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.

Hi all, can I join? Former club swimmer and having to book a slot is doing wonders for me

I normally do a 100 free, 100 breast, 200 free, then 8 x 100 alternating kicking and swimming.

It's getting easier!

Newbie swimmer who is very small but interested. Any tips welcome on what to expect etc. I live within walking distance of a pool.

Newbie to thread but not new to swimming, though have just started getting back into it recently. I would like to join a club but think I need to build my stamina up first.

Most recent swims
1320m - 28:11 (2:08/100m)
1320m - 29:07 (2:12/100m)
1540m - 32:51 (2:08/100m)
1540m - 32:50 (2:08/100m)

Before Covid I got my 100m split to 1:53/100m so hoping I can get back to that and then get faster. I mainly swim free but also do a bit of breast and occasionally back.

Today’s session

400 @ 100 Free / 100 Pull / 100 Free / 100 Kick
2 x 300 @ 100 Build / 100 Fast / 100 Slow
200 @ 50 Zipper / 50 Free / 50 Fists / 50 Free
400 Free / 100 Back / 100 Breast

= 1800m

This was my first time at a Masters class. It’s nice having someone give you a structured session to follow and corrections/advice on technique. I will definitely go again.

Annoyingly my fitbit doesn’t recognise the kick lengths so times, lengths, pace etc are all out.

I've been reading your thread and it's inspiring me to try swimming which I've always enjoyed but not participated in for many years. Im quite unfit at the moment and wfh for the last 18 months hasn't helped.

I'm looking to get back out there and have found a swimming club locally that have an adult fitness session which sounded interesting, and to get ready I thought I'd attempt a public lane swim session. I've been a couple of times and, no surprise that I was quickly out of breath and did need to stop for frequent breathers.

Advice really - would I be better jumping into the trial sessions the fitness club have offered or continuing on my own until my fitness levels have improved. I don't want to put myself off by going and feeling overwhelmed. I'd like to, when I'm up to it to attempt some sort of sea/open water activity.

Probably should ask the club what level of fitness & skill their trial sessions are suitable for.

Does your public pool have 'open sessions' (not lanes) you can attend to get your fitness up in meantime?

I did ask in my initial enquiry and said open to all, but I'm sure there must be some expectation.

I think there are some general sessions, but hadn't considered these may be better.

Thanks for your reply

Not fitness swimming, but later the DCs and I are off to the pool for our first casual swim since March 2020. Fortunately their lessons returned 11m ago. DS2 will also start his delayed school lessons when he goes back. After swimming in fresh water, it'll be strange to smell of chlorine again

After a few weeks, I've been back to the open water and knocked up 0.87 mi. It was rescheduled from 2 weeks ago when it was cancelled for lightning.
I have tiny hands, so I've got some neoprene webbed gloves that worked well. I also used my new swimming MP3 player loaded up with chillout music. I thought it was best to avoid sing-along tracks

Went for another swim yesterday and managed 2,500m which was good! Does anyone else get lower back ache after swimming? Im not sure if maybe my posture is off a bit when doing breaststroke or it’s just normal? I do have a little weight I want to shift too so may be due to that!

@Welshgal85

Went for another swim yesterday and managed 2,500m which was good! Does anyone else get lower back ache after swimming? Im not sure if maybe my posture is off a bit when doing breaststroke or it’s just normal? I do have a little weight I want to shift too so may be due to that!

Do you put your head under or do head up breaststroke?

I keep my head up!

@Welshgal85

I keep my head up!

That’s probably the reason for the back ache.

Hello, please can I join you?
I swim about twice a week now, doing 'head in' breaststroke. My goggles fog up after 20 mins and with a pretty bad visual impairment I tend to get out once this happens!
I read the lane chat with interest. I'm a bit too fast for the slow lane, but some days too slow for medium. Some days the medium lane is slow too! I would love to have a near empty pool to really practise my front crawl but never seem to feel comfortable enough in either lane to give it a good go.

Ah right, I went again last night and no back ache to maybe I’m just out of practice!

@ADialgaAteMyDog

Hello, please can I join you? I swim about twice a week now, doing 'head in' breaststroke. My goggles fog up after 20 mins and with a pretty bad visual impairment I tend to get out once this happens! I read the lane chat with interest. I'm a bit too fast for the slow lane, but some days too slow for medium. Some days the medium lane is slow too! I would love to have a near empty pool to really practise my front crawl but never seem to feel comfortable enough in either lane to give it a good go.

Welcome! 😊 sounds like you are doing well, I’m still trying to build up to doing head in breaststroke, need to work on my breathing! How are you finding it?

I’m the same with the lanes, I’ve had a few comments from others I’ve shared lanes with about apparently being too quick for the lane, but I feel like I’m quite slow as I only do head up breaststroke and don’t feel I’m going fast. It’s all relative I suppose to why feels slow/fast. Think I may try the medium lane on the weekend to see how I get on.

oh @ADialgaAteMyDogi I swim in the slow, medium or fast lane depending on who else is in! My gym has some very good swimmers so I always feel a bit out of my depth in the fast lane but if there's only other person in it's fine as we've currently got double width lanes so you can have a side and effectively a lane each, likewise I'd use the slow lane if it was empty or quiet and the middle lane was busy. Other times though the middle lane folk make me look like Adam Peatty! We also have a lot of fairly arrogant swimmers (noticeably mainly men) who'd use the fast lane even if they were the slowest person in the pool!

Hi nice to meet you all!
I swim at a community pool and have to book lanes in advance so I can't swap (though of course someone always does which annoys me!). It's always very busy as we have to prove to the council it's wanted and used.
Breast stroke is fine for me, I did a lot swimming training as a kid, I wasn't any good but my technique is OK. Though I do have my moments of wondering if I'm doing it right!

Ooh that’s annoying. We have to prebook at the moment but you don’t have to book a specific lane. I did 2.4km tonight, mostly breastroke but starting to build up my crawl. Managed two lots of 10 lengths of crawl but with fins on and some lengths without them. A bit sore tonight after weights session last night but the pool was quiet so had half a double lane to myself :)
My stamina is getting better but I’m not getting any faster! Would like to be able to do 2.5km in an hour.

Hello all!

@Welshgal85 Just weighing in on the breastroke aches conversation: determined but not particularly speedy head-in breaskstroker here.

I was told that if you keep your head up you'll get neck-ache: a bit like looking up at the sky as you walk around. I've started to warm up too, which for some reason didn't previously occur to me: neck, back & leg stretches beforehand have stopped some of the aching. The other thing is legs - or 'breaststroker's knee', as I discovered it was called after some hobbling and googling. Can happen if you just sort of fling your legs out enthusiastically, without kicking from the hip. As you can tell, I did not do a lot of swimming training in years gone by...

Nice, in a way, to see the pools so busy again! (Quite looking forward to end of school holidays, however: our pool just ropes off some space for family swimming, and you often get a stray in the lanes.)

I can't swap (though of course someone always does which annoys me!)

So... you can swap? Just swap, imho. There are lots of small rules written at my pool that I don't follow because they are daft, and no one enforces them anyway & they are widely applied flexibly.

It's been a while for messages on this thread but I hope everyone's swimming is going well. My FC has improved massively in the last couple of weeks, after what felt like 2 months of fairly similar energy levels and achievement.

I am sure that a while ago, someone posted a formula using stroke/time to work something out- I have tried searching but can't find it. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

I'm keeping up with the open water swimming. The water's cooling now and is about 15⁰C, but that can be warmer than the air/ windchill!

I bought a wetsuit at the right time! It makes my bum so bouyant It's my face that feels the cold. I've made it up to a mile now. It's technically harder than a pool as there's no push off, but mentally it's easier than going backwards and forwards and no frustrating adjusting around others' paces.

I’m getting used to swimming inside again now the lido’s shut.

Is anyone else here purely a fast breast stroker? I’m trying to re-learn front crawl so I can go faster but I’m not really enjoying it.

I'm a fast(ish) breaststroker! And I'm learning front crawl - having lessons, for the first time in my life - but I'm not finding it very easy so far. I have swallowed a LOT of water.

It's made me think a bit about why I'm swimming, which is to get fitter and stronger. I'd like to be able to swim faster because trying to improve just feels like a natural thing to do, but it may be that my top-of-the-medium-lane breast-stroke is as good a form of exercise as a more efficient front crawl would be. Or I may be kidding myself.

Anyway, enjoying inside swimming at the moment but having to find a little more willpower as the outside temperature drops...

I was always a front crawler, but seem to be gravitating towards breast stroke with age. I'm a heads in breast stroker.

I had the lake to myself on Tuesday when the weather was grotty. I ended up having to aim off against the cross-wind as it was blowing me off course on one side.

I also had to adapt my stroke so either did one-sided crawl so the waves didn't blow into my mouth or bring my head further up for front crawl.

I've been about 10 times in the past 3 months since starting and my pace must be picking up as I'm swimming further now.