Swimming for fitness (part 4). Everyone welcome.

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Old thread here

Anyone interesting in swimming for fitness welcome here.
Newbies, experiences, the fast, the slow - we're all sharing, learning and most of all supporting each other.

30under how’s your challenge going? I mainly swim for relaxation as cross training to running but I aim to do 1-2k a week.

triskirun99 thanks for asking; I am half way there. Unfortunately felled by my second cold since I started so having to take another week off; sigh. I definitely found I was generally improving though, so that's something!

Thanks for the welcome, ski and best. I've just looked up what a pull buoy is, and realized that there are several of them kicking round our pool (gym pool) to borrow. It would really help if I could take legs out of the equation while concentrating on the arms and breathing. I've noticed people holding them in one arm too.

I'll check out effortless swimming too, thanks.

I practiced yesterday and made a lot of progress with breathing underwater for breast stroke, can easily do a (slow) length now with the right breathing. Still crap at the crawl, and swallowing loads of water because I forget to close me gob when I turn my head back under water. Oops. It actually helped that I slowed my pace down to concentrate on technique. And gosh, it's tiring on the arms at the beginning! But practice is all.

Really enjoyed my swim today :

10 front crawl
10 kicking fc legs using float
10 just front crawl arms with paddles (using pull buoy)
10 mixture of full front crawl backstroke and breaststroke
10 mixture of fc/bs/brs legs using float
10 mixture of fc/bs/brs using hand paddles
2 fc and 2 brs to make it a mile.
Took 37 minutes.

Came on here to tell someone as no one in RL would be remotely interested.

Always feel so much better after a swim and I love the weariness you get in the evening on a swim day.

I really like Rebecca Adlington's range. I have 4 and rotate them, all still going strong after a year and I swim twice a week

Sorry the link didn't bring my comment through I was saying I like Rebecca Adlington's range of cossies , I have several and all still going strong after a year

www.sportsdirect.com/slazenger-rebecca-adlington-curved-x-back-swimsuit-ladies-354648

Fairly quiet at lunchtime lanes today. The pre-Christmas slow-down has begun.

@Mentounasc, I got to adulthood only able to doggy-paddle. It was an awesome Doggy-paddle, but even so, it sucked not being able to swim any kind of proper way.

Goggles made it possible for me to put face in water (no one had goggles when/where I grew up - 1970s).

I learnt a lot how to manage breathing with face mostly in water, mostly from tips I overheard at my kids' swimming lessons (!). You can do this. Youtube videos may help.

( Although maybe not salt water. I have no idea how to swim front crawl in salt water. Salt water in the mouth is just foul. )

I wear a nose clip - chlorine allergy - , it might help if you really can’t put your face in the water but if you can do without it, I would.

I like those Rebecca Adlington swimsuits but they don’t seem to go above size 14. I need to invest in one shortly , 18 and very long bodied. Anyone got any recommendations?

Can I join? I need to get my butt to the pool. You lot will make me, right?! Reasons I don't swim (excuses): my pool has irritating hours for public swim, 8:30pm Tue or Wed, or 8am-9:30 Sat & Sun. It's not a hair wash day. It's boring. Reasons I need to swim: I've been off running, biking, circuits, anything really since April with prolapsed disks and sciatica. I've been doing lots of physio & pilates and am ready to introduce more. I have noticed I'm getting out of breath walking the dog. I've noticed the muscle tone in my legs has suddenly vanished. My reasons not to are not reasons not to. I'm not a great swimmer, I've done a couple of 10wk courses for beginners sprint triathlons and since them I can do 50 lengths front crawl, but with breaks along the way. How many lengths is a km?

In a 25m pool (most common public baths are 25m) then 1km is 40 lengths.

@indecisivelurker those pool opening times for public swimming do sound particularly rubbish! I have always felt lucky that my local pool is rarely busy but it does have public swimming times with lanes in every morning, every lunchtime and every evening! I frequently have a lane to myself.

Sorry I appreciate that isn't very helpful but I was annoyed on your behalf!

Thank you @lamb it's interesting to know that they actually are rubbish!!! There aren't any private gyms here with swimming pools either so it's always busy.

Oo yey, I'm quite excited that I can swim a km! @bestiswest

Any recommendations for goggles whilst we're talking equipment? I have quite deep-set eyes and I find it tricky to find ones that fit.

Zoggs supposedly do long bodied costumes BestIsWest but I can't work out which. I've given up and wear swim bikinis now (generally Speedo).

Googles are a mini nightmare for me, I've spent a fortune finding ones that don't fit. I ended up with ones for blokes (Zoggs Predator) to suit my big head & small eyes. Someone at work sold me some non-brand ones that also fit, but I literally have No Idea what brand they are.

I've got an (ugly boring functional) Zoggs legsuit (long body discussion) that I have seen several others wearing.

@Indecisivelurcher, what works 4 me is I pay in advance for a months' membership: I paid so I damn well am going to turn up to get my money's worth.

Monthly membership is £24 though so i would have to swim x3 a week I think to get my money's worth. I've checked the opening times and I might be able to squeeze a session in on a Monday on my lunch break, Wednesday night and Sunday morning. But I don't know that I'm enthusiastic enough 😅 This Wednesday will be my glorious debut...

Your swim is £2/session? Wow, where is that?
Ours is £5/adult session.

No it's £4.30. So wait, that's x2 seasons a week... Hmm maybe I need to consider that.

Are there no gyms with pools locally?

Our public pool is £5 a swim plus you then have £1 a hr for parking, so I joined a private club just to use the pool as I only have to go 6x a month to make it pay as parking is also free. It too makes me go as “I’ve paid” already worth looking around Indecisivelurcher you might find another pool that’s a better fit with hours. My pool is 20m that’s the draw back but it’s long enough to get a good session in as I normally get a lane to myself too.

Same here, I pay £31 per month, Swim twice a week pays for itself. I use the gym once or twice a week too.

I think it's 6 quid a swim at our pool, but £19.99 a month. So doesn't take much to get your money's worth but less motivation to get your money's worth too! I go past a few different pools to go to the one i do, because there's some sort of lane swimming most of the time. The pool within walking distance has really restrictive times.

I’m pretty spoiled for choice over here in Aus. I haven’t swum in a 25m pool for ages. The pools are also open all day for public swimming. I went back to the UK last year and just pitched up to the local pool to find it was parents and children only session, I was completely that I couldn’t swim! They also all close by 8.30pm, they start pulling the covers over 30 mins before that. In winter it’s usually 7.30pm or earlier. On the other hand, they’re all open by 5.30am all seasons.

My sister lived in Aus for a few years and she really misses her cheap open air 50m pool swims. I throughly enjoyed swimming daily outdoors in a 50m pool in France whilst on hols this year, the lack of noise & chlorine fumes was heaven. Hohum back to dark cold nights here dashing from my greenhouse club pool to changing rooms the plus side is the pool is quieter Yah! Had to swap out my mirrored goggles for normal ones again too but they annoyingly kept leaking the other night.