Swimming

does anyone here swim regularly? i was just reading a thread in the private forum about the mental and ummm soulful benefits a lot of people get from riding and while i do too, i realised that i felt the same way about swiming.

i love to swim. been a swimmer, diver, surfer, all that stuff. i'm a proper water baby and marine life nerd. but in the last few years i've rekindled a love swimming. i've done a few longish distance indoor swims recently (3 and 5k's and i'm looking for a 10k). there's something wonderfully meditative and satisfying about stroking slowly and powefully though lap after lap working on the nuances of breathing, streamlining, posture and momentum.

i love checking how far off the wall i've got at every turn by trying to streamline my underwater glide, i love the feeling when you've got the stroke and breathing perfectly under control and you're just cruising along with the minimum effort. the competitive nerd in me loves passing mister macho-splashy-man (there's always a few in every fast lane) with a cadence half that of his inefficient thrashing. and i love turning on the sprint every now and again and feeling your whole body start to aquaplane, and literally lift out of the water, almost surfing on your own bow wave.

so anyway, i've rambled. any other swimmers here?

I have started swimming 3-4 times a week before work and I am loving it.
When I started I could barely do 2 lengths front crawl. Now I can do about 30 without rest ( about 1km ), and that is over the space of just 2 months.
I like to concentrate on what my body is doing in the water and how it is moving. I alternate between the medium and the fast lane. Medium if I am feeling tired, as there is no danger of being overtaken ;)

I feel myself literally getting stronger everyime I go, and I think it is really helping my stamina too

I used to be a big swimmer, but ruined my shoulder.
just gotten back into it, swim about 10k a week atm, building up, building up.

I love it more than most things.

I swim 3x a week. In summer do open water stuff and it beats the pool by miles... Swimming in a still lake as the sun rises is awesome.

It's also good for aerobic fitness, and as it's low - no even - impact, great for injury rehab.

Get into running too if you can, you never know where it may lead. :)

i hurt my shoulder when i was training for a 5k last year. swimmer's shoulder apparently. http://www.nismat.org/traintip/swimmershld got so i couldn't hold a pint. yeah, serious. had to stop for a bit. can manage multiple pints now.

when i was hard into training for a goal i got angry in the pool too (so many splashy macho fucktards) but since i've gone back to swimming for the joy of it i've been much more zen about the whole thing. still not in shape enough right now to do a 5k... well maybe but not enough to do it justice.

oh, my other tip would be (unless you're training) don't count laps. these days i just swim and check the clock at about 20 minute intervals. usually do about 40 minutes then rest a few then sprint a bit, warm down and get out. counting is deadly.

this book helped me a lot. http://www.amazon.com/Art-Swimming-Direction-Alexander-Technique/dp/1853980951

there's some guff in it but the single biggest breakthough for me was *learning to let my breathing dictate the pace rather than the other way round. **that was the key. *totally changed the way i thought about swimming and suddenly instead of doing 20 or 30 laps i was doing 100 or 150.

only then was i really able to start concentrating on efficiency and technique in a way that i couldn't when i was purple-faced thrashing and struggling for air.

weird how one sentence in a cheesy "how to swim" manual can do all that to your life. but it did.

Get into running too if you can, you never know where it may lead. :)

triathlons presumably.

thankfully i can't run for shit.

i can't cycle for shit, but that never stopped me ;)

I have started swimming 3-4 times a week before work and I am loving it.
When I started I could barely do 2 lengths front crawl. Now I can do about 30 without rest ( about 1km ), and that is over the space of just 2 months.
I like to concentrate on what my body is doing in the water and how it is moving. I alternate between the medium and the fast lane. Medium if I am feeling tired, as there is no danger of being overtaken ;)

I feel myself literally getting stronger everyime I go, and I think it is really helping my stamina too

good stuff man. the tangible progress is another great thing about swimming. where do you swim?

i can't cycle for shit, but that never stopped me ;)

seriously, just no way. it's weird, i can swim for hours and ride all day but stairs leave me doubled up wheezing and jogging for a bus leaves me jelly-legged and knock-kneed. not sure if it's a muscle or general fitness thing? both?

is there a trick to it like my "let the breathing dicatate the pace" thing for swimming? or is it like an open secret that no-one told me like how you don't kick a football with your toes, you use the top of your foot? you may laugh, but no-one ever told me that and my brief school football career was a mess of shamefull wayward toe-punts about half of which ended up behind me.

it's not the same thing as the swimming/breathing thing is it? i'll feel really stupid if it is.

Erm, it's as simple as that - if you can't breathe then you're running too fast. Slow it down until it's conversation pace, walk up hills if you need to in order to keep it there. Start with a couple min run, couple min walk strategy if you need to - gradually reduce the walking intervals over the weeks until you're running non-stop.

Stick with it and your running fitness will build from there. If you start getting into it get proper trainers - to support your gait - and read around a bit more about training plans for building distances effectively etc.

Running is higher impact than swim or bike - except crashes! - so be more wary of niggles and the like.

Good luck if you decide to go for it, sorry to have taken this so far from the swimming topic. Maybe a running thread is needed too!

A.

be wary of niggles and the like.

racist.

thanks dude. to be honest though, i really can't see myself running anywhere.

Stealth edit - Feb 2011. I now run.

yea its true, joggers look miserable. running is about reasons, like most 'sports'. if the reasons are primarily got to lose my fat arse related, then its never gonna be fun. i was like you with running at first. i dont love it by any means, and to be honest i hardly ever do it, but when i do, and it works, its a fucking joy. if you get it right, your body works perfectly and efficiantly and is doing something it was completely designed for. i started off running round the block, gradually adding an extra street now and then. then when i could run for 30 mins, i thought fuck it and entered a half marathon. i suffered like hell but i loved it too. now ive done three, the last one in september and rarely run in between. (actually i did go through a phase of night time off road running with my mountain bike lights - awesome). for septembers one, i hadnt run for 8 months, then i did 3 runs totalling less than 2 hours about 3 weeks before it. i got a personal best, taking 5 mins off my previous time. so stoked. i think what i like best about it is the marvel that is the human body. what it is capable of. its fucking astounding. anyway, blah blah. joggers are miserable, runners arent. biiiig difference.

i wish i could swim properly but i cant afford the lessons. i love the description of it, it sounds pretty amazing.

Fell running is the way forward.

Get to the mountains! Everyone can run... it's the most natural thing to do

i can run. for up to 50 metres.

i like the natural simplicity of the idea to be honest. and i like the fact you can do it anywhere.

maybe i will give it another go.

not today though.

...there's something wonderfully meditative and satisfying about stroking slowly and powerfully... you're just cruising along with the minimum effort....passing mister macho-... it's such a good feeling.

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I started swimming March 07 (I mean I could swim before, it wasn't with armbands or anything) and can completey see what you get out of it. And you do indeed feel the ability to go further or faster every single time you get down to the pool. I'm no athlete and within three of four months was routinely doing 2,000m a few times a week (with a few minutes break after 1,000m) - my gut dissappeared within about six weeks.

Then I fractured my wrist and arm over the winter and never really got back into it again - maybe it's time to dig out those goggles again... but running - just not built for it I'm afraid, shoulders too wide, legs certainly not long enough, I get red, hot and sore after about 600m and that's it!

Fell running is the way forward.

Get to the mountains! Everyone can run... it's the most natural thing to do

Not in Norfolk though...

Fell running is the way forward.

Get to the mountains! Everyone can run... it's the most natural thing to do

You do realise this is the London fixed gear forum don't you? We're a bit short of fells around these parts.

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busted

i swim about 4 times a week for a club
it helps on the bike alot
and is really good if you need time to think

Where do people swim in London? Can anyone reccomend any decent and/or cheap pools, preferably north or east. Used to swim loads as a teenager, got my Bronze Medalion and all that. Looking to get back into it.

oh and i forgot, i can swim about 65 metres underwater in onebreath. thats 2and a half lengths of my old small gym pool. that was a lush feeling..

clissold lesuire centre is brand new - ish
in stoke newington N16

Where do people swim in London? Can anyone reccomend any decent and/or cheap pools, preferably north or east. Used to swim loads as a teenager, got my Bronze Medalion and all that. Looking to get back into it.

London Fields lido. Outdoor and heated! ETA - but it is run by GLL who are a bunch of muppets.
I've the Art of Swimming book too if anyone wants to borrow.