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.

The pool guard suggested using bum float to avoid too much spine curve in FC yesterday so I did a km with the float and 50m leg kicks on my back. Why is my leg kick more powerful on my back? On my front I can barely move forward with legs only but on my back I become a power machine.
My back pain returned during swimming. I hate all other forms of exercise and classes make me panicked so I need to find a way to keep swimming.

I recently got a new Fitbit watch that will measure heart rate as well as laps so was excited to try it out yesterday, did my usual sort of set doing 2.3km

Lap count was spot on, but looking at the heart rate graph I'm not sure I'm trying hard enough. Need to do some reading and work out what I should be aiming for.

In china for work. Infinity pool at the hotel. Beautiful.

I’m in Wales no infinity pool or swim pool near me sounds lovely rights enjoy. I’ve got to wait till Sunday for my next swim fix

tiz at my last swim I did 20L to warm up then did 50m sprints going as fast as I could then took 10sec breather then went again 5x I was puffing hard after that but carried on for another 20L of mindless swimming. Try some sprints it will definitely raise your heart rate.

Another 1K done after the conference in the infinity pool. Perfect.

It's actually motivated me to rejoin the masters club I used to be a member of. I thought I'd done fairly well with trying to push myself but I think someone else setting the pace is going to be much better for me.

I’m a big fan of squad swimming. Everyone in your lane is that same-ish speed and doing the same thing. I often swim faster when there are other people to spur me on.

I’ve cracked the sub 1:40/100m CSS and i’m swimming at about 1:37/100m. Really pleased as it’s been a long time coming.

1k yesterday very quiet in the outside “greenhouse” club pool but warm enough.

Hi, can I join in?
I used to swim regularly, I’m by no means fab at it, but I’m ok-ish.
Haven’t been in a pool for a workout for about 3 years! but I’ve been swimming in the sea quite a bit.
Now I’m getting back into it, but I’m wary of burnout. I know what I used to be able to do, I had my little 2.5k routine, all was well. I’ll probably run out of steam after 10 lenghts now.

Does anybody know of a C25K equivalent of? Or can suggest a gentle routine to ease myself back into it? I can do all strokes, but I don’t do butterfly due to bad lower back.
Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Welcome @8FencingWire

Everyone is welcome!

You'll be quite strong if you've been sea swimming I think.

A 2.5K routine is pretty intense, so I'd go easy on yourself.

I'm not really a swimming expert (there are many, many wise women on here who I hope will swim by), but I did ease myself from being a non-swimmer into a proficient one.

I started off going 3 times a week for 40 mins a time. Not too ambitious, but enough to see improvement.
In time I was able to swim 1K comfortably so I then worked on increasing speed.
I got myself a pull buoy to help position me in the pool and also to break up the session (I do 100m with the buoy and 100m w/o).

I now do 1K in about 24 mins, and try to go twice a week. Swimming is something I do along side my main sport of running so I'm happy to maintain.

I am in Hong Kong for work so have been using the outdoor hotel pool. It is lush. I am going back home today, but get one last dip in the pool before the night flight.

I LOL'ed at them changing over to 'winter' opening ours - it's a gorgeous 25C.

theorig, thank you, that’s very helpful :)
That’s a very good time you’ve got there!!! Do you do medleys?

You’re right, I probably have the strenght, but the technique is most likely out of the window. And the more I think about positioning, the more I go: oooohhhj, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore!!! Cutting through waves and sea buoyancy is what my brain is used to now.
But I’m very excited, I miss swimming in the pool. Like a good consciencious pupil, I got myself a new pair of goggles and a new costume 😂.

Enjoy Hong Kong and it’s 25 degrees, I’m jealous a bit :)

Oh you do you have give the make and model of swimsuit and goggles!

I have a boy leg Sports Direct cheapy suit, a Zoggs one bought from the pool when I forgot my suit, and a regular Speedo one.
I tend to opt for the boy leg one as I don't need to bother about my bikini line then.
Oh and my M&S flamingo bikini for swimming in the Med!

I have Aqua Sphere Kaiman goggles which work well for me.

I had to look up what you meant by a medley (told you I'm new to swimming!) I always thought that was a competition. It's different strokes yeah? No, I do the whole thing front crawl. I can sort of do breast stroke, but I am super slow. I'll only work on backstroke if I can be confident of near empty lanes.

I like to work my upper body when I swim because my legs get the work out when I run.

The outdoor pool has been lovely. I have a desk job and can feel my brain and body unwind the more laps I do, and then I reach 'the zone' - sort of swimming nirvana.

Takes me 30L normally to reach “swimming nirvana” I start off all breathy then get really tired at the 15-20L mark then I start to relax and stop thinking about the breathing and just enjoy being in the water every blooming time though takes me lengths to relax in the water. I still start by trying to immerse myself at the beginning to get used to the water. I’m still over ruling years as a kid of hating putting my face in the water and being scared. A couple of mums saw me swimming the other day and didn’t believe me when I said a couple of years ago I couldn’t do FC at all, made me feel proud as a middle aged mum I can still learn new skills . I tried a bit of sea swimming this summer 8fencing I enjoyed it but couldn’t go out of my depth without The Fear kicking in, but I will try again next summer as luckily we live close to couple of good spots. Like rights I’ve got a pull buoy and arm float to mix up my swimming as I’m also nursing back issues but like to run. I try to do 1-1.5k a couple of times a week.

theorig, snap!
I have had aquasphere for a long time, I find them the best. I’ve ordered a Kaiman as well. My costume comes from Sports Direct too, £10 boy leg slazenger 😂😂😂.
What are the chances of that?
Sorry about the ‘slang’, yes, medley is different strokes. I’m quite good at backstroke, it’s my favourite, but it’s pointless in a 25m pool, because I really torpedo that one normally. Or used to 🙄. 50m (olympic size, I think it is) pool, that’s fab for backstoke, you can really go for it. I’m quite excited now.
I used to ‘swim in my head’. Now, bare with me, it sounds mental, I know, but it’s when you close your eyes and visualise your stroke. I tried to do that earlier and I was ‘drowning’😂.

ski, that’s useful to know, thank you, I’ll aim for 30 lenghts before I start panicking I’m not enjoying this anymore.
Like you, I got into swimming a bit later on in life, it’s such a great feeling, isn’t it? I still have the fear first time I go into a new ‘territory’. And I’m quite rubbish at reading the sea, I stick to groups of swimmers, or if I’m on my own, to a manned beach. But I absolutely love it!

First session back with the club today, went well - 2450m but included a lot more kick and fly than i'd typically do on my own and my fitbit stats support that i worked harder than when I'm plodding along on my own even though distance and time wise there wouldn't appear to be much difference.

Well, came to say my first session back in the pool was great. I’ve learnt just how unfit I am at the moment 😂.
Breaststroke is a killer for my shoulders. I can still do a decent crawl, I’ve lost my breathing pattern a bit, but that’ll come back easy enough. My strenght in legs is zero, tried a couple of lenghts just legs, I was barely advancing.
All in all pretty dire. But I so love it. It’ll be fun to get myself back together.
I’ll stick to crawl for warm ups and I’ll do legs and ‘tummy to the wall’ turns for workout, with only one or two lenghts of very very gentle arms, I can hear my shoulders creaking something terrible.

Meh...my last swim in the pool in Hong Kong was thwarted by a flipping typhoon warning! Don't get that in my local council run pool!

Back at home now and first swim in normal pool. Always good to just get going somewhere I'm so familiar with. Door to door in an hour.

Accidentally took perished swimsuit (why was it even still in my pile of sports stuff?). It was somewhat too long and baggy for me, but I reckon I styled it out! It's in the bin now - all 8 foot of it!

I swam 1.8km in about 45 minutes today. Very pleased with that

There was a woman blow drying her feet ! Not seen that before.
Off fossil hunting on the beach soon. Glorious weather for November in UK.

It wasn’t me!!! 😂

At my pool you still have to pay 20p to use the hairdryer, which annoyed me. Everything annoyed me, the lockers don’t work with the new £1 coin, there was only one lane and one bloke thought it was his personal one. I wouldn’t have minded that much, but he was acting like: out of my way, I’m so much faster and better than all of you (when, in fact, his stroke was seriously bad and he was splashing everywhere). Grrrr....
But, I did do my little routine, I’ve noticed my shoulders are a bit better. I’ll go tomorrow night again. Was meant to run today, but we went for a day out instead and we’re shattered.
I need earplugs 🙄.

My Pool is shut for emergency repairs been a week now and expecting another week. I may try another one locally tonight as think it’s adult only sess as I’m really missing a de-stress Swim

8fenchingwire I use zoggs swim ear plugs shaped like “in ear headphones” worked well for me.

ski, thank you, I bought some today:) ....after my swim 🙄.
Did a few lenghts, but we got moved after a bit because if swimming lessons 🙄, everybody in one lane, it soon turned to chaos. But I ploughed through. My shoulders are painful, I am gaining strenght every time I go, but it’s time I did some physio I think.
It’s cold when you come out, I jumped straight in a hot bath.

One of the local pools open again Yah! Both got shut with boiler/mechanical issues. Got in the zone tonight lovely mile /1600m swim really enjoyed just ploughing up/down in my own space. The club had 3L and the other L had public but was masters/off duty lifeguards in it really nice folk but way faster than me! so I swam in the public open bit which was nearly empty so had my own “lane” space