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.

Legopiece - that's awful. The other person should have moved to a faster lane if you were slower and it annoyed him/her. In any case, there is no excuse for being rude.

I have just started back after the holidays and have charged up my pool card with 100 euros of credit (cheaper that way) which means I HAVE to go now! Nice session last week where there were only 2 of us in the pool - 3 lanes to myself!

50 lengths wouldn't be so leisurely for me - I usually only manage 40.

I usually do it in 2 sets @allegretto - get the first 25 done then have a loiter, then do the next - but we'll see how I get on, the weekend could have been a fluke! I'm feeling very tired today so could end up just being 25 - but anything is better than nothing!

whyhastherumgone you are very welcome and don't let us put you off (we are here to encourage each other). Like Rights says all it is being considerate to other swimmers and you'll be fine. Swimming is a perfect pregnancy exercise. And the baby updates will be as exciting as your swimming updates!

I did an early morning swim too lljkk. Swimtag says 2046m (a 33m pool).

Singing What an odd length of pool! I'll join you and lljkk in the 2km club this morning. 2000m even for me on the swimtag.

Welcome to the pool rum! Everyone's really lovely here. I swam a bit (wallowed mostly towards the end!) during both my pregnancies and it was always such a nice thing to do.

Thanks everyone! Only managed 30 as there was a dad playing with his kid and a pool noodle in the middle of the slow lane as well as a lady who started to swim diagonal lengths, completely cutting everyone off. Gave up in the end - the medium lane was rammed and i'm no fast lane swimmer!

Glad i went though.

I really wish lifeguards would do their job and have a word with people not following lane etiquette. Having boards up explaining the rules would be good, too.

When I first went along to lane swimming I didn't know the rules, but watched and was aware. I'm a pretty confident person and still felt quite intimidated so I can only imagine how people less confident feel.

Hello, just creeping carefully around the edges of this thread (don't want to slip in and drown 🙀) I'm gradually eroding my public pool phobia (especially pools with deep ends) with weekly lessons, want to try and swim a bit more often between lessons but have some questions for anyone who has a spare minute and feels helpful 😀

Swim watch recommendations? My garmin only works in outdoor pools/the sea and lessons are indoor, plus it has v limited swim metrics, pretty much just time and distance - data junkie.

Any general tips about organising kit so you're always ready in case some spare time opens up unexpectedly, it all feels like a bit of a mission at the moment - whatever makes it easier to go, if that makes sense?

fancy always have your swim bag ready to go. I keep mine looped around the post at the top of the stairs and dry my hat/suit/towel (quick dry type) on the railing beside it, so I can just sweep everything into the bag as soon as it's dry. I keep a handbag size brush, deodorant, hair elastic, a couple of locker tokens, wet bag, 2 x pairs of goggles, and an extra swim hat in a basic cotton shopping bag. The wet bag is a key item - I use a Milovia wet nappy bag that used to be for DD's cloth nappies! It's just big enough to stuff my towel, hat, and suit into after a swim, so nothing else gets damp. I wash my swim towel weekly (haha I'm gross but I figure I've just been bleached so whatever) and it goes straight onto the upstairs hall rail to dry after washing.

I don't have any swim watch recommendations as I use the Swimtag system at the pool I go to. I think rights has one that she likes?

Thanks TheMShip 🙂 I don't even have a dedicated swim towel, just grab any random one around the house and hope it wasn't last used on a muddy dog or worse!

Sounds like it's helpful to have a couple of everything so there's always a bag ready to go?

me too @rightsofwomen - there is even a giant board up explaining lane etiquette!

On another note, I've seen some under water music players on amazon and wondered if anyone uses anything like that? I'm looking for something I can listen to podcasts or audiobooks on ideally.

What is this dedicated swim towel of which you speak?!

Ship you have the whole process nailed! I tend to function better with one of everything otherwise I get lulled into a false sense of security, thinking it

Sorry, had to change browser, Chrome playing up.

Anyway....
I get lulled into a false sense of security thinking that it must be 'in the other place' when in fact I've just lost everything (the same reason I only have one lip balm on the go).

I do tend to keep it all in the same place - wash bag, goggles and hat stay in the airing cupboard, pull buoy lives in swim bag in the hall cupboard. Suit and towel somewhere in the laundry cycle.

It's not me with a swim watch. I just count in my head.

It's actually a travel towel, DH gave it to me as a present ages ago. The little zip bag it came with holds my spare tokens, goggles, and hat. The extra goggles and hat are mostly because I'm a bit accident prone with both items, though the new silicone hats are a vast improvement, I haven't actually ripped a single one since I switched to those.

I got my new swimming suit today in the post, just another cheapie, but I now fit a 16, down from a 20 in May. Swimming plus 5:2 has me down over 2 st and feeling considerably stronger.

I often use a tea-towel for swimming. Don't knock it, works well enough for me.

Swimmovate but it didn't count right for me. I still get errors with Swimtag, but I think Swimtag is closer to correct than Swimmovate ever would be.

DS swims in fixed sets & then he just counts the sets, so like 7 lengths breaststroke + 1 length front crawl, then rest, then repeat. Every set is 8 lengths = 200m, so easy to calc up total in the end he finds. I instantly lose count every system I've tried.

Had my last swim at the outdoor pool today before it shuts at the weekend. A quick (for me) 1k in half hr lunch break had the whole pool to myself for the first 20L it was heaven then couple more ladies got in them we had a downpour & sunshine but I kept ploughing on. Really enjoyed it.

I did 1K late last night. I'm racing today (run) so just kept it steady. Two of us in the lane so just kept to either side. Perfect. Really, really helps with my breathing.

Good luck, RoW!

I got lost!

Oh no Rights! That is one thing that can't happen in a pool! Did you do ok though?

So back to that saggy swimsuit discussion ... turns out if you've lost a lot of weight and your swimsuit is baggy, you've also lost a lot of streamlining. I'd been chugging along for a while at a fairly content just sub 2 minute pace, not really wondering why I was actually getting gradually slower. Well I now fit snugly into a swimsuit two sizes smaller (16 down from 20) ... my first 400m warming up was an easy 7:45, so I thought let's see just how much difference this makes. I then smashed my 400m pb by 26 seconds, down to 7:11. I've dropped one stroke per length as well.

Avo My leg of the race was meant to be 7.98 miles. The time recorded will not take into account that I actually ran 9.35 miles so my average pace is gonna look crap!

The 6 miles I ran on the road were brilliant. I'm so disappointed.

Ship Hoorah for losing the saggy swimsuit drag!
What do you mean by sub 2 minute pace? Over what distance? 100m?

What a massive chunk off your PB!!!!

I replaced my lovely boy leg Sports Direct suit at the weekend. On my 4th now I think.

rights That's a massive difference in distance, sorry to hear it went like that. I meant over 100m for the pace. You can see my swimtag chart attached.

Thanks ship I am nearly but not quite at the laugh about it stage!
I set myself high goals. I have a half marathon this weekend and I won't get lost cos it's a big one. Yay

Your graph is a thing of beauty...and I'm not being facetious, I know how hard it is to keep on chipping away at your times.

Be proud!