Swimming advice please

[cherrypied]

A few months ago I started swimming lengths for the first time in my life after some private lessons a few years ago building on my 50m badge from 1988.

I now need a target..

I am swimming upto four times a week sometimes five. I do between 500m and 1k but I am SO BLOODY SLOW!

I can now do 2-4 250m sets with a 2 minute rest but 1 set takes 10 minutes! I swim breast stroke with odd lap of crawl. Some drill using a kick-board. (Depends how much time i have) in april i did about 12 lengths and felt dreadful and disheartened but something clicked snd i love it.

In this ok? Just to keep plugging away like this. Ive signed up for the improvers class but theres a waitlist.

Main targets are to feel better, loose weight and tone up. I know it won't affect weight (80%diet 20% exercise) but I'm eating healthily and my BMI 31 and size 18 so need to lose it.

It takes you 10 minutes to swim 250m?
That isn't bad. It's probably above average in my pool.
Have you tried sprinting, just doing an occasional length where you swim as fast as you can?

The more you swim the more you will build up your strength and speed

Just keep going you're doing great

I think 10mins for 250m is fine, just keep going and trying to increase speed s little each time. Try including some sprint laps To

Ah thanks everyone- ill just keep plodding on! Yes 10 mins for 250 or 40 mins for 1k

Im super proud of myself from feeling dreadful before easter to feeling so much better now and really enjoying it. Resting every 50m now every 250m and unbelievable that I can swim 1k in 40 mins really!

So, thanks for the boost

I think a lot of speed comes from a combination of technique and fitness. Do you swim breastroke with your head in the water? Also, make sure you give yourself a good push off from the wall as that will help you move quicker through the water and a good arm pull/ kick and then glide in breastroke can make you faster with less strokes.

Great to hear how much you are enjoying swimming and sounds like you are making excellent progress. I agree that speed and stamina will improve overtime but its also worth looking at technique. Learning how to swim efficiently and improving your stroke can also help increase speed. The improvers course you mention may help with that, but in the meantime I'd recommend having a look on YouTube for videos on technique.

I've started following this https://www.swimming.org/members/swimming-fitness-training-plan/ programme, just to mix my swimming up a bit (partly because I was getting bored and figured it was good to try something different).

I'm also musing over whether I can justify the cost of a 1:1 swimming lesson just to provide pointers on how I can improve my stroke (though there is also a waiting list for them).

It sounds like you already swim a lot and have made amazing progress, so you might not get much out of an improvers class.

I went today and did 250m in 8.45! Ive found a groove now so just need to keep going.

The plan looks excellent @redskytwonight

I went to suss out the class (its in a third of the pool) and there is a whole range and one guy I spoke to who is much better than me said it was good for pointers.

i think it is technique that i need to nail down and also effort. I'm concentrating so slows me down! with the kick glide pull and the arm recovery and tying to find the optimum timing is mind blowing!

Thanks everyone this has been super helpful.