Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

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

Everyone welcome.

Enjoying swimming with the club and not having to think too much about what to do, as it's someone else deciding. I'm not swimming any more lengths than I was on my own but it certainly seems like more of a workout.

Recently calculated that I've swum 130km since June. Going to try and do at least that much again before next June.

My normal pool now back open again 40min Swim last night.

Ski :)

I only did Wednesday this week, as I’ve put in an insane amount of overtime. But it felt so good. I am going again tomorrow :) Must remember flip flops, the changing rooms are absolutely disgusting!!

Quick km last night with lane to myself, I need to remember by flip flops too as I have to run from outside to the changing room inside and it’s brrrr now!

First time in the pool this week, it was lovely, hardly anyone there at lunch time.
I used to use a technique called ‘total immersion’, I tried to bring some of the elements back in my front crawl, soft hand in, pause between strokes. It’s still all very much all over the place, but I’m getting there.
I’m also used to breathe every 3 strokes, the woman in front of me was doing every 5, I tried, but didn’t like it 😂.

Oh, and I saw someone with what I would describe an elastic under breasts, no gizmo attached, just an elastic band, what’s that all about?

As you can tell my attention span was a bit rubbish today 😂. But I went for a run first, then drove to the pool, made me feel better about vegetating pretty much the whole of last week.

No idea about the elastic 8fencingwire unless it’s part of bra support or a heart rate monitor? Interestingly my DD was asked to do 5 or 6 breathe drills in FC last week and it’s really hard. I tried it out too and found it made me streamline & speed up my arm pull but I couldn’t do whole length I had to stop about 18-20m in, ran out of air. Interesting drill though which I played with at last nights swim as well but I can only do it when I’m super relaxed normally after 30L+ of swimming and zenned into the water I find I’m all tense when I start. Had good 1k last night but boy was it freezing doing the dash from clubhouse to pool last night brrrr as pool is outside the main building.

ski, I’m intrigued by your pool :) I go to a normal leisure centre. Do you swim in an open air one?

Went for a swim yesterday. I’m becoming, albeit slowly, more comfortable in the water. I still absolutely love that first plunge. I’ve got a little routine going, after the new year I’ll start the drills properly, at the moment I am just ‘finding my feet’.
:)

The pool a few years ago was open air but they built a green house thing over it so it can stay open all year round. They haven’t built any kind of tunnel between main building (which has lovely warm showers) and the pool house thing hence the icy dash at the moment but it’s a small “price” to pay for a lovely quiet pool got another km on Thursday.

Been super quiet on here? Anyone else dread the first couple of weeks in January when everyone starts exercising again pool & gyms get super busy for few weeks.

Me! I'm dreading it.
I've come on to ask advice about doing a 4km sea swim. Has anyone attempted that?
I regularly do 1.5-2km in the pool and I've worked out a plan to up my distance over 12 weeks.

Sorry no idea minnie that’s beyond me but hissy and doorknob on here both do long seaswims. I live by the sea and there is a local Facebook group which people use to share advice, sea conditions and find swim buddies on. Maybe you have something like that local to you?

I live nowhere near the sea now unfortunately SkiMum99 so I'm going to train in lakes once it's warmer.

It’s been a while fellow swimmers.

It’s racing season here in Oz and I’ve had some great swims and smashed some PB’s.

I’ve been in the ocean lots despite the frequent shark pingings. I got nailed by stingers yesterday, i’m more afraid of them than the sharks tbh.

Minnie gradually increasing your distances is a good idea. Make sure you’re doing some longer intervals with shorter rests, 200-400m with 15-30 secs rest only between intervals. You want to perfect your Diesel engine. You also need to work on your kick for ocean swims, especially if it’s choppy, because you will need your kick for stability. I find that my hip flexors ache after about 3-4K continuous swimming.

I’d also recommend getting out into the ocean if you’re not used to it. It’s very different to swimming in the pool. Practice makes perfect. Also try out the wetsuit lots before race day, if you’re planning on swimming in one.

Thank you CorrigansDoorKnob. So I need a strong kick? Should I be doing my distance in sets then? I tend to do it all in one go.

No chance to swim in the sea until a week before the swim unfortunately. I grew up close to where I'll be doing this swim though, so I'm used to that sea.

1600m in the pool all to myself. Bliss :) I'm full of a warm endorphin glow now.

First swim in ages (injury healed and returned to running). I’ve signed up for an aquathlon in March as an incentive to keep swimming. Hoping it’ll help keep me injury free. A year ago I was really unfit and hadn’t exercised in nearly 15 years (not surprising I got injured). Today I can run 9k (aiming for 10) & can do 400m FC in just over 9 mins (aiming for under). What a difference a year makes!

Great progress boxcar I have made similar progress from a couple of years ago I started C25k and taught myself frontcrawl it’s a nice feeling learning new skills in middle age. Just thinking about goals for next year now. Ideally I’d like to do a full sprint Triathlon but I need to get my 5k run time faster ideally and my FC 400m time or I will definitely be last I know someone has to be but I’d like to be in with a good chance of finishing in one piece. I’ve done three Go-Tris now so I have got the transition stuff practiced I just need to up the distances now and get more confident (& lose 2 stone...but that’s a whole other challenge!!)

That's a point- I need to improve my front crawl significantly.

The aquathlon is a go-tri event with the level being 'take part'. I'm worrying about just how cold the run will be in March after getting out of the pool! I'm a new runner & not fast (I did C25K last winter) so expect to be among the last but I'm hoping there will be a few like me based on looking at times in other go tri events. I will be quite literally dipping my toe in the water!

Not been swimming for a while - a combination of the holidays and some minor illness. Still a bit under the weather so not sure whether I'll fit anything more in before New Year but just checked and I've swum just over 152 km in the 6 months I've had my fitbit.

Going to aim for 300 km in 2019

Hi, I’m new but hoping to go back to regular swimming this year. Hope it’s ok for a newbie to join the chat?

Welcome Gemmefatale all sorts on here swimming but thread has been quiet lately. I need to get back into 2x swims a week after slipping last few weeks running upto Xmas to once a week and I’m missing it. Not made any more progress on the butterfly but I did a first with my DDs a couple days ago and did two knee dives into the pool. I’ve never dived too scared so they were trying to teach me it was funny I felt rather self conscious but this guy swam past said I’ll give you a 4.9

🤣🤣🤣 a 4.9 🤣😂😂
Brilliant! I haven’t attempted a dive in ages, not sure how I’d do:)

Welcome Gemme!

I will attempt the first swim of the year tomorrow. I have been poorly, still got a chesty cough, but I hope I’ll be able to go :)

Welcome Gemme. This chat is for all levels and abilities, it’s great to have newcomers.

Minnie my recommendation would be intervals. I hardly ever swim my distances in one go in the pool. In the ocean it’s harder to do intervals, but you can do some fartlek work with 20 strokes fast, 20 recovery for example. A training programme would be useful so you can get an idea of how far to swim and how much to rest in between.

I’m training for a couple of big ocean swims in Feb. I’m doing this one, which is my favourite swim on the season, it’s so much fun. I’m really hoping I can swim just

That looks stunning CorrigansDoorKnob. Here's mine www.letsdothis.com/e/swim-to-the-edge-solva-swim-32458

I swam 2.5km in the pool this week, so distance shouldn't be a problem. It's the other stuff . Thank goodness DS is back at school tomorrow so I can swim on my days off.

Both look like fabulous challenges I would really like to build my swimming confidence in the sea when out of my depth as I’m too scared to go far at the moment. I’m lucky to live close to the sea so I have no excuse to not getting practice in.