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.

Unless swimming in the sea I’m lucky we live 2m from the beach. I see this fab group of older ladies all must be 60+ swimming most days. This morning they were out at 7am swimming 2m apart chatting lovely to see.

I've been sat here wondering what's going to be first - pools open again or warm enough for outdoor swimming?

They swim all year round in Devon water temp about 6-8c the ladies said as I ran past. That was warmer than air temp in the wind chill 🥶

Should have specified - warm enough for me for outdoor swimming 6-8 degrees ain't it!

I think the lowest I've done is about 11/12

Here in France all the beaches are closed, as are forests lakes etc. You can swim in your bath that's about it 😂😟

I think that level of closure is coming madame as people aren’t actively doing social distancing properly.

How’s everyone doing without their chlorine fix? My DD is really struggling, swimming was her mental and physical health fix. We watched a couple of folk sea swimming yesterday and I must admit I’m really tempted. It’s bitterly cold water temp at moment and those swimming have been all year so are acclimatised, these ladies are mostly older and just go in their costumes! I’m in awe, I’d need wetsuit, booties and gloves still. But I do worry it could impact our immune systems if we do start Sea swimming when not used to it. I’ve got two tow floats though and it’s a safe calm part of the sea which we can cycle to easily, as I’ve been running to that location with DD already.

Tri I feel really sorry for your DD if swimming was that important for her. It must be really hard, and no end in sight (except for the sea!)
I'm not missing swimming too much, I only went once a week and did my 2km, it was more a back up to my main sport of running. I am really missing cycling especially as the weather is so nice. Here in France it is banned, even if you cycle alone. The only exercise we can do is walk or jog within a 1km distance from the house for up to an hour. As I live in the remote countryside I run twice a day with the dog for around 2 hours in total which is forbidden but essential for my physical and mental health. And I rarely see anyone else.

How’s everyone? I’m missing the pool. I’m lucky that I have the ocean still, but I miss the sets and the drills, my fitness has taken a real nose dive. Luckily the ocean is still warm but the air temp is dropping off. The stingers are really bothersome at time though, I got one stuck to my face last week and in my mouth so my face and lip swelled up. It wasn’t a good look.

I am missing swimming terribly. Just before lockdown, I had the confidence to practise my front crawl for the first time since I started swimming again, and was working on a good technique and endurance. For me, it wasn't just the exercise though, the silence in my head when I swam, as I had to stop thinking about anything else and concentrate on my breathing helped my stress more than I realised. My other exercise is hillwalking, so I really feel I am missing out on my two favourite things, pounding the local streets isn't really cutting it.

It’s hard prof I used swimming to clear my head for the same reason it’s hard to think about anything when you are focused on breathing. I’m doing yoga, hitt, cycling and abit of running but I really miss swimming as does by DD who is a real fish.

I miss swimming more than anything else about lockdown!

This would usually be open water season for me now, I live 20 minutes from 2 lakes and I'm so turn about whether to go or not

I ordered a big paddling pool for our garden last week and a bungy rope. My DD doesn’t know as it says 14d delivery but she’s seen a few of those videos of athletes swimming in them so I figured we’d try it in wetsuits hoping it all arrives & sets up ok!

My garden isn't big enough but I looked at those!!!!

How's everyone doing?

Lake swimming is starting at our local one on 2nd July! I'm going to go to both the early morning and evening sessions.

Cycling just hasn't been the same as swimming.

We had a sea swim it was very very cold even in wetsuits I got that ice cream headache feeling trying to put my head in 🥶 but really exhilarating. Hope to go tomorrow with eldest DD again. We are only 1mile from the sea so very lucky it’s easy to get to a safe spot.

I've been swimming this week, so amazing to be in the water again. One of the local open water swimming venues has opened up, restricted numbers and you have to book but they seem to be adding new sessions all the time.

13.5 degrees when I went on Thursday which was ok with insulated hat, socks and wetsuit. Did 5 laps of the circuit, not 100% sure of how long the circuit is but would have been somewhere between 1.5 and 2k.

Hate swimming in my wetsuit though, there were plenty of non wetsuit swimmers but not sure I'm brave enough yet.

I ached a lot the next day!

I have been lake swimming today!!!

It was glorious.

I have grinned like a Cheshire Cat all afternoon

We’ve set up the paddling pool had to swap the 8ft one we got for a 10ft one but I can now bungy swim in it now it takes a-bit of getting used to but I got 300m done. It’s cold but not as cold as the sea. Hoping I can keep using it to work on cold water acclimatisation, as I take my wetsuit off at the end for a quick plunge. The kids have been enjoying it too. May go off to swim in the sea later hoping it’s calm as it’s low tide over lunch time.

Do you know the temp of your padding pool @TriSkiRun99

The water temp at my local swimming spot is warming up rapidly so going to brave it without a wetsuit on Sunday - I'll still have an insulated rash vest on, and probably my wetsuit socks as well :-)

No I’ll measure it tomorrow if the kitchen thermometer will work it warms up the top 5-10cm each day then it’s freezing at the bottom. The girls went in it today, I’ve done 4d in a row fancied a break, and we swam in the sea yesterday was lovely if a little’weedy’ close to shore. Loads of people on the beach though no public toilets open yet so god knows what that’s gonna do for the local environment as they were definitely not all locals...

Another 1500m done yesterday, this time without the wetsuit. Water temp was 16 degrees. Not too bad whilst swimming, it took me forever to warm up again. Hopefully should only get warmer from now on.

Sounds good tizwouz Im liking swimming in the sea more but I don’t go far and I’m never fully comfortable so remain tense. I’ve been working on getting in our paddling pool with no wetsuit and finally managed 15mins yesterday and swam off the bungy cord but it takes quite an effort to float without the wetsuit buoyancy

I did 2.1km in the lake the other evening but suspect that's going to be my last swim for a while. Got really bad swimmers itch which is getting progressively worse each time I go :-(

Hope your ok tiz does eating yogurt help? Or drinking lemon? Not sure if they help re-balance internal bacteria but they help me.

Had my 1st 8am sea swim in costume today (no wetsuit!) yah was lovely - I think swimming in our big paddling pool has been acclimatising me. Didn’t go far and got out before numb coldness set in.