Swimming for fitness (part 5). The pools are open again. Dust off your goggles and dive in!

[TheOrigRights]

We're so busy counting laps we didn't see part 4 fill up!

Everyone is welcome here.

[HalfShrunkMoreToGo]

@Reachforthestars00 and @tizwozliz yeah I could go out to one of the Leicestershire pools, just makes it a bit more of a mission to fit in around work and bedtimes when you have to add 45 minutes each way to get there. Especially when my pool is only 5 minutes down the road and I have to pass it every day 'sob'.

[TheOrigRights]

So, I've done this online 14 day course - improving freestyle efficiency.

It was great. I went from a base of 100m in 2:25 and 109 strokes to
100m in 2:20 and 100 strokes. While I didn't shave much off the time I'm so pleased to have decreased by stroke count so much. I can continue working on what I've learnt to get my strength up.

Yippee.

[SSwimCycle21]

Sounds really good @TheOrigRights it’s really hard to shave seconds off swimming splits once you reach a level. I hope you can keep continue building and enjoying it.

[Mxflamingnoravera]

Since returning to swimming my nails have started to split and crumble. Has anyone got any remedies for swimmers nails?

I don't use nail polish, ever. So it's not chlorine plus polish causing my nails to split. I'm 59, on HRT and hate the way my nails crumble when I swim.

[Bibidy]

Does anyone have any hat recommendations? I have a long hair speedo but hair still seems to come out soaked each week as the hat is constantly needing readjustment, slipping up etc.

[tizwozliz]

I've never known swim hats to keep your hair dry. So if that's what you're after you might never find it

[SSwimCycle21]

Double hat is what my daughter does with her long hair but nothing keeps it dry, just less damp.

Nice lunch time swim I’m getting slowly a bit quicker with 1.3km done in 30mins now up from 1km a couple of years ago.

[profpoopsnagle]

I have 'friendly swede'swim caps. They don't keep it bone dry, my hair is usually damp around the cap edges (unless I do backstroke, in which case it does get rather wet).

However, I do have a trick for hair after swimming. I bought some flannels and a soft Alice hair band type thing. I fold my hair up in a low type bun and wrap the flannel around, then tying it with the alice band. I find this helps dry it and stops the neck drips whilst I drive home.

[Mxflamingnoravera]

Caps are designed to keep your hair out of your face and be more streamlined rather than to keep your hair dry. I think if you swim you have to accept wet hair.
www.simplyswim.com/pages/choosing-swimming-caps

[Mxflamingnoravera]

Tips for keeping it dryer.

[TheOrigRights]

OMG...guess what? I just got complimented on my swimming style!

This is after the 14 day improvers course. I am SO chuffed.

[randomsabreuse]

Finally managed to get booked in again and have got a family pod swim for DS (2 yo) tomorrow. Better than last time, think I was coordinating breathing a little better in front crawl. Need to learn to alternate breathe too, every 2 strokes felt too frequent, every 4 too infrequent! But felt so weird breathing to my left!

Think my hips need to be higher after a play with a pull buoy I bought from decathlon.

Still felt between lanes. Slightly too fast for slow lane and too slow for middle. Might try middle next time if I feel brave!

[MinnieMountain]

Nice one @TheOrigRights.

We’re going on holiday on Friday. I’m feeling antsy about not swimming for a week already.

[Biking0077]

That’s brill @TheOrigRights well done.
I had a pool swim yesterday lunchtime and it’s a tad frustrating as they have turned the 11am slot into aqua fit so the noon slot was then noticeable full of ladies with dry hair head out slow breaststroke in the medium lane who normally go to the 11am slot & then zoomiee splash blokes in the fast lane. I had to try and keep up with FC in fast lane or get kicked every length jumping out their way or just spend my session doing 3 strokes and walking up the lane behind the breaststroke swimmers such a shame as I had been enjoying the 12pm lunch slot as I could fit it in when working much easier. I know swimming is for all which is great but it’s really hard when you want to FC and need a proper medium lane there was an older guy doing double armed backstroke as well not letting anyone past.. I really need to get back in the sea when it stops flipping raining as it’s much calmer no lane rage.

[TheOrigRights]

Biking, while I understand the frustration at expecting a certain level of busyness and then finding something different, I really think this situation could have been managed with better life guarding. I have nearly wept when I've turned up for my precious 25 min swim only to find a lane being used for life guard training at short notice, leaving everyone else in 2 lanes.

It sounds like the middle lane was occupied by people who should have been in the slow lane and the back stroke guy should have been asked to do a different stroke as it was so busy.

[Gladioli23]

Lane etiquette is a nightmare honestly, I used to sit at the same difficult spot quite a lot of people on this thread seem to be at: some slots comfortably fastest in the pool, other slots with club swimmers in too slow for the fast lane and too fast for the medium lane.

I am totally pro people swimming but pool etiquette is important. There used to be one chap who swam something resembling a backwards butterfly and managed to take up so much room you couldn't overtake even in a double width lane.

I have switched pools now and use a private gym instead of the municipal ones. It has an outdoor pool and given the weather this year most people are still giving it a wide birth which means I haven't had too much difficulty since they reopened.

My stamina is really below where it should be though - I can do a kilometre in 24 minutes which is about my pre-pandemic speed. But I used to comfortably swim 3+ km several times a week and I'm just not fit enough to do that any more. I also hurt my shoulder badly in October and I still have pain from that now, so trying to balance out my desire to get back to full distances with my desire not to do it in again.

[MinnieMountain]

What is it with the aquarobics crowd? I used to do a lane swimming session right before it. The participants would start standing in the lanes 10 minutes before in order to get a good spot.

Anyway, I had an amazing swim at the lido in my lunch break yesterday. Didn’t have time to do my usual 2km but felt really good afterwards.

[tizwozliz]

Thank goodness club swimming is back. It's amazing to be able to swim without having to constantly watch what everyone else in the lane is doing. We're also allowed to shower afterwards!

The funny thing about the public sessions is that they were never anywhere near as busy pre lockdown. Limiting sessions and the booking system has just resulted in far more people in the pool at the same time with everyone getting out and using the changing rooms together.

[Iamblossom]

Brilliant swim with my friend this morning, we had the whole double width lane to ourselves so could swim side by side. 64 lengths before 8 am BOOM

[profpoopsnagle]

I've been trying to improve my kicking in the last few sessions. I know that kicking effort needs to be minimal, and I'm aware that I do a bit of a scissor kick when I rotate to breathe ( not on other rotations). What techniques work for everyone?

[MinnieMountain]

Does anyone know where I can find tips on improving my breast stroke?
I seem to be stuck on 50 minutes to do 2km.

[tizwozliz]

Do you swim continuously @MinnieMountain ?

[MinnieMountain]

Yes @tizwozliz

[tizwozliz]

Your current time suggests you're swimming 100m in 2 mins 30 seconds. Do you know if you swum a single 100m how much faster you are?

If you can swim a 100m in say 2 minutes 20 seconds. I'd look at doing repeats of 100m, so swim 100m in 2 minutes 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest repeat etc. This gets you used to swimming faster. Eventually you can put this faster stroke together to swim faster overall.

If you're not any faster over 100m than over 2km then you probably need to look at technique instead

[MinnieMountain]

Thank you, I’ll try that. It’s a 50 meter pool, so easy to measure but I’ll need to get myself a Garmin or similar to time myself accurately.

Does anyone have any recommendations btw? I will only use it for swimming.