Swimming

27 yards = 24.6888m

Y 27 yards tho, dunno.

the local swim club have several lanes for their youth members when I swim, and some days I manage to keep up with them and feel really awesome, then realise they are doing kicking drills or single arm drills and die a bit inside.....

some of them are genuinely good national medal winning swimmers but still....

The pool they used was originally a river fed pool built in 1902, and then left derelict for 30 or more years. They took it over and revamped it, and managed to fit in 2 saunas, a hot tub, bar and poolside seating, as well as a restaurant and sun lounging areas. I don't think they were too bothered about the actual length, just to be able to fit all their aspirations into the old building.

anyone wanna buy my Garmin Swim watch, used only a handful of times in the pool and another handful of times for running as a stopwatch. 9.99/10 condition. £60

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/garmin-swim/

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I've entered the swimathon triple 5k challenge in March next year: Three 5ks on consecutive days.

I think I've swum once this year. Better get my trunks out over Christmas!

I see this amazing thing has only come to attention now its been aborted

Nothing like going all in!

Speaking of which, I just signed up for the 10k Marathon Swims event next November.

All of the events are open to sign up now: https://www.marathonswims.com/

10% off the entry fee until the 7th December too. Discount code: DIVEINNOW
(Enter the code in the Coupon box at the end of the registation process).

Feel free to stick my name in as a recommendation (Alex Greenbank) although I put @mikec's name (real name, I stalked him in the results via his time this year) in as the person who recommended it to me, so hopefully you'll get something for that.

Great I will do. I am so tempted to do the 10K myself just a bit worried about how one would build up to it, where would I find the time etc to train. I'm also going to enter a triathlon this year (the London or Windsor), thinking the running will help build my stamina, if it converts to the pool. I have no idea?

Any specific gym stuff for swimming?

I know there's no substitute for putting the lengths in at the pool, and for using paddles to help increase the resistance and build up those muscles, but I guess there's stuff that can be done on dry land that can help too.

(I've never really done any gym work in the past but I could be tempted if it'd make doing the 10k swim easier).

I asked a similar question in the tri thread recently (all round S/C stuff, but focussed around body weights not gym) and got no response. I then asked in the Strength Training thread and was directed towards the Mark Lauren body weight training stuff (I got the app).

It's not swim focussed but I've been following the basic all round programme for 2 weeks (30min 4x per week) and first impressions seem good although I'm slightly shocked at how weak and feeble I've become after 8 years of ultra-running and cycling.

Also

using paddles to help increase the resistance and build up those muscles

My pool bans paddles (and other toys) in public lanes so you can only use them if you are part of a private club session :-(

Thanks.

Local pool is fine with toys at all times thankfully.

The time I normally go for my weekly long swim (Monday 9.30am after dropping daughter off at school) there's one maybe two others in the fast lane (the lanes are double width too) so no problems with toys, I do most of my long swims with a pull-buoy anyway.

Even a sustained 1:50/100m is fine for the fast lane there; I'm usually the fastest unless some of the swim teachers use it (particularly the ex national age-grouper, she warms up at ~1:20m/100m before making going even faster look utterly effortless).

I'll start to add in some time with the medium sized paddles before moving to the larger ones and try not to rip my shoulders to pieces.

Hello there.

I need some new goggles. Just for the pool. Any recommendations?

You really need to try them in a shop. I have had recommendations from others only to find they don't have a high enough nose bridge.

I'm on a mission to learn Fly.

Can get about 20m before arms flag, partly cos they're compensating for weak kick partly cos my arms are weak.

It's all made easy by good technique though so I'm told, so am wondering what drills are good for arms / legs for Fly... YouTube has thrown up some vids but wondering if any local knowledge on here?

Recommendations for training fins for freestyle or are they all (short flexy ones) much of a muchness? Decathlon have these for example.

Anyone else swimming through the winter? I'm making a real effort, have been in 5 of the last 6 days, but currently not able to make more than 10 minutes, very little of which is face-down frontcrawl. I've actually succumbed and ordered a pair of neoprene gloves, which should make things a teensy bit easier to stay in longer.

Love the idea and always wanted to give it a go and SLSC isn't far away from me at Tooting Lido.

But I lack free time and, probably more importantly, I don't think I'd hack it enough to keep at it. 15 deg C water in the Serpentine the other year was chilly enough for my hands/feet/head (the rest of me was a slight bit warmer due to wetsuit and a tactical wee).

Yes, although I haven't been in since Saturday (new job and sick wife gets in the way of things a bit).

Saturday was ~7 minutes, most of that was face down crawl. That was skins with a neoprene hat. I sometimes wear gloves and boots but didn't then.

The neoprene gloves I've got (dhb Swim Gloves) don't seem to help much as without a wetsuit they let too much water in at the cuffs. I'm sort of on the lookout for some with a cuff you can tighten but haven't found anything yet. Some people pre-warm their gloves/boots with hot water before starting which I haven't tried yet.

Really hoping my wife is better tomorrow so I can get up early and swim before work surrounded by snow.

I read a few reviews of the DHB gloves and didn't buy them because of that - C-Skins Legend were recommended by a few people, so I got them instead. I don't have a lido nearby, so swim in Shadwell Basin - it's a lovely big expanse to have to yourself, but climbing 10 feet up a ladder isn't easy without the use of hands and feet, so the gloves are a necessary safety measure as well.

We don't have any snow here, but I'm trying to get away from work early today to smash the ice...

swim in Shadwell Basin

Nice. I used to work near enough to be tempted but never quite got the courage to go in.

We don't have any snow here

Neither does Hampstead Heath but I'm expecting that to change tonight. I usually go to Parliament Hill Lido (hot showers, sauna when I have time, easier for me to get to) but might try to get to the ponds this weekend, perhaps early on Saturday.

I try to sea swim through the Winter - very rarely recently though. I use a C skins shorty which is really flexible and has lasted for years, would recommend this company.
Generally don't stay in for long and sometimes get straight out because of the temperature.
Always feel fantastic afterwards though.

Trying again to rekindle my swimming enthusiasm (it's been 5 years since I was reasonable) and did a CSS test for fun today.

Can I just confirm, is CSS supposed to be a measure of threshold pace (usually approximated in cycling and running as the best possible effort for 1hr) as swim smooth say? Or is CSS supposed to be a measure of 1500m pace (so about 25min) as trainingpeaks say?

When I do swim/bike training I find doing intervals at ~110% threshold pace (roughly 10mi TT pace/5k pace) to be effective for me and I'd like to carry that over into swimming. If CSS is 1500m pace then that would make a good target interval pace whereas if it's a measure of threshold then I'd ideally want to be swimming a bit faster.

I used to live just by the running track near the HH Lido, really miss that - still go up to the Men's Pond at least monthly. My marina (Limehouse) was iced over yesterday, but Shadwell wasn't, and it was snowing when I was in today. There were some fishermen about, which makes you feel a bit safer in case you get into trouble.

Most encouraging thing is that I've swum through the winter for years, but mostly once or twice a month, and shivering for a couple of hours afterwards - now I'm in almost daily, I'm warming up so much more quickly as the body gets used to it.

@Hanford - I usually do a lot more sea swimming. Swam down in Southend last weekend - supposedly about 5 degrees warmer than the ponds, but didn't feel it - probably much to do with the bitter wind that was blowing.