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.

Hello Gnome. How often do you swim?

What a pain TheOrigRights. The guidance says you “should avoid” travelling to another area.

Hello MinnieMountain I am trying to go 4 times per week. That is I went 4 times last week and have booked in for 4 times this week! I am doing roughly 40 minute sessions each time.

How about you?

I've been thrown out of the running club! Ha ha.
They are in T2 (same town as the pool).

Maybe I will have to spread my wings and find some new friends.

That’s good going Gnome.

I normally manage 3 times a week. Our sessions are 45 minutes.

TheOrigRights oh no! Is there a local running club?

This IS the local running club. We are right on the border of T3/T2 so loads of my life happens in the T2 town (sport, DS's clubs, shopping). Ironically I'd have to head deeper into where there are more covid cases to stick to my T3 region.

It's OK, I love to run alone, and mostly do that anyway, I'm just in a strop!

TheOrigRights that's the problem with being on the border. We are in Tier 2 but the next county which is within easy walking distance looks to be going into Tier 3. Thankfully the pool is in Tier 2.

I won't be able to swim (T4) for I suspect a long time. I am looking for alternative exercise suggestions. I have some restrictions:

• low back problems (slipped discs)
• sciatica issues with foot pain (I do walk but pain means not terribly fast)
• arthritis in shoulder

You can see why swimming was a life saver for me.
I am thinking maybe Pilates?

Any suggestions very welcome...

Have you tried cycling jewel? But with a well fitted bike it really helped me to loosen a tight SI joint when my lower discs decided to bulge. My DH fitted a higher bike stem which enabled me to sit better and I had zero back pain when exercising as no impact. You can then ride on the road or a turbo trainer.

@TriSeaSwim99 I hadn't really thought about it. I do have a bike so perhaps that is something to explore. I live in London so always felt it might be a bit tricky with traffic but I should think about it.

Waiting on DH's covid test result so have had to miss this week's swimming sessions which I am surprisingly disappointed about (not normally too keen to exercise!).

Anyone here former club swimmers?

Back in my youth I trained and swam competitively and also lifeguarded as a part time job. Swimming again has brought back a lot of memories.

Remembering the old days when there were no separate sessions at our local pool. Kids would arrive with 50p which covered their entrance fee plus a hot chocolate. On a Saturday that would get them in for a full day from 9am to kicking out at about 6pm.

Children were frequently unaccompanied and arrived in groups. If one of them got hurt you would have to track down the most sensible out of the group to get a message to the casualty's parents to say their child was off to hospital to get their head stitched (a very common injury from diving into about 3 feet of water).

There werent lockers, you put your clothes in a basket and handed them to a lady who would give you a wrist band in exchange. The woman in charge of this was of late middle age and gloriously crude!

Happy days!

Love hearing the stories gnome and I hope your DHs test is negative - we had a similar scare last week & I missed a swim session. Luckily we had a negative result. I remember swimming years ago as a child in a pool SO busy & smelly it was rammed we had coloured wrist bands for an hour only, it was SO noisy as this was a super hot summers day in the SE London. I much prefer a lane to myself these days or a SeaSwim with a lovely bunch of crazy women.

Moved to T4 so swimming stopped after today, boohoo.

My (4m wide) lane buddy was doing intervals. 2 or 4 fast lengths, 1-2 minute rest, repeat.... building down to 1 fast length, 30 second rest, repeat repeat.. mostly with pull buoys. Meanwhile I just plodded along. We probably covered the same distance in the 45 minutes we had.

I feel bad for the lifeguards & others are zero hours contracts. Pffft.

Thankfully DH has tested negative so we are freeeeee....

Except that it is lashing it down with rain so no giddy running in the streets.

We are going into Tier 3 on Boxing Day but pools can remain open. I am sorry that you are going to lose your swimming lljkk.

The swimming club I belonged to was an outdoor one. Our home pool was originally fed from the neighbouring river (thankfully that predated my time). The club operated outdoors during the 'summer' months starting in early May (or could even have been April). It used to be absolutely Baltic at the start of the season being at the bottom of a valley which the wind whistled up.

Sadly that pool has now gone. I think it fell out of fashion when the trend moved towards leisure pools with wave machines and spa facilities. This pool was a good old fashioned rectangular pool with facilities limited to sunbathing terraces. It was always packed in the summer.

Going out for a swim tonight then have an outdoor swim(In a heated pool) booked for the 27th. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can still swim next week.

The pool I learned to swim at had the wire baskets that were like coat hangers at the top. We got to be in charge of the baskets sometimes when our club hired out the pool

Glad I've got a swim booked this evening!

I had a session booked at 16:00 today and it was quite full, packed full of stoic swimmers determined to make the most of it.

I looked at all of us there, spending time on bettering our physical and mental health- closing such places is so short sighted.

Hi, I’m new - joining this thread just as most pools close down, great timing, but luckily I am in T3 so carrying on for now. I started swimming again at the start of December and have been trying to go 4-5 times a week, but mostly shoehorned into my lunch hour. I am horrendously unfit so have built up to 30 laps a session. Tonight I had a bit more time available, so just carried on and did 50. What was strange was the first 30 were a struggle, as always, but then it all became a lot easier. Just wondering if there is a scientific reason for that?

I find the same Vinnie. I set myself a target, say 32 lengths and really struggle, then by length 26 it gets a lot easier. I think it is the mental load of only having 6 more lengths. I tend to then ago for 40 lengths, 48 and 54 depending on time and energy. Perhaps I should do that system earlier on!

I am now tier 4 and my usual pool is closed. I am going to try an outdoor pool next week at an extortionate cost. It says the temperature of the water will be around 16 degrees, but I expect with the air temperature will make it cooler. I am used to swimming in lakes/the sea but have only done it in the summer. DH is coming with me, and I do have a wetsuit (no arms). I expect I may only be able to do a few lengths. Planning to take quick warm clothes in get into (wrapped in a hot water bottle), a flask, hat etc. Debating whether to buy neoprone socks. Any other tips from those that know?

It normally takes me a good 20L to warm up so I just accept that and mix up the stroke and drills for that bit then commit to 20L of FC continuously then just mix it up again for the next 20 lengths. Breaking up in my head helps me keep going. I’m still lucky at the moment in T3, getting two pre-booked pool swims a week plus 2-3 sea swim dips. It was super chilly this morning but a beautifully calm sunrise SeaSwim. I’m determined to keep sea swimming this winter for the first time.

prof I’d highly recommend socks and gloves plus 2Hats I can swim in these and no wetsuit. But a wetsuit is good too . Unfortunately you may struggle to get good socks & gloves as lots sold out. I got cheap gloves from sports direct, and I think “two bare feet” or “lomo” still had socks, but C-skins have been sold out.

Well, it was cancelled anyway, so I guess I'm not going to find out if I can cope with it for a few months yet. But thank you for the advice, and the lockdown was too late for my ordering of socks and a dry robe! So I shall just wear those and imagine.

Back to swimming without water.

Countdown to the 29th now. I'm hoping I should be able to get to an outdoor pool shortly afterwards, can't wait!

Our lido opens on 29th I’ve got my alarm set for the second booking opens.

Hi all glad to find this thread, I'm hoping for some advice and support!
In early July I'm signed up to do a 2km open water swim. I was meant to do it last year and had loads of opportunity to train but with Covid of course everything went out the window.

I believe 2km is approx 80laps of a 25m pool. I can caress a shorter outdoor pool in 29th then indoor from 12th, I live by the sea. Swimming wetsuit will hopefully arrive this weekend.

I've found a few training programmes that include drills and distance, but anyone here got any tips, advice etc?

I've been running on and off to have some amount of fitness but would consider myself starting from scratch really.