Swimming for fitness (part 2). Jump in!

[rightsofwomen]

We've filled up the first Swimming for fitness thread, so here is the new one.

Everyone welcome.

I've found my swimming people. I normally swim 1K on a Wednesday night and do an aqua class on a Friday. I'm feeling I'd like to do more. I can't seem to motivate myself to get up early for a morning swim.

I REALLY want to try open water swimming and I've found somewhere local, but it's the whole thought of trying somewhere new. And will my wobbly body even fit in a wet suit? And will I then look like a whale?

Welcome HSMMaCM!!!!!

Wetsuits hold you in!! Go and have a go, what's the worst that can happen?

I'm struggling with OWS, but i won't let it beat me :D

Lovely to hear how much your confidence and swimming have grown CMOT. Good luck tomorrow Rights. I still haven't got into drills, Hissy. Should I? Your Cornwall holiday sounds fab, Ski. We are off camping in France at the end of next week and I'm so looking forward to it.

Welcome HSMMaCM (I don't think I've seen you here before?). I'm a wimp about open water but there are a few enthusiasts on here! Don't worry about what you look like in a wetsuit though. People are usually too busy getting on with their own swimming to be critical of what others look like …

I am an early morning swimmer, however, and it works really well for me. The pool opens early (6.15) 3 mornings a week and I go to those sessions and spend 40mins swimming. This is the only time the pool is at its full 33m instead of being divided into two pools of 25m and 8m, and that is another incentive for me. Great to get it over and done with for the day!

Singing Drills - only if you want to! We do have a few drills in the masters sessions.

FC drills would be swimming with hands in fists not open - this strengthens the stroke by making you work on the use of the surface arm to get yourself through the water

Draw the line - drag your hand through the water on recovery before hand insertion for the next stroke - this helps you keep your stroke straight, hand entry shoulder width apart, and stops the crossing over that can happen.

Back stroke - both arms at once - really makes you get the technique of keeping the water pushing arms down and close to the body rather than lose, low or out to the side.

There is a 33m pool nearish to us, I will have to see if they open this up, it's great to try new things!

Boyf and I have signed up to another TI course - his first time, my second time of doing the workshop

I'm doing it to keep him company mostly, although it will help me review my TI strokes I know.

Place marking for pay day when I'm joining the gym again

[whispers] What's TI?

Total Immersion. It's a method of swimming.

CMOTDibbler the ocean swim in San Diego sounds awesome. Last summer I did an ocean swim each week with a group and we often had a seal swimming with us. I nearly died of terror the first time I saw the black shape swimming under me. Once I recovered from the shock, it was lovely. She played with us for ages, treated us like the weird attraction, not the other way round! We've seen dolphins before and they do the same - they treat us like the freak show and are very interested.

My highlight for October is going to Sydney - I want to swim with these guys at Manly - www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au/

www.totalimmersion.net

This is one of our coaches Susan I think

If you look at how Katie ledecky swims distance, it's smooth, TI based etc. Achieve this level of smooth, you can swim forever and ever!

My first TI 100m was the easiest 100 I had ever swum!

I am from San Diego so grew up swimming (well, doggy paddling) there.
I swam in an alpine lake last week. Turns out you can't do lane swimming at all in the public swim baths in this little alpine town I'm vacationing in.
How can the lake not have Giardia??!! I dunno, but everyone says it's safe. Weird. I may attempt some kind of distance swim on one of the hot days, but not sure it's safe what with motorboats. Pondering

This one is interesting Hissy
m.youtube.com/watch?v=82kycjcg4EY

My interesting stat from Masters was that to increase speed by 10% you either have to increase power by 30% or decrease resistance by 3%.

The aforementioned 33m pool was 25m today due to a 'technical difficulty' (i.e. the divider bit was stuck!). It felt a bit strange but luckily counting to 80 instead of 60 wasn't as dreadful as I thought it would be. I was slower than usual, but I did have to account for 20 more turns …

My local pool has one of those dividers (but makes a 25m pool 15 m) and it breaks down with distressing regularity which is a right pita

Been reading about Swim-Run.

So, I'm going to wear trisuit and wetsuits socks (greased so they come off), have a bowl of water and towel at transition to wash feet. RUN.

Can I use my pull buoy?

No, not for an Aquathlon, and you wouldn't be allowed wetsuit socks in triathlon and I don't think in Aqua either. In tri, I have a towel at transition, inside out merino socks, stand on towel, pull socks on, pull trainers (with elastic laces) and run.

I asked them and they said I could take my pull buoy (it's more of a fun event I think, only about 50 people).

Why no wetsuit socks? Some of the websites have people wearing their running trainers while swimming (bizarre).

I already have elastic laces in my trainers. I don't have any special socks, I'll just have to dry my feet well.

Swimrun is different to Aquathlon - in SwimRun you go swim/run/swim/run (repeat as necessary) with no transition stops, you carry everything including maps and bandages, and are tethered to someone else. You wear your trainers and wetsuit all the time.
Aquathlon you swim, then run, and stop to change.

In tri, you aren't allowed wetsuit socks, shoes, or gloves (and if wearing a trisuit only, you can't wear calf guards or anything on your arms)

Ah ha! Thanks. That explains some of my confusion.
I am a newbie. So it's just swim then run = aquathon.

OMG....it's chucking it down here.

I only know about SwimRun as one of my mad Finnish colleagues does it (Ironman was no longer a challenge)

Its just grey and horrible here, and I must go for a run this evening. I'm doing a paratriathlon in 2 weeks and though swimming is great, my running has been rubbish. But it will be great fun, and loads of celeb spotting

bee on the Tri thread said to put talc inside your socks to help getting them on post swim - I'm hoping to try this out soon as I'm signed upto do a beginners GoTri with my DD in Sept . Gd luck with your swim/run rights

I went for swim last night and we had tantrum man in the lane he was really fast and in the medium lane on his own so I got in with my daughter (who looks 8 but swims faster FC than me with tumble turns). The slow lane was busy with head out of water very slow breastrokers & the fast lane had 3blokes in it and the guy actually flounced out the lane into the fast lane because he was catching us on every 3rd length. We were letting him pass at the end but he tried to have a tantrum at my daughter not realising the head swim coach was swimming in the fast lane he's a great guy & ex-paraolympian one half armed swimmer whose really fast watched it unfold. Made for an interesting evening swim. I think he was just mainly huffy as he had to share a lane! A lane that wouldn't normally be there if the swim club weren't on their Aug break. I enjoyed my FC though got more in the zone again but now need to work on speeding up, not quite sure how to do that but will keep working on upping stroke rate.

Place marking before thread falls off my 'I'm on'

Spare a thought for a namesake?

She's about 70mikes into her 100 mile swim, this is her second night swimming...

There are live feeds at times, here is her tracker
track.rs/ssthomas/

Look for her page on fb - Sarah Thomas Open Water Marathon Swimmer

I did it!
Gosh, that was hard.
I decided to wear my wet suit in the end as it was pretty cold and everyone else was wearing them.
It was 2 laps swimming, in which we had to exit and re-enter the lake between laps.

Only 31 entrants and we quickly sorted into the leading pack and the trailing pack. I'd say I was near the front of the trailing pack.
Went slightly off course in the first lap, until a woman shouted at me!
2 mins 18 in transition (vs 20 secs for the fastest). I was wobbly and a bit out of it.
The run was HARD. 24 mins for a 5K which is nearly 4 mins slower than my PB, which is quite a lot slower over such a short distance. I also went wrong on the run - just totally missed a massive sign.
I had a headache and legs felt like lead.

Overall I was 24/31. My swim time was 18.32 which I'm happy with (the leader was twice as fast!).

I did feel a buzz after the swim, but the run really took it out of me and I didn't get a race high afterwards. In fact I got very, very cold.

It was a very well organised event with a really good atmosphere. Despite the low number of entrants it was def very competitive.