Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

[rightsofwomen]

Ohh la la....2nd thread filled up. Hopefully this Subject line will make it easy enough to find.

Everyone welcome.

Just joining, if I may.
I've swum once or twice a week over the last year while training for sprint tri's - from struggling over 50m to managing 1500m. I had training plans for the tris, but am switching back to a running plan as I'm doing a half in March.

I plan to keep swimming once per week but won't have the plans to guide me. Whats the best way to ensure I'm progressing or at least gaining some training effect - don't want to add distance each week but would like some structure. Any tips on good routines/workouts?

Hello all, I am so excited to have found you. I have always enjoyed swimming for fitness (at a moderate level) but then was very poorly for a few years and unable to exert myself at all. Have been getting back into exercise slowly and have started swimming once a week or so. Have just registered with the swimathon and am utterly thrilled.

At the moment I do around 500m in 25 minutes while my dd has her swimming lesson, usually just breaststroke with a couple of lengths of crawl. Don't feel wiped out afterwards (which is good, that is my main aim for now). Planning on keeping that up for January and then increasing somehow but not exactly sure how... Will decide that later.

Hi - do you mind if I join you? I just posted another post about a long-distance swim before I found you here. I'm a fairly mediocre swimmer but needed something to keep me motivated on the exercise front so signed up for a 10km river swim. It's not until September so I'm hoping I've got enough time to train. I'm relatively fit but have always run rather than swam but training for a marathon last year was so draining and everything hurt so I thought I'd try swimming.

Any tips? I did 2kms this morning but it took me an hour. I'm not worried about speed so much though to be fair.

A belated Happy New Year to you all.

Welcome orange building and flip

Not sure where all the regulars are, but am sure things will pick up soon.

Am off for my first 1K of the year this evening.

orange I came to swimming having always been a reluctant and not very competent swimmer. I am yet to do a tri though.
Others are better placed to advise on getting the best out of your single swim a week. I am a runner so try and use my swims to relax and stretch out my legs while giving my upper body a good work out. I use a pull buoy every other 100m. Other than that I just go up and down! I believe mixing it up (stroke and effort) is the most effective, a bit like running really.

What HM are you doing?

building I can feel your happiness at being able to get back into swimming in your post. Congratulations. It sounds like you have a good plan to get your fitness back. What does the swimathon entail?

Flip 10K swim!!! THUD. I have no idea how to train for that. Hopefully others will come along.

Happy ny and welcome new folks.

I’ve not been in the pool much just down to various life stuff in Dec but was great to get 1k mostly FC done this week really helped stretch out the running legs. I’m also HM training for my first mid-feb so using swimming to support that mainly. (Name changed from TriGirl)

I've managed a few nice swims over the holiday but today it was so cold in my classroom I had to to bed to warm up instead of swimming :( I'm a bit cross with myself but I know I'll be back to normal (3 or 4) times a week by next week.

Our pool is once more under threat of closure and I am feeling weary at the idea of another campaign to keep it open and council owned. Our council want to sell it off as a community asset but they openly admit its a liability (80 years old and in need of major works). Their suggestion is that local swimmers drive to alternative pools 6 miles away when most people walk to this wonderful local pool. Yes it's tired and seen better days but it is much loved and we want it to stay open for our community to continue to enjoy swimming. I'm not sure I have another fight in me or that I want spend my later years running a swimming pool (via a committee etc) gah!

Hi all, I've been out of action all holiday with a chest infection. Was in the water for a planned usual 2 km swim just before Christmas and I almost passed out after 800m. I'm hoping to gradually get into the pool again starting tomorrow with maybe just a very slow 500m. My lungs are still pretty congested but I feel like the moist air would do me good.

Flip you approach long distance swimming the way you do a marathon. The best predictor of completing is racking up a steady distance every week. Take one of those marathon training calendar calculation web apps and calculate your planned training distances using a ratio of 10 to 26.2. You won't have any single swims of 10km in the plan, but it'll get you to ~8km. Also since it's outdoor swimming, when the weather warms up you should be doing at least one of your training swims outdoors every week. It's quite different to a pool. I'd also recommend training in a 50m pool if you can.

orange I missed your post first time skimming through, sorry! Do you swim mostly front crawl or do you mix it up? For a mostly FC standard workout totaling 1500m, I would suggest something like this:

Warm up, easy pace, untimed: 100 swim, 50m kick, 50m pull, 50m swim
Drills: 25m each: 6 kicks to the stroke (really stretch and glide), racing dog paddle drill (FC where you keep your arms under the water returning them to the front, look it up on YouTube), catch up (each stroke completes at the front, i.e. only one arm moving at a time), then fingertip drag. Repeat for total 200m drill.
3x alternating 50m kick and pull
Main set: 300, 200, 100, 50 FC, increasing pace, 15-30 s rests in between depending how you feel and what your pace is like
Cool down: 100m easy pace

Lengths done : 40 = 1K
Time : 25 mins
Aches: legs for first 8 lengths
Busy factor : low
Lane wankers: zero
Shampoo bottles taken: zero
Conditioner bottles taken : two
Knickers taken : zero
8 year olds awake and sitting on stairs watching 8 out of 10 cats while big bro completely oblivious : one

A good start to my 2018 campaign!

What is HM please?

Half Marathon (running)

A big welcome to the newcomers – and hello to the regulars. I've not done a triathlon, or swum 10km, nor do I have a workout so I'm not very helpful but I will offer lots of encouragement! I swim 2km in 40 mins three times a week, alternating a length of front crawl with a length of backstroke. Nora that is bad news about your pool! Could the community take it on? Our pool is run by Places for People (www.placesforpeople.co.uk/services/leisure_management.aspx) who seem to do an ok job.

Orig yes, I did the same take-two-conditioners-and-no-shampoo yesterday - my hair felt very odd all day.

Rights just clocked what you said. Very funny!

Ooooh... I'm with P4P, too, SingingAvo.
Can I use my swim membership at other branches, do you think? I keep meaning to ask.

Glad you found this thread, Flippetydip.

Aaah, so so happy! Did 40 lengths in a 20m pool, so 0.8 km, in around 25 min (had a five min chat in the middle so gross time 30 min but never mind). Not tired. Just delighted.

Had bought a (cheap) waterproof smartwatch thing for Christmas which was utterly pointless as the water meant it thought I exited the thing. Stupid thing.

But I swam 0.8 km!

Pffff. I'm not late night swimming. Oh no. I am sitting in the sodding car waiting for DS1 to finish sodding band rehearsal. Pfff

Our save the pool group will meet soon to see what what we can do. Taking on a pool is a huge commitment and it needs major works soon.

On the brighter, personal side, I did 1400 metres in 30 mins today. That felt good.

lljkk I can swim at two other pools in nearby towns with my Places for People swim membership so it is probably worth looking into.

Well done building!

nora you need to read this book when it comes out: www.orionbooks.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781409175209

Our boiler is broken so lacking hot water & heating so went for a good swim after my run and had a lovely shower this morning.

Ski when my bathroom had issues don't ask I often timed my sport and hair washing times around being able to use the sports centre showers! They are lovely, even if you do have to press the button every 30 secs or so.

1K done WITH NEW AQUA GLOVES (4 lengths out of every 12). Wow, they really do increase the resistance and make you work. My breathing felt like it did when I was new to swimming. When I'm stronger I am going to be swimming like a shark!

It was busy today. I don't normally go at the beginning of a lane session, so I don't know if it was that, or something else. Everyone was well behaved though.

Thanks very much for whoever suggested training in a 50km pool. It felt less arduous only turning once every 100 metres. Our pool has 50km lanes on a Friday morning so did 2km on Friday am - added bonus was that I was the only one in the medium lane -apparently most people prefer the 25m section :)

Swam for 45 minutes this morning - no idea how far I went as watch didn't kick in (user error....) and I can't count beyond 12 without losing count.

I know what you mean Flippety. Our pool can be either 33m or 25m depending on where the divider is. I time my swims to get the 33m sessions but on a couple of occasions the divider has got stuck and we've had 25m. It feels far more to do 80 x 25m than 62 x 33m somehow!

Yep timed my run then swim today so I could use the showers again it was good motivator actually I wouldn’t have done a swim if I hadn’t needed to use the showers but then ended up doing a really good 1km of F.C. non-stop. Was really pleased I was in the fast lane and keeping pace with some nice guys. I can’t believe a year ago I struggled to do 1-2L of F.C. and now I can rattle it out made me feel really proud of what I’ve been working on this year. I’m toying with the idea of entering a Go-Tri again this spring to keep my swimming motivated. I tried my first one last Sept. and surprised myself ranking highly, despite being one of the last out the pool.

I was going to go for a swim today but for various reasons went for my first run in about four years instead. :) Only wobbled down the road and back for about 20 minutes, and I'm pretty sure I had low blood sugar afterwards (not sure how to manage that?) as I was very shaky and just stuffed myself and felt much better!

Anyway, hope to swim again on Friday. Am excited by the idea of maybe using aqua gloves one day!