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 :)

sniffle - could it be that as you are developing the muscle on your abs they are just pushing your existing tummy forward?

As my Swimathon is less than 2 weeks away I tried to up the distance today by 20 lengths but only managed 16. The faster I tried to go at the end seemed to make the clock go faster too! Oh well. 2.9k wasn't a bad effort all in all

Another 100 lengths tonight! I am sure my shoulders will feel them in the morning

I am doing 40 lengths of front crawl 3 x a week. Am very happy with it.

I am even happier that the 8 weeks I've been doing it for have made a major difference to my pelvic floor!! What a bonus!

I'm managing 40 lengths of front crawl approx 3 times a week too. I'm feeling very proud of that because I only started doing front crawl about 3 weeks ago (following a break of several years out of the pool).

BUT - I can only manage a length at a time and then I have to rest (at least 20/30 seconds) before the next length.

I have found that this is slightly improved if I breath on every 4th stroke but I just feel a bit frustrated that I can't do even 2 lengths without stopping.

Am I being too impatient here? Did any of you notice improvements in your fitness/breathing after a while?

From my point of view you are being impatient!

When I started 8 weeks ago I was doing about 10/12 lengths total with a break every 2 lengths. I worked up to 40 with a break every 8 lengths & am now doing it with a break every 10 lengths.

I suspect that if you only started doing front crawl 3 weeks ago (I am assuming for the first time ever ) you have not got the breathing right & this is why you are having to stop so often. It's very easy to end up breathing in & out too much & not got enough oxygen.

I am sure one of the real experts on her will be along soon to help!

Thank you Magimedi - I am an impatient type and want everything to happen now!

I also have this idea in my head of what I think I look like when I swim (graceful, fluid, effortlessly gliding through the water)

Whereas I suspect the reality is somewhat different (think spluttering, gasping, red-faced hippo)

Life is so unfair

I am having an assessment in the next few weeks with a swimming coach and am dreading the feedback. When I swim in the mornings he is there doing his one to one coaching sessions and they are all way faster, fitter and more accomplished than me so I am sure I will be laughed out of the pool!

Forgive me if he's a good coach, then he will list the things you do well first, before getting to the other bits. I'm a fairly competent, coached swimmer and I look like a fattish hippo with short arms and legs on underwater video (I know cos I saw myself last week). Sometimes I try to remember to breathe in for videos and I'm quite tall above water too. There are people whose body shape looks great in the water, but they are few and far between

With your breathing, your lung capacity will improve as you get better. Make sure you are breathing out slowly as soon as you put your face in the water. I don't always do this and most people hold their breath under water and do the breathing out AND in in one go. Try to release your head and 'rest' it in the water, like a pillow, and turn it to breathe as your body turns, not lift it. This should mean you can fully relax into the water at any time you need to slow down and let it 'hold' you up instead of grasping for the end of the lane. It took me months and months to do this but when it happened, it meant I could switch off and stop struggling.

Some coaches give you exercises to breathe every 3,5,7,9 strokes to improve your lung capacity, and it then makes breathing feel easier.
Sorry I've gone on a bit- hope it helps

Thank you kaizen - I can't tell you how happy it makes me to have fellow swimmers to chat to on here as I know that many of you have been where I am now.

The breathing thing is weird isn't it? When I first got in the pool a few weeks ago I was breathing on alternate strokes and then managed to change that to breathing on every third stroke.

On my last swim I even managed the occasional breath on the 4th stroke and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting.

I have asthma though and I think I get a bit impatient in the water because even a dodery old octogenarian sculling up and down on his back is twice as fast as me

Does anyone on here have a 'goal' as such - like a competitive event that they are working towards?

My goal is to swim 40 lengths without a break before September, when I go to Turkey, to the place I always go. The sea swimming is amazing & I have a distance swim (close to shore) in my mind.

Here is where my heart is:

how long is the pool?

my relaxed swim is 1600 metres non stop - takes 40 minutes

Talk it's 25M - so 40 = 1K .

thats a nice distance - same as I did this morning

I'm a competitive swimmer of old, thinking of getting back into it now my dc are getting older. I'm place marking so I can watch and boost the motivation. My problem is time and getting to the pool which is a bit out of the way for me.

May I join too? Will probably mostly just lurk but I've been swimming with a masters club for a few years now and whilst still amongst the slowest (on the v few times I have competed I have come last!) I do appreciate the help I get with my technique. Though reading some of this thread I am clearly not paying enough attention!

I returned to the pool after DS2 late last year (had to pack in due to pg complications early doors this time ) and I'm doing my 4th swimathon next week this time as part of a team of 5 ladies from the club doing 1k each. My target is doing it in 20m or less and lass week training was doing 7.5min 400m (woo!) w 30s rests so I am hoping I can keep it going without all the faster people in my lane pulling me on.

Re lap counting, I have a swim mate pro I've just started using again. I tend to use that to check for longer swims, rather than instead of counting myself. I have found it easier to keep count if I do it in metres rather than lengths, ie 100s at a time, and spend the time between turns calculating the percentage of my set or similar.

I am a humble swimmer compared to so many of you but I love counting my laps. I swim along each length muttering the number in my head:

"Seven, seven, seven........" and it works like some sort of yogic mantra for me - I come out of the pool with such a clear head & all anxiety (which I suffer from from time to time) totally gone.

Hello two and magi! And welcome!
two, that's fab about the swimatron! Good times too!
magi, I totally understand about the clear head. That's the main reason why I swim!
I've had a bad few weeks, but from next week I am back in the pool! I missed it.
Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather!

I want to swim again. I do love it, I was born I think to be in water. Really I just need to find some slots when I can go and do it.

I am trying hard to be good at front crawl but I have a disaster nose. Clips just ping right off, it is squat and slippery. So I have had to learn to breathe out underwater and keep it clear that way.

Beast I've never used a nose clip & I am sure you'll master the breathing quite quickly.

I know exactly what you mean about being born to be in the water - I was bought up very close to the sea & I truly can not remember not being able to swim. I love being in water and above all the sea. I am not at all 'woo' but when I am in the sea I do wonder if I was marine in another life!

Loving the weather & looking longingly at the sea today - just aching for it to get abit warmer so I can go in! It's currently 9C & I usually go in when it hits 16/17 - which probably won't be till June (Sussex coast).

I've just been in the sea in Devon and can confirm that it is absolutely bloody perishing I only stayed in about ten minutes but I'm supposed to be having cold showers and getting ready for colder swims in Mallorca in April.

Instead I am mostly lounging in a heated pool and sitting in a jacuzzi . Anyway, I've done what I achieved (getting in) and am having a gin n tonic as a reward.

Respect! Kaizen You've earnt that G & T!

My sister lives in Devon & swims in the sea every single morning. Her only concession to the cold is a pair of diver's gloves in the winter as her hands get too cold. She shares a little hut with a bunch of others who do the same!

As a child I swum from March until October in the sea.

Thanks magi. We can all have gin just for being swimmers. I'm on whiskey and ginger wine now. My swimming goals are based on rewards - so if I swim 400 lengths, I can have a kebab on the way home (last weekend). So now now I am probably the fittest I've ever been (and the happiest) but I'm pretty hefty due to my 'reward' system

You know what you mean about being a true water baby, I've always been a swimmer and my whole youth was spent in a pool, along with siblings and cousins. The only time I'm ever graceful is in water, lol.

When I win the lottery, you're all welcome to my new pool! It won't be a funky shape, it'll be 25m, lane lines and lines on the bottom, lol!! It's the first thing I'd buy!

Ludways - I'll be there - but I sincerely hope it's a sea water pool! So much easier to swim in!

And will you have handsome peeps serving us gin & handing us towels as we get out?

Magi, sea water it is, I used to like the Derby Baths in Blackpool...although I have a penchant for the smell of chlorine! I'm weird like that.

All the swimmers I know swim hard and play hard so serving men is an absolute must! Lol

I grew up by the sea too! I don't really like pools, but I currently live way, way inland :( I always go on holiday somewhere I can swim in the sea, perishing or not.