Swimming for fitness (part 4). Everyone welcome.

[TheOrigRightsofwomen]

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.

Pools opening from July 1 hurray!

Swimmers itch is a skin thing @TriSkiRun99 - allergic reaction to snail parasites - lovely!

Ooh that doesn’t sound nice twiz 😳

Which pools .lamb? I saw Sydney had opened some of their outdoor pools by booking one person to a lane which sounds heaven but I’ve not heard anything from swim England? (I’m in UK, but have family in OZ) both my DDs swim for a club and they haven’t said anything yet about re-starting training.

@Iamblossom all pools???? 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

wait -- is it definite about pools opening in July? I am not finding news. Please post link.

In summer I can arrive & leave in costume, but am afraid of terrible chill in winter so am thinking about getting shortie wetsuit to wear for journey home in winter, if I have to keep wet costume on. Does that mean toilets will be shut at pool? And no showers? All round grim.

People were swimming in river today, with wetsuits on.

This is all I’ve seen www.swimming.org/swimengland/returning-pools-guidance-published/# but our local pool said they were aiming to open w/b 6 July with pre-bookable lane swimming. 🤞
I’m very luckily I live near the sea so I’ve been swimming quite a few times in my cossie now in the sea. I’m acclimatising slowly sticking to 15mins at the moment but loving it as no scary barrel jelly fish have turned up yet!

only published today, thanks for that.
So it looks like they will want to put us into either 2 max/lane or single lanes, if no overtaking allowed except at the ends (why? do they think we adult lane swimmers all routinely crash into each other like child club swimmers?). But changing rooms may be available, at least.

No news on (otherwise busy) facebook pg of my leisure centre.

I've been enjoying doing 1-2k once a week in the various lakes near where I live - it's been amazing!

Some of the temperatures people are saying their lakes are - 16???? None where I live ever get above 12 😂

Hi swimmers, I've just started lake swimming and looking for something to wear on my feet as getting in and out is over sharp stones/unpleasant squidge. Are wet suit booties or swim shoes better? Any particular recommendations?

Where are you based @FrangipaniBlue ? I swam yesterday and water temp was around 18.

The only time I've swum in 12 is in Coniston at the beginning of the season after a very cold winter.

I'm in the Lake District @tizwozliz - 1.5k last night in 11/12 degrees!!

Our lakes at best get up to 15/16 after a dry warm spell

Ah, not my experience, I've done lots of events in the lakes and it's only been Coniston in early June that's been that cold. Ullswater and Derwent Water have been 17/18 the last few years when I've done events which I thought was warmer than average for summer but only by a degree or so.

Just checked as thought I must be misremembering

Yeah the southern lakes do get a wee bit warmer than the northern/western lakes where I am, and last May/June we had a really warm dry spell !!

Although saying that, I swam in Derwentwater at an event in the middle of June and it was only 12 degrees and the air temperature was down at 5/6 (6am start) - people were getting pulled out with hypothermia

I swim once a week with a friend and we are discussing seeing how far into winter we can last, hoping that by going every week we may slowly acclimatise??

@1000umbrellas I swim in decathlon wetsuit socks.

So, it's been a lon long few months without a swim. I bought some resistance bands and have used them a bit, but work has been really tiring over the last couple of weeks. I am camping in the next 2 weeks and I'm hoping to swim in the sea but it will be very much a few strokes than the lengths I was doing in March.

I am quite worried that I'm going to find it very hard because of being unfit and out of practice. My pool isn't opening until 1st August at the earliest (I'm away anyway for a few weeks) and haven't released any details about how to book, so I also don't know how easy it is to be able to get a slot, or how often I'll be able to.

Has anyone had any concrete plans from their pool?

I’ve been loving the open water swimming that I’ve been doing for the last couple of months. Normally I get in and faff about breaststroking for about 10 mins before switching to front crawl but I’m being very brave and trying to do crawl straight away. The main problem is that all swimming caps keep pinging off! Any advice for one that will stay in without ripping my hair out when I take it off?

@reallyneedmoresleep I find wetting my hair first helps and then once it's on I start at my crown and run my hands down over the cap to smooth the air out - it then kind of suctions to my head?

I've been open water swimming once a week - did my longest ever swim this week 2.5 miles from one end of a lake to the other!!

I'm in no hurry to get back in a pool, but I will once my Tri club start the masters sessions back up so that I can get some drills in

Had my first sea swimming coached session on Saturday. It was a real confidence boost as my main fear us going too far off shore and deep water. Plus the barrel jellyfish which are starting to return. I was super pleased to get a good 150m off shore which although not very far was big achievement for me. I’ve been swimming multiple times a week just along the shoreline 20m from beach but have a mental block going further
No sign of bloomin pools opening much here the main one in town is opening its gym stuff but no sign of pool at moment. The club one I belong to is saying no under 16! Which is really annoying as my kids love it there in the school holidays we go 3-4x a week normally as they are both competitive swim club members so when training stopped in Aug we had fun in the smaller pool.

Anyone near a pool that has now opened? Have you used it? Will you use it? Any thoughts on safety? Mine is open and there is a booking system. doesn't seem that busy. Have booked timeslot for next week.

I went to the pool today @jewel1968! There’s a booking system at mine too and the sessions are well spaced out to stop crowding and to allow for cleaning, I assume. It seems that they’ve even gone as far as to make sure the swimming sessions don’t cross over with gym sessions.

The rules are to swim in a circle instead of in lanes which was a bit tricky due to some people being slower/faster than others. There were only 5 of us there today but there’s 12 spaces in total. I just don’t think that many will fit! Overall it was really well organised though.

Very interested to hear from others who have been!

@Glower Did you turn up pool ready with swimsuit already on? And what did you do after swim - were you able to shower etc....

Yes, we were asked to turn up with swimsuit under clothes. We were allowed to shower afterwards as normal! People tended to leave the pool at different times (we were allowed 45 minutes) so there wasn’t any crowding in the changing rooms

Disclaimer that it’s a smaller pool and gym facility.

We’ve booked to go to an outdoor pool tomorrow it’s 40min drive but the closest pool that would allow my 13yr old club swimmer to go! She’s probably faster and more competent & considerate than most swimmers. I’m hoping it’s not a nightmare of slow breaststroke and we will actually be able to swim or she will be really disappointed.
I had a bumpy wavy sea swim lesson today out of my comfort zone (I don’t like swimming into waves) but was a buzz afterwards.