimmers! Think I was on the thread earlier but only just catching up.

I was very brave a couple of weeks ago and tried the advanced swim club at the gym . I've been doing the intermediate one since January . I've survived two so far but have a feeling that one week I will get caught out! Also still trying to perfect tumble turns - slowly getting there. Mostly just having fun. The swim clubs have given me loads of ideas of how to vary my swims and different drills to practice.

Lovely to see what other swimmers are up to - in awe of the long distances!

DD is taking part in the Swimathon tonight. She will be swimming 1.5k (60 lengths).

Well I did my usual 80 (1600 metres = mile) in the sunshine this morning.
It was lovely and my tan is coming along nicely.

I used to love sea swimming, but my Raynauds has got worse as I get older so I cannot swim off the UK any more.
Luckily I'm off to Turkey at Easter so will do some proper distance there

Dizzy
Its funny how some people do not like to split lanes - I always try to as then both people can do their own thing in peace

DD completed her swim in 40 minutes! [Proud Mum Emoticon]

Brilliant dizzy - well done DD!! Great time too

I completed my Swimathon this morning. 5k in 1:58.55 I still can't believe I got under the 2 hours!!! My arms are a bit heavy so I trying to remember to keep stretching them out.

It was tough between 130-140 and my triceps were starting to get sore, but after that the lengths seemed to whizz along with 20 to go where I lost count so wasn't sure how many I had left.

DH told me there was 2 mins remaining for me to get under the 2 hours, and as I thought there were only 2 to go wasn't overly worried, but when I had finished them I had made a mistake and had my last to to swim. Cue panic as it takes me 30secs to swim a length so I started kicking and sprinted the last 2.

DH has just admitted that with 4 to go I still had 3 or 4 mins left but as he wanted to motivate frighten me he reduced the remaining time!

I am glad its done but I am going to keep on with swimming during the year so maybe next year will be even quicker!

Dizzy, congratulations, both for you and your DD's achievements! You are an inspiration :)

Anyone have any tips for doing butterfly? We had to do some at swim club tonight and I really struggled!!

Well done Dizzy - great time and a finishing sprint!!

caper - I've never even tried butterfly - always been too embarrassed but a bloke recently swam the channel doing it so he might have some tips

This is a geek alert - I have geek-weeks where i spend a lot of time reading swim forums, watching videos. This week I've been using my tempo trainer. It's a bleeper that you put under your hat and it bleeps at set intervals so you can take a stroke

www.swimswam.com/the-nitty-gritty-of-stroke-rate-tempo-trainer-pro

So I was trying to find my 'cruising speed', a speed that i could keep up for a long time at 19 strokes per length with little effort. So i swam 100 relaxed lengths and then matched it to the tempo - I think it was a stroke every 1.8 seconds. Now I might use the TT under my hat when I do bigger swims so I don't panic and start windmilling and get knackered.

They are good for increasing your stroke rate (and speed) but you are supposed to slow the tempo if your stroke per length increases massively as this indicates your stroke has broken down. You can also check your balance in your stroke by slowing the tempo to 2.00 seconds per stroke or something (mine is a bit crap). This also looks a bit odd if you are swimming in a lane as your arms tends to hang in the air while you wobble. It's quite relaxing though.

Finally, you can do pyramid training, where you set it at a reasonably fast tempo and go slower then fast again over either 25, 50 or 100 metres. So set the tempo at something like 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 then 1.55, 1.5, 1.45, 1.4, 1.35, 1.3 - you might find you take fewer strokes on the last 1.3 than the first as the slower ones you have done will have reset your brain to take longer strokes.

THe idea eventually is to have various 'gears' you can use when swimming different distances but I'm a long way off that yet.

Anyway, just thought I'd put it out there as they can be 'fun' to play around with and make the lengths go by quicker. I've just learned to change the digits on mine through my hat instead of taking it out...

thought I would do a few lengths tonight as DD was at the pool with Brownies, but I could barely do 10 and my arms are now aching like crazy!

nothing to do with MN - but shall we meet up for a swim here
blog.asiantown.net/-/21111/most-dangerous-pool-in-the-world-pics

That pool makes my hands sweat just looking at it!! I'd be a wuss.

Another one here who would be terrified at that pool. We can hold hands together.

Because DDs school was closed due to the strike yesterday I persuaded her to come swimming with me. We did go to PizzaHut too
She can be a lovely swimmer when she puts the effort in, whereas DS just wants to race me ::sigh:: To be honest he would win the first few lengths but I have stamina on my side. It's all good fun!

I had my first 1-1 coaching session today and it was brilliant!

I've been spending the past few weeks trying to increase number of lengths but after today I realise it's all about quality not quantity.

I couldn't believe the difference in my stroke after just one session but it was bloody knackering

Just one length completely wore me out whereas last week I was managing a mile of front crawl. Feels like I have taken a step back in a way and anxious about getting back in tomorrow but onwards and upwards