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.

I was roughly trying to do sets based on css pace which for me is 1:35

So have been doing sets like 16 x 100 off 1:35 with 10 seconds rest. I've being doing variations of this, sometimes doing 200's and 400's for about 2 months.

Did another 200 and 400m timed set and was slower than when I started (and it felt like hard work!)

Nice to see you Hissy and the useful post. I’ve taken the break down the stroke approach to improve speed along with swim fast up 1L and medium 1L recover repeat few times and chase after anyone else in the lane along with just swimming more.
I’ve just picked up a second hand book recommended up the thread which explains the shaw technique swimming mixed with Alexandra technique. I was intrigued so may try out some of its suggestions. I’d like to get faster but would prefer to stay injury free more so and found my back aching more so I need to get my alignment in the water better.

The tips are really helping. I’ve gone for a straight 30 lengths this afternoon to see if I’ve improved. This time I managed 21 of them front crawl (& 8 were continuous). 5 weeks ago I did 6 front crawl (& only 4 continuous) - the rest on my back. Just feels better. Think I could sustain more than the 8 but didn’t have the confidence to try today.

Well done boxcar swimming does seem to take awhile to build up then suddenly your get something to click. My young daughter swims in a club and she does 3hrs of swimming a week and it still takes months and months to knock a tenth of a second off a race time.

Welcome back Hissy! Good advice. I did some speed work prior to the Aussie Masters championships and it really helped my overall speed, even for distance swimming.

Anyone wanting to increase speed and endurance would be good to do some intervals with a short rest in between as suggested.

I’m very impressed with your CSS Tizwoz. I managed to get to about 1:38/100 with some heavy training for a race 2 years ago. I need to get some consistency in my training to get back again, as i’m at about 1:43 at the moment. If anyone has a spare 30 minutes then my coach has a good video about his most improved swimmer and how she achieved it
m.youtube.com/watch?v=ojt3nkVoYEU

Good luck on the Henley Mile Hissy

I've always had a suspicion that CSS doesn't work properly for me as my time's go something like this

50m 35.58
100m 1:20
200m 3:10
400m 6:20

So my time drops off drastically from 50 to 200m but after that I don't really lose any pace at all. I did 25 x 100 at 1:35 with 10 secs rest this morning and I don't think it was challenging enough. Trying to go a couple of seconds faster is too difficult when I'm only working off a pace clock though.

New job starting next week and it's going to be a lot more challenging fitting swims in but I really don't want to lose the gains I've made over the past 6 months.

Swam today. 1K. 2 of us in the lane. Lovely.

Tizwoz, is the reason your time drops above 100m that you’re getting comfortable just sticking at 100m chunks?

Our coach does timed 800m every few months. Our warm ups are very often 400m.

Doing the 400/300/200/100 sets then main sets with 200s drill and swim - we do 200m 50 drill/50swim has extended our range and then keeps the pace consistent I think.

Mile went ok, but my biggest issue is what is between my ears!

I got crowded at the start then had a small panic, took my time, and gradually got a bit bolder mostly bloody breaststroke and about 1/3 of the way down started to get my head around it all and started over taking a few people

Shaved a mere 2mins + off my time from last year. I wanted to shave 10mins.

Oh well... in another years time I’ll be an even stronger swimmer... I’ll need to do more outdoor practice too.

Or drugs... 🤣

I generally do 800m warm-up that normally includes 400m continuous swimming and I do 400m and 200m sets as well. I don't only swim 100m.

But my time isn't really dropping off after 100m, in 100m sets I do them at 1:35, in 200m I do each 100 at 1:35, in 400m I do 100m in 1:35. But what css doesn't take into account is my 100m one off speed is significantly faster.

I've been doing swim smooth sets for 2 months now and my 200m and 400m times have got slower ( although css works out the same )

Lovely to have you back Hissy. We've missed you!

I've discovered my secret to going faster is to have an argument with someone after asking if they minded moving down a lane

3 minute 200m after that!

Swimsmooth... that may be significant actually - are you adapting your stroke over distance? could the smooth element (I'm a TI swimmer) be kicking in more over distance?

I see what you mean...I can do a 50 in 55s but I can't do 1.50 for a 100, my fastest is just about the 2min mark

I am doing the Henley Club to Pub for the first time this weekend (1.5k). First proper event and first time swimming in the river, although have done a few swims in the local lake and feel comfortable with the distance. Any tips?! Really looking forward to it but slightly nervous..!

Ah, when i say swim smooth sets i just mean the ones they suggest on their css-training page

e.g.
10x200m with 20sec recovery
or
5x400m with 40sec recovery
or
20x100m with 10sec recovery

I don't follow their stroke methodology

Tiz My team mate gave the 4321 session to build speed (he won 6 medals at gb masters, 4 gold, 2 silver) and he says that’s what he does to get his speed up, to swim faster, it’s just a case of swimming faster, more often then for longer

Sounds like you’re about to hit an up phase, so carry on doing what you’re doing and I think the time will come

I’ve not tried css though, I didn’t know how effective it would be, interesting to hear your take on it

Pub to Club! We were going to try that, but having done Henley last weekend I know I’m not ready

I do find swimming upstream hard work, but if you get through that it’s easier when it’s all down steam to a pub!

We’re on holiday next week so it was a little tight to enter and still get focused on packing etc, but as I say, I’m not up to it yet.

Yes, I've always thought that swimming faster is the way to swim faster but that's sort of the opposite to what doing repeats at css pace says. I was sceptical to start with and I've given it a go and it just doesn't work for me.

My main issue now is that at the sessions I go to the 'fast' lane is full of quite slow people so it's difficult to even do a clear 100. Today there was a lady who was doing 100's off about 3 minutes. I asked if she would mind moving down to the medium lane (1 other person in that lane) and got told it wasn't my place to tell her to move and it was extremely rude to even ask nicely!!

Swim over the top of them! It actually IS your place to suggest she moves when you are TWICE as fast as her.

Ffs, I’m not quick and I could even backstroke faster than her fc

A 3m 100m is not “fast”

My team mate with the medals is super generous with me and the oh, helps train, gives technical tweaks and tips to help us swim faster. Has all the time in the world

BUT... even he told someone to ftfo out of his lane as he needed to swim and slowcoach wasn’t allowing him to.

This same bloke competed in a club champ, won everything he entered, but wasn’t happy with the times

When he went to gb Masters he was with much faster swimmers, so swam even faster and won most of his races.

His “encouragement” when he’s setting out sets is “good... now SWIM FASTER!”

Do you train alone? Or are you in a club? It really helps to have others to train with.

Me and my oh are about same standard, sometimes he’s faster, sometimes I am. I’m better at some strokes than him, him in others :) it helps a lot to get us each better but by bit

I managed about 20 minutes in the sea on Sunday. Love the sea waves but can't take the cold. Brrrrr!!!
My pool is very busy at 6:30am on weekdays
I am another one who has done her fastest ever lengths after a stupid row with someone
I never heard of CSS before... Is this right link? I don't see how one does that in shared public lanes.

Thanks for the swimsmooth link doorknob I watched it and then a couple more and realised I’m a “glider” so it’s really given me some good ideas & drills to work on with my stroke. I even fitted the “analytical” job/mindset but not the tall man description.. does anyone else use a tempo trainer? I’m tempted after watching the videos, and to see if my daughter may like to try it. The only thing I’m not sure about is if I’d hear the thing beeping as I have hearing issues, wear ear plugs, and struggle with higher pitch noises.

The swim smooth stuff about over gliding is a bit of nonsense I’ve been told

Look at total immersion, it teaches the importance of smoothness and using the glide

In conventional swimming too glide is important- breaststroke for example

I also have a sneaking suspicion that css may not be the answer, looking at sets with it on paper it doesn’t make sense that it would enhance speed over all.

I’ve used tempo training, it’s part of total immersion training, it’s a little distracting at first

I need to get mine back from the oh

Might take it on hols with me to focus on plopping along for longer ...

(I tried to google this, honest, but can't find a thing that gives definite answer)

I think the glide thingie is something to do when folk turn around at the ends, not done at other times.

Is the glide supposed to make you faster than going straight into your stroke, or is it supposed to just be a regular rest moment in the middle of the set? It looks like a little rest for most.

ie, What's the point of gliding? How does it help you swim?

I can't glide, btw, I can't go underwater for any time. I can see in Olympics that elite swimmers seem to glide away from walls extremely fast, though.