swimming for fitness

[HoppityFrogs]

I've started swimming to get fit, does anybody else swim for fit? Can we encourage each other?

I know! DS2 with his dad and DS1 (17) quite happy for me to be out all evening.
I have packed my swim bag for tomorrow morning like the good athletic (hic) I am!

I had those red sparkly gels last xmas rights It was the first time i had them done and couldnt stop looking at them. I love the colour.

Very pretty Rights (I've never had my nails done!). I play the piano so I can't have them long and always thought they had to be long to be painted, but yours look great. Back in the pool today. Bilateral breathing was working well now (taking in a lot more air, a lot less water!). I can't seem to improve on my time but easily managing the mile. Maybe I need to push myself more. I'm one of the faster swimmers in the medium lane – maybe it would force me to get better by being one of the slowest swimmers in the fast lane!

I am so slow! There were just two of us in the pool lunchtime, me doing front crawl and another woman doing breast stroke almost twice as fast as me!

I have an hour to get from my desk, into the pool and back. The pool is literally across the alleyway from my office so I can be in the water in 7 minutes so I reckon I can allow myself 30 to 35 minutes in the pool. At the moment I can manage 30 lengths in that time so I hope I will improve on that with practice.

Good 4 You, @Bestiswest. I like exercise all done & dusted in an hour, too.
Gym carpark was heaving 2nite but not many swimmers at all, odd!

Odd??? It's -5c outside....

Signed up to a year's membership at the pool/gym yesterday. Woken up with a stinking cold this morning. Grr. Might still go anyway and maybe just do some walking.

Not walking in the pool...

You have a cold, you also have a year, give your body the rest it needs to get well, then go.

Hi all, great thread, I am loving swimming at the moment, switched from another exercise a couple of months ago as was hurting my hip. Have set myself a very big challenge of swimming the length of the Thames, probably going to take me 18 months at my current rate of making it to pool and distance. I am still quite slow, 30 lengths in about 25 mins breast stroke, can only manage about 5 lengths of front crawl without needing a rest. Thinking about lessons to improve technique. Hoping to go tonight but it'll be late by the time I could go,which would then push dinner late etc

Hissy. I will give it a miss then.

Welcome wapphighwood – you've set yourself a great challenge!

Welcome wapping
The Thames is long but not as long as the Amazon. Good challenge.

How long is your pool, 50 or 25m? Just curious.

I shall swim today and practice breathing both sides, which I only just learnt is called bilateral breathing. Wondered what you were all taking about!

Just a 25m pool. Got 40 lengths in this morning, so another fraction of a % closer to completion! The swimfit website was great, it would show your progress on a map, there were lots of distance challenges suggested but it stopped in January. Now logging myself in a spreadsheet without map

Ours is 25m as well. I like to compare my effort to others on here.

So I did my 1K. 100 crawl, 100m with pull buoy practising bilateral breathing. Wow, it really helped! Happy. I then tried a few non-pull buoy lengths with the breathing. Went ok, looking forward to mastering it. Only 2 of us in the lane.

wapp have you seen the old speedo app? Now called Swimio I think. They have distance challenges

Thanks had a look at that app, lots of distance challenges on there for the future, not the length of the Thames though. Looks a good app for generally logging.

Advantage of the tube strike is I am working from home so got a lunch time swim in. Was full of oldies going too slow in the medium lane so had to go in the fast lane which got my pace up as was worried about slowing them down. Got another 35 lengths done, so 14,600m of 347000m completed

Well done!

I'm setting myself a monthly target of 12500. But tbh, I feel that may be too low, as I hit it in December. That would put me on a 150km yearly tally. The focus for 2017 is to make the mile I swim ALL continuous front crawl, so I gradually drop the 100m back stroke spacers I use to regain breath from doing the front crawl sections.

I'll see how I get on. If it becomes too comfortable, I'll up it to at least 14k a month and go for 100miles year end tally.

This will be my first full year of swim stats, so I suppose it'll be interesting to see how I get on generally, but I do need to set goals and achieve them.

Wow. Yesterday I decided to "sprint" every 4th or 5th length. I decided the main difference between me & rocket swimmers was they moved their arms faster, so I could do that too (breathing every 4-5 strokes instead of every 3). I am also "pulling" more at the water after watching a video, but just a change to more pulling wasn't really making much difference.

Even though sprint was only like every 4th length, I still managed to smash my previous PB for 400m, sheesh. I should have tried that sooner! am planning a triathlon with a 400m swim leg, so now feeling nicely motivated. :)

Love that idea lljkk. I'm not over my cold fully but am thinking of going back in tomorrow just so I can say to my physio on Wednesday that I've done my exercises in the water.

jkk that's interesting about the stroke thing. I've been trying to do the opposite! I come to swimming as a runner and have learnt that the harder you try in running the further and faster you go, but in swimming the harder I tried the faster I got completely knackered despite not going far at all! So I've been trying to slow it down and really think about it. I do loads of strokes in 25m - about 30, which is poor I think. I just don't do that glide thing!

I guess once I have better technique I can then work on strength and speed.

Lljkk, that's fabulous work! You must have a good body position which is why the tweaks you're making are so effective.

rights when I did my total immersion course they said that water is 8x more dense than air, and the more force you hit it with, the harder it hits you back! So I think this means we need to use more power, not force.

I shall see what I can do this year about incorporating sprint laps actually, sounds like a really good idea!!

Does sound like a good idea. I'm heading back tomorrow; my cold seems to be over as well. I'm a bit nervous as it's now two weeks since my last swim, what with Christmas and illness. Going to have to go through the pain barrier again! and I'm six pounds fatter

Hello! Our pool still doesn't seem to have been discovered by lots of people with New Year's resolutions so not too busy. Had a good swim today without having to avoid people etc. 50 x 33m lengths in 34:58 (can't seem to get quicker!). Trying to really stretch out for front crawl – just because it seems more efficient! Glad you are better Shotgun and I'm sure you'll be fine getting back to swimming. I had two weeks off with my lurgy and it was no trouble starting again.

Thanks Singing I did manage to go today actually. Feel much better for it. I'm still trying to build up my front crawl lengths, did 20x25m today, about 2/3 of which were crawl. I was trying to focus on moving forwards and not stalling when I breathe; I'm never sure what's supposed to happen to the leading arm when I turn to breathe,
Did anyone hear Woman'sHour this morning? They interviewed Alexandra Heminsley (she wrote 'Run Like a Girl'); she's now got in to swimming and written a book about it. She's the first guest on if anyone wants to listen on iplayer.

Well done Shotgun. My leading arm goes a bit limp when I breath, especially when I breathe on the side I'm not used to (having only just started working on bilateral breathing). I try to focus on pulling my tummy in so that I raise my legs and do some useful kicking during this little pause! It may be completely the wrong thing …

Off to listen to Women's Hour, thank you!