Swimming

Nice work!

Haven't got anything else booked that involves currents of any sort (sea or river). Kind of miss that kind of swimming.

Slowly getting back into it. Did just 400m on Monday and my shoulders were aching. Another 400m yesterday and pushed past that to 600m today (could probably have done more but I had to get back home). Will see if I can eke out 1km on Friday (will have tomorrow off).

From there it should build back up nicely to 3km a visit, and I'll aim to do that 3 times a week. Then I can make one of the sessions a bit more interesting with drills/etc.

Gah, offer from deferred place from Marathon Swims (10k) in 2020 has just come through. Can I get 10k swim fit by November 12th? (Starting from almost nothing as above.) Hmm.

Would really like to do it, the one year I did do it (2019?) I was recovering from a chest infection and bailed after 1km as I felt awful. 2020 was cancelled because of Covid and they didn't even try to put it on in 2021.

Where are you considering swimming in November?

But >12 weeks is loads of time…

https://www.marathonswims.com/

10k in the Olympic Pool.

Did 1k tonight and didn't feel too bad, could easily have done more but it was the end of the session and everyone was being kicked out. Will see how far I can go on Wednesday morning if/when I have time for another swim, will be happy with 1.6k I guess.

Yeah, 19 weeks is loads, am hoping to lose ~10kg in that time too which would make quite a bit of difference. I've got until the 21st to use my free entry for the 10k swim so I'll leave it a couple of weeks and see if I can keep up the regular visits to the pool and keep upping the distance.

The 10k can't be any worse than the Swim Serpentine Super 6 mile swim, although I did swear I'd never do that again.

10km in a pool sounds like hell

+1

I’ve done 5k sets before but doubling that….no way…

Good luck though!

Double IM in a 25m indoor pool with a wetsuit was pretty tough. Quintuple in a 50m outdoor pool wasn't much fun either, but watching people doing Double Deca (76km) at the same time put things in perspective...

Totnes residents have a great resource , I reckon you can go a kilometre easy in a clean river … I saw a kingfisher on my last swim

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I've started going swimming before work at the local pool but have been struggling to work out what to eat beforehand without feeling queasy in the water. Any tips? Caveat: I can't stand bananas which is a real shame as they seem to be the go to.

Did UTFS but answers seemed to be banana or nowt so just wanted other ideas

In pre-vegan days when I was doing long morning swims, half a tin of rice pudding with a dollop of jam did the job.

What distance/duration?

I do all my swimming on an empty stomach, even when I was doing a 1h20/4k swim several times a week. But then I've had years of on and off distance related stuff (Audax, marathons, etc) and so my metabolism is quite good at stretching out my glycogen stores by burning mostly fat.

If I eat before exercising it needs to be at least an hour before (and usually something like weetabix), but that is a real pain for early morning exercise as I'm up early enough as it is and want to limit the time between getting up and starting exercise.

(Back up to 1k today and dreading the idea of distance swimming less, but still slow.)

Thanks both. I'm very new to it and only doing 30 mins or so, but would really like to up that over the coming weeks. Maybe doing it on an empty stomach would be fine for the relatively low duration, but I do tend to get very hungry very quickly when cycling. Also don't want to be getting up loads earlier to leave the 1hr window.

I swim 1.5-2km most mornings on empty, when I was in the pool through winter it was >3km on empty.

Guy I swim with has a smoothie before swimming.

Hey swimmers. Just got back in the pool in the first time in way too long, can anyone recommend cheap swimming headphones? Thanks for your suggestions

Maybe it’s just me, but I couldn’t imagine listening to music while swimming, and that’s coming from someone that can’t even consider a solo bike/run without music.

I have some Aftershockz Xtrainerz. They aren't cheap but work.

Thanks. I've never used headphones when swimming either. Might try a cheap pair if i can find any or listen to the groaning inside instead

Inner monologue....

"
...
And turn. Great! That's 27 lengths.
Only another 133 to go. 133, that's not divisible by 3. Or 5. 7? Yes, 7 * 19.
And 28 lengths. Easy one that.
Oh, the slow person has just joined me in the fast lane. Oh well, hope they'll get the message soon.
done 29. Still feeling good, nice rhythm this. 29 is prime! Yay.
Hello cracked tile on the floor. Hello hair band. Hello plaster. Ugh, hairball floating near face, do not want.
done 30 lengths, a multiple of 10.
Dodge hairball, hello plaster, hello hair band, hello cracked tile.
done 32. No, wrong end for an even number. Does that mean it's 31 or 33?
Probably lower, will check watch at end of next length.
Does the watch show the distance before the turn or after? Can never remember.
done 33. Good, slow person has got the message and moved to medium lane.
done 34. Other person in fast lane catching me up, we're almost matched for speed but they're ~1s a length faster.
done 35. Predict they'll be next to me in about 3 lengths, will pause and let them go.
done 36. 100m to go and that'll be 1k, remember to check time, want to be under 19 minutes.
Hello cracked tile...
...
done 146. Please tell me this will end soon.
done 147. I .. HATE .. SWIMMING
done 148. I COULD STOP RIGHT NOW. NO-ONE WOULD KNOW.
done 149. WHY DO I PUT MYSELF THROUGH THIS. I FEEL AWFUL.
done 150. YAY! 10 TO GO! I FEEL AWESOME.
...
done 160. Wait, why does watch say 3950m? Fuck, do 2 more to make sure.
done 162. Great. Fucking watch, why does it now say 4075m. Piece of shit. At least I'm done.
"

etc

+1

That’s the best write up of a pool swim head space.
I used to be there, but a while ago got into focussing on aspects of the stroke, a length of finger tips, then palms, wrists etc right down to the toes.
It’s really mindful and has made me way smoother. Toes are always the end of a set, not sure how many lengths that is, maybe 30. About a quarter of an hour.
I tell myself how many times I’m going to work the whole body, normally 4, and get out after a few more gentle lengths trying to think of nothing . So a little over an hour in the water.
Properly therapeutic and I’m not much slower than the guys doing intervals. Sometimes I put in a lot of effort, say on a shoulder length, or a palm of hand length. It really keeps me motivated and fresh. I absolutely do not count lengths any more!

I absolutely do not count lengths any more!

Yeah, most of my swimming is time based now. But that generally means I align these to 20min/1km blocks anyway.

The beauty of open water swimming! No lanes to count.

Although you get a lot of time to think when swimming against the tide. On a recent sea swim it took me 8 minutes to get down to my turn point, 25 minutes to get back.

I appear incapable of accurately counting lengths at all - I often do 6 instead of 8 (or vice versa).

Does anyone here swim in the Thames?

Specifically between Richmond / Hampton.

If I go for an hour tomorrow, will I end up with giardia, hepatitis and other fun gastro diseases?