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.

Flippetydip - my top tip for swimming 10k is to get your technique right. In order to be able to swim that distance you will need to swim about 15k a week in training, and that’s a lot of k’s with a bad technique. You risk shoulder injury. I did a 20k open water swim (as a relay) with one other person last year and it took a lot of training.

Can you find a club to swim with? Training with a squad would make it more enjoyable. If you’re doing it alone I can’t recommend Swim Smooth highly enough. If you join the guru as a pro subscription (approx 10GBP per month) you have access to all the stroke correction/fault fixers and training plans. There are videos and tutorials too.

www.swimsmooth.guru

I’ve been following the training plans since Dec in prep for a 3.6k open water swim and i’ve made massive improvements.

I’d advise working on speed. Even if you want to take it cruisey, you’ll get cold, even in a wetsuit. I always get really cold hands in the open water and that can get painful after 3+ hours.

I’d also advise working on your kick. It won’t add much propulsion or speed, but it’s needed for stabilisation. When I did a 5k OW Swim my hip flexors got really fatigued and tight/painful and I kept having to stop towards the end to stop them cramping.

Thanks Corrigans - that's all great advice. I'm currently having a lesson a week for technique which I'm really enjoy (with a few other people and am finding it fun swimming with people).

I'm not one for entering things and not doing them but am seriously questioning the wisdom of this now but I will keep on keeping on!

It’s definitely worth a crack! What’s the worst that could happen? You might miss the cut offs and have to withdraw. The current may make a massive difference. Training time is never wasted time if you enjoy it either. And training for the next race will be easier after that too.

I've just entered the 5km swimathon for April. That should give me an idea of whether I can make it or not. Now I'm panicking that 3 months is not long enough to get up to 5km, but I'm sure it will be!!

Corrigans I suppose the worst that could happen is I drown.....

Flippety I also had the goal of not dying. I also added 'not coming last'.
Happy to say I achieved both!

Orig - Congrats - that sounds like a win all round.

Honestly though, I couldn't care about coming last. Running has always been my "thing" and I always wanted to come in the first half of the field for any races, which I always achieved. However, I couldn't give a flying fart if I'm last for swimming - I just don't want to die! It's quite refreshing really, not having a "time" to aim for, just to finish. I haven't ever had that apart from my first half marathon 15 years ago....

Orig - Congrats - that sounds like a win all round.

Honestly though, I couldn't care about coming last. Running has always been my "thing" and I always wanted to come in the first half of the field for any races, which I always achieved. However, I couldn't give a flying fart if I'm last for swimming - I just don't want to die! It's quite refreshing really, not having a "time" to aim for, just to finish. I haven't ever had that apart from my first half marathon 15 years ago....

Ah ha! Then we are kindred spirits. Gosh, my first swim race - loved it! I did it with a friend who does triathlons and she was really nervous, just like I am before running races. I loved not having those nerves and being able to support my friend as I knew how she was feeling.

I think there's space for both in my life.

First swim after a cold I did 800m and DD did 400m. I think we are on track for 3 of us doing 5k swimathon. Would have continued but the pool was cold and one lady kept swimming at me so as to cause head on collision. Mind you I had to apologise about DD a couple of times as her backstroke tends to the diagonal!

Total Immersion is very similar to Swim Smooth I think.

Not rushing, being streamlined in the water, using your whole body for propulsion, sort of 'mindful' swimming as it were.

All I know is, after a couple of 'traditional' front crawl lessons, I was still feeling sick after a length, and just hating every moment of it; after one TI lesson I felt marvellous, excited, bouyant, and amazed at myself!

Bucking I’ve just started 1:1 lessons but there’s no TI coaches or sessions local to me. I bought the book a while back but it flummoxed me My swim teacher has showed me how to be long in the water at tonight’s lesson and to breathe out! All so obvious but I never do it. Was still quite tired but slowed everything right down and I wasn’t purple in the face gasping for breath like usual. The TI style is something I absolutely aspire to though!

Arsenic I started with videos on Youtube, then found a local session, very lucky to have one at a reasonable distance. Very similar would be Alexander Technique swimming coach, or SwimSmooth coach, I think -

Yes that purple in the face, nigh unto death, feeling is horrible. It's great that you're making progress... just keep going. What was a revelation to me is that leg kicks don't actually propel you, so don't go hard on the kicking, which saves a huge amount of energy. I do a two-kick now and this I think has made the most difference to my ability to get to the end of the pool. That and having a better idea about breathing!

Had a lovely 2km swim last night. Have actually started proper training workouts rather than just continuous X by 400m blocks of freestyle. Here's my workout:

200m swim warm up
4 x { 50m kick, 50m pull }
3 x { 200m swim on 4:15, 100m swim on 2:15, 50m swim on 1:15 } increasing pace
3 x { 50m back kick/glide, 50m pull }
50m swim cool down

I did the descending main set with 100m paces of 1:52, 1:44, 1:38.

TheMShip how do you remember your drills? I mean, remember what you had decided to do, and then remember what you actually did?? It all goes out of my head once I get in the water

Bucking I have a set of laminated print outs. I make up a bunch of workouts and DH gets to laminate them.

MShip I applaud you! Taking laminated workouts to the pool side.
Good stuff.

Laminating is taking it a step further! I usually use a plastic wallet with the top taped up with sellotape. I also usually follow a plan, i’d get too bored otherwise.

I had a lovely swim in the outdoor pool in the sunshine today, although you’ve got to be so careful not to get sunburned. I slather myself with Bronze Zinc and end up looking a bit like an alien.

This is my work out. I use a Tempo Trainer to help with pacing and help keep my speed up:

Warm up:
1 x 200m easy freestyle
4 x 50m pull buoy (12.5 scull + 12.5 doggy paddle + 25 freestyle) (+10s)

Main set: (with Tempo Trainer which beeps every 25m)
3 x 100 on 1:47/100m with 27 sec rest between
1x 100 pull buoy and paddles

2 x 200 on 1:45 with 26 sec rest btwn
1 x 100 pull and paddles

2 x 300 on 1:45 with same rest as before
1 x 100 pull and paddles

2 x 400 on 1:45 with same rest
1 x 100 pull buoy and paddles

Cool down:
200 easy choice (+ quietly expire in a corner)

The beeper got the better of me today. I feel busted tonight.

Corrigans I can only assume you're not in the same universe country as me then. The only think I would need to be avoiding when swimming in an outdoor pool would be hyperthermia.

Corrigans that's exactly why I've switched to a planned workout. It just flies by when there's a structure to it, and I really feel like I've accomplished something. I might nick your increasing sets workout, minus the last 2 x 400 + 100 and adjusting the pace to 1:50. I'm not quite up to a full hour's proper training yet. DH will have to get the laminator out again! TBH I can fairly easily keep a 2000-2500m workout in my head, but the man does love to laminate, so I indulge him.

I've just had a look at that Tempo Trainer thing. I know what I want for my birthday now!

I would SO lose track if I tried to follow a routine.

@TheOrigRightsofwomen, when you do Open Water events: are they mass start & everyone tramples over each other getting in & getting going? All the films I've watched are brutal, do not entice me to try it out.

Just to lower the bar somewhat, 0.6 km in 20 min this evening, mostly breaststroke with a couple of length of crawl. Shaky and absolutely ravenous afterwards despite making sure I ate enough today. :( But pleased with myself.

I'm so impressed with these mega distances you lot are swimming! I did 40 mins this evening, no idea how many lengths because I lost count after 10 mins! Tried to mix it up a bit by focusing on different bits of technique. And some speedier lengths here n there and I tried to do some slowly and smoothly (ala TI?) Not a very good training plan but it's still only my 3rd swim back after a break.

I'm thinking of how I can up my distances in time for the open water sessions that start in May. Does starting with 5 consecutive lengths (25m each) and increasing the distance by 5 lengths each week seem sensible? I'll only have time to do 2 occasionally 3 swims a week the rest of the time I'll be running/cycling and possibly seeing my husband occasionally! so one session can be stamina building and the other can be drills/technique. Any thoughts wiser/better swimmers?

building well done! I have just devoured some toast having just got back from the pool. I'm not supposed to be eating in the evenings but swimming just makes me so damn hungry!!

lljkk

For the big lake race it was a mass start. I started at the back and at the side so I didn't get trampled on and terrified. It was fine and I was pleased I didn't get swept away with that excitement because just being in the race itself was enough to make my breathing go all crazy for the first 50m or so. Had to give myself a good talking to.

For the splash and dash it was a far smaller field. We started in the water for that one and very quickly found our own place.

Back from late night 1K. Only 3 in the lane so we went up and down rather than round and round.

I have the heaviest day of my period today. I use a mooncup and it's always been fine in the pool. But gosh...15 mins after I finished and was wandering around Tesco I felt this gush. It had filled up and overflowed. Yikes.

I’ve only recently got into swimming. At my first lesson the only positive thing the coach had to say about my swimming was that I could swim in a straight line

With the right coaching and training plans it’s achievable. But it depends why you want to swim. There’s a lot to be said for having a relaxing 40 mins without rushing though. Swimming is great for clearing the head.