Swimming

4.6k done.
Slog.

4.1k last night, getting bored of it now.
Also the worse swim, aqua ladies taking up half the pool, bathers with a double sized lane and a teeny fast lane with me, another bloke plus two very fast men. One of whom was American and was the speed of Phelps !
felt so inadequate I moved to the bathers and then had to weave to overtake them all the time.
Awful swim. :(
Rant over.

Which pool was this? As a noob to swimming, the pace of various lanes can be so off putting. Fast lane is generally just a bit much for me, middle lane a wide variety and requiring a lot of weaving. Had a lovely swim at Marshall Street once the post work crowd started to drift off.

Might go give Oasis Leisure Centre a go after work today. Having worked on technique i can now swim 30 mins FC without too much bother, which feels an achievement, but i can see boredom creeping in. Might have to start looking into drills and what not to keep me interested.

What are you training for Nick-Nack?

That pool was Epsom.

Had another awful swim on Sunday at Wimbledon pool.... bloody awful awful pool, too shallow, too choppy, plus about 7 jets on the wall when you approach the shallow end, like being stuck in a ripe tide ! Plus kept hitting my toe on a jet hole when tumbling, which hurt.

Last night; Try to keep to times plus fast turns.....

1k free @ 17.30 (turned out to be 15.19 !!! must have mis-counted !)
1k free @ 17.40 (turned out at 18.19 ! bloody awful ! )
500m @ 8.55 (Did 9.16 ! WTF !?... I give up )
500m swimdown.... cry... throw stopwatch at a lifeguard... not really )

The 1st k my arms and shoulders were full of lactic acid... need to loosen first, I think holding a 3 year old up to see the marathon on sunday wasnt a great idea)

So basically, looking like I wont beat my swimathon time of last year.
:(

Distance going up. Very brief warm up followed by 11 lengths, 15 sec rest, 10 lengths, 15 sec rest all the way down to 1 length. Worked out it was 1,980 metres after, so pretty pleased with that. Didn't feel that knackered either, but was short on time and that was my planned swim, so stuck to it rather than try to extend.

Ironmonger row for mornings, Marshall Street for evenings. My two favorite pools so far.

4th Swimathon done.
Very busy this year, plus I got held up an awful lot in my lane. Managed to duck into the next lane once it was clear around the hour mark.
So... bit slower, 1.30.40 secs.
Taper was perfect, had loads of energy and really hydrated, though my shoulders seemed to fatigue around 4k... after that was like .. catch and pulling on treacle.

Try again next year.

Got my first swim session ever tonight, haven't swum in a swimming pool since I was a kid, only open water swims for tris, quite nervous, especailly as its with a tri club I've never met.

Sure it'll be fine...

Also just looked up what a swimathon is, sounds like a great challenge, no way could I swim that far!

Well done!

Amazingly had a really strong swim last night, even though i'm not recovered from the IOW.

Think it might be time to pull the wetsuit out of the wardrobe soon......

Injured knee ligament, so haven't been able to run for almost a month. Instead, have signed up to a Channel relay in August with a mate. Means I have to start swimming now.

Swimming sucks so much. Howl!

^#boastpost

;)

I've started swimming, been going for about three weeks. I've realised I've not actually got in a pool and actually swam lengths since I was a kid.
I must admit to being quite hooked now.
I'm doing 1600m a day, only breast stroke because that's the only stroke I know.

Thing is, I'm putting on weight quite quickly. Is this normal? Is it muscle or am I absorbing pool?

Lol!

Without knowing what else you're doing in terms of eating, drinking and exercising its hard to say - swimming makes me mega hungry though...

Thing is, I'm putting on weight quite quickly. Is this normal? Is it muscle or am I absorbing pool?
Are you letting your facial hair dry out between sessions?

I've started swimming

Isn't there a big hiss and a lot of steam when you get into the water?

Clothes tighter or scales weight?
Or you just feel heavier after getting out of the pool? :)

Had my first ever coached swim session last night, my god was it hard but the three exercises the coach gave me improved my swimming unbelievably! I'm now not windmilling to make up for the pathetic power coming from my legs as they are now working like the engine they should be, lots of practice needed to ingrain this in my technique, but a great start...

Also I managed to avoid eating everything in the fridge when I got home!

my legs as [...] are now working like the engine they should be

Oh really? My 'breakthrough' was essentially when i stopped using my legs. I use them very little beyond a rudder, resulting in having loads more energy to focus on my arms. Is this wrong? I've had no lessons..

Honestly I don't know, and I know a lot of triathletes try to save their legs for the bike/run but I would have thought not using the big muscles that have a huge amount of endurance built in is a bad idea as they'll just drag behind you.

I've never really bought the "save your legs for the bike/run" thing in triathlon, although it's certainly prevalent and many triathletes barely kick more than they have to to maintain stability and roll*.

Maybe it's because I only really do LD stuff so the swim is only aprox 10% of the event (by time) and so you aren't really trying that hard anyway but my legs usually feel pretty fresh after the swim and I'm not doing anything to "save" them.

My sister tells me that she'll be working on my kick this evening :-s

*#receivedwisdom

For Triathlon- I've found the following.
Its all about the Hips and core, and just a little flick at the end. They hardly play a part in my stroke at all during anything over 1k, I use a two-beat kick.
Then for sprint work I change the whole stroke entirely.

Also my legs always feel warmed up after the swim part. I often find the bike part great, sometimes better than when I go out just for a 40k test.

How big of a difference do you really find holding back on the kick makes?

I mean I've never really given it much thought and just swim "normally" but, just as you say, I find the swim warms my legs up really nicely for the bike. The only thing I do specifically is to deliberately kick a bit more in the last 200m to get some more blood down in the legs for the run into T1, but again this might be placebo.

I'll flutter kick to keep my body balanced and that's about it. Anything more, and it (feels like) mean rapidly diminishing returns for effort expended - I vaguely recall that kicking takes 50% of your effort, but only contributes 10% to your speed.

If I'm doing a long pool swim, I'll probably still flutter kick for the the first half, and then bring the legs in the second half to preserve a negative split.

This may be because a lot of my swimming is done with tired legs, and I just can't be arsed to kick.

Well-tbh- I don't know- I've never really kicked throughout the swim part and then gotten out and ridden.
Like you I just swim 'normally' or comfortably, and then get out and ride.
I suspect that the kicks in the last 200m or so are useful...
But again- I don't so much hold back the kicks consciously, it just is how I find my longer distance stroke to be more efficient.

I think I've heard the same statistic as TW2 above and agree with the diminishing returns part.

On the subject of swimming, I've started back in the pool as of last week, after a 4 / 5 months of no real training.

I appear to have lost 20 seconds per 100m, and am not enjoying myself at all.

Boo to swimming.