Swimming

New to this thread...

been swimming more since I packed in the commuting due to length of journey - distance was not the problem, just boredom at the dreadful route and amount of time it took. (17 miles eachway)

anyway.....

cracked my front crawl last week - did 1km in a 25m pool without stopping. Had previously only managed 250m max before switching to breast stroke.

now to the questions:

I can breathe on both sides, but prefer to breath to the left and do so on every 6th or 4th stroke. should I adapt to a shorter cycle and use both sides? or just stick to what works?

what is the general opionion of nose clips?

Another slow day in the pool this morning so spent some time doing front crawl. Did 50m in a go where I managed to calm down enough to balance breathing and effort - great feeling!

And I see the need for goggles now :)

New to this thread...

been swimming more since I packed in the commuting due to length of journey - distance was not the problem, just boredom at the dreadful route and amount of time it took. (17 miles eachway)

anyway.....

cracked my front crawl last week - did 1km in a 25m pool without stopping. Had previously only managed 250m max before switching to breast stroke.

now to the questions:

I can breathe on both sides, but prefer to breath to the left and do so on every 6th or 4th stroke. should I adapt to a shorter cycle and use both sides? or just stick to what works?

what is the general opionion of nose clips?

General opinion on nose clips ?

If you need to use it, then so be it.

I should use one as i get affected after every swim by the chlorine, but i dont like them so i put up with a blocked nose.

As for the breathing; I breathe bi-laterally. I used to breathe just to the right, but started to get neck pain and lots of migraines after swimming so i changed to bi. I dont know whether it helped the migraines but it did help my neck.
Bi-lateral is a good thing to have, to be able to do, if you can do it then i would stick to it. You are less likely to get a imbalance when swimming.

Also if you decide at some point you want to do some open water swimming or a triathlon, you will already have the bi lateral breathing up your sleeve, which is great when waves, or chop or some fool splashing to you right continuously.... ha ha then you can breath to the other side no problem, cos you are a pro at bi lateral breathing ! :)

Also in open water swimming you should be able to swim in a straighter line, by being able to see what is to the right/left of you, plus sighting obviously= (lifting head forward to see in front).

So i vote Bi lateral.

You say you breathe every 4/6 . Which is it mostly ?

You could switch to bi every 3, or i find every 5 pretty easy.

You say you breathe every 4/6 . Which is it mostly ?

Mostly 6, switch to 4 when I am in need of more oxygen.

I have the chance for a long swim tonight so will try 5 strokes and both sides.

Aiming for a 2.5k swim, with half front crawl and half breast stroke. For me that is a lot.

(BTW: thanks for the replies.....)

Excellent ! Lets us know how you get on. :)

In for Day 1 of Charlton Lido - 50m pool less than a mile from my house - awesome. Bloody hot mind, 23 degrees - you can poach eggs in that. Opening till 8pm is great, though they don't have early morning sessions yet. It's only open till Sept, then they're closing again to do the rest of the refurb.

Welcome jalla.

I really wanted to go to Charlon this evening, but ended up having to trek to the other side of town because I didn't have any keys to get home with.

DId you go with the rest of the slevless weirdos?

Tried to do my swim tonight, but pool was too busy to hit a rythmn as all were slower than me.

Got 1750m done and think that breathing both sides will work out.

Thinking about looking into swimming in Hampstead's ponds...

In for Day 1 of Charlton Lido - 50m pool less than a mile from my house - awesome. Bloody hot mind, 23 degrees - you can poach eggs in that. Opening till 8pm is great, though they don't have early morning sessions yet. It's only open till Sept, then they're closing again to do the rest of the refurb.

Welcome jalla.

Mmmm - sounds lush.

Brockwell's too cold for me.

Brockwell Lido ? Could have told me, i would have come and joined you. Instead i watched the tennis and drank too much wine. :(

First weekend ive had off in ages though.

this!

I really wanted to go to Charlon this evening, but ended up having to trek to the other side of town because I didn't have any keys to get home with.

DId you go with the rest of the slevless weirdos?

Shame that - I turned up on my jax, but the place was crawling with Tritons. None of them wearing wetties, thankfully, but a little bit of nancying about the cold from one or two of them. By the sounds of things the C'tee are trying to get a few organised sessions for us.

jalla - if you go to Hampstead, avoid the mixed pond - it's a bit smaller than the others.

What temp is brockwell at the moment. H20pen mag turned up yesterday and got me feeling jealous.....

Im getting bored with my swimming again. It seems that every 8-12 weeks i start to get bored of what i'm doing. This is happening now. Would still really like to do an event or 2 by the end of summer.
Need to pull my finger out !

20 degrees on Sunday morning.

I don't get bored of swimming, but that's because I've only been swimming once a month when I get to OW. Hopefully won't get too bored now, because it's a change from running, which is killing my knees right now. Maybe you could run for a bit until you feel the swim love come back.

How very Dare you suggest I run instead of swim !
(dont run anymore, too old, too painfull, too many ex running injuries)

Dont get me wrong, I love swimming, I want to swim into my 90's (hopefully), just sometimes you need a change of scenery. Im getting bored of swimming with the same people in a lane too.

20c is lovely. Wonder what temp the Thames is at the moment.....

The Thames isn't too cold, but the water is high, and the current is strong. In addition a lot of "rubbish" has been swept in with all the heavy rain. I am contemplating going back to a pool, as I haven't been in one for ages. I am dreading the chlorine. And the lanes. In fact I might just wait until the river settles!

The Thames isn't too cold, but the water is high, and the current is strong. In addition a lot of "rubbish" has been swept in with all the heavy rain. I am contemplating going back to a pool, as I haven't been in one for ages. I am dreading the chlorine. And the lanes. In fact I might just wait until the river settles!

One of the Speedo swim series events at Windsor has been postponed because of ^ this very reason.

wondering whether Hampton court swim will be postponed this weekend too. Mind you if it does go ahead, there should be record times as it is with the current.

3.65k in 30 mins ! :D

Well in other news, at least the canoe is seeing lots of water, in the garden where it is still laying.....since we acquired it.... erhmmm.....

Last months H2open mag had a css training article by swimsmooth.
Reduce your css swim time for 1k by 5% in 10 weeks !
Basically I think you really need to get the pro temp trainer to do it properly but i thought i would have a go last night, using the clock.

10 week sets plan, to be done once a week. The aim is to use your css time and then reduce is by 0.5% each week (hence the need for a temp trainer!)
My css time aim is 3.20 per 200m / 6.40 per 400m. 1 beep is your 25m css time, so mine would be 25 secs.

This is the 10 week plan;

WEEK SET RECOVERY

1 200M,300M,500M 1 BEEP = 25 SECS

2 10X100M 10 SECS

3 2X500M 3 BEEPS

4 4X100M AT CSS – 3 SECS 2 BEEPS

      3X100M AT CSS – 4 SECS
      2X100M AT CSS – 5 SECS
      1X100M ALL OUT

5 1000M STRAIGHT

6 8X50M, SPRINT EVERY 4TH 5 SECS

       6X50M, SPRINT EVERY 3RD    10 SECS
       4X50M, SPRINT EVERY 2ND     15 SECS
       2X50M, SPRINT                            20 SECS

7 4000M,100M,400M,100M 1 BEEP

8 5X200M 1ST TWO 2 BEEPS

                                                    LAST THREE 1 BEEP

9 400M,300M,200M,100M 2 BEEPS

10 100M,200M,300M,400M 1 BEEP

Last night I did;
warm up
500 fc
300 back

200m on 3.20 (did 3.10!?)
300m on 5.00 (did 5.20 because i got stuck behind someone)
500m on 8.20 ( did 8.15 )

300 back easy
500 pull on 8.20 ( did 8.10 !) (why am i quicker with pull ?)
5 x 200 on 3.20 ( sets 1,3,5 with fins) (2,4 = 3.20 1,3,5 = 3.10)

250 fly drills
500 breast/swimdown

I found the tempo quite hard to stick too, obviously, so might get a tempo trainer pro (£30).... but the main thing and really important is, you need everyone else to be doing the same thing in the lane or a lane to yourself, because this wont work if you keep getting held up.... so good but achievable ? Not so sure.

Jesus Nackers/ I feel tired just skimming over that. Looks like it'll toughen you up if you can stick to it though.

Question: has anyone here ever experienced shortness of breath/nagging wheezy cough after swimming in a pool?

Two weeks in a row now I've come home from pretty intense sets at Otter feeling fine, then woken in the night with a tight chest and short of breath. Not, seriously so just enough to register. Like as if I had a bad chest cold. Feels like I can't quite get a satisfying lungful of air. Last week it faded away part way through the folowing day. I'm still feeling it now though. *wheezes.

I seem to have developed hayfever and a few other minor allergies over the last couple of years. And I already know that chlorine plays havoc with my sinuses so i'm wondering if forcibly inhaling chlorine vapour during, say, a fly set might be causing the shortness of breath afterwards? it would make sense given that this has only happened twice both times the night after a hard pool swim set.

Do not like.

Just been reading about chlorine related shortness of breath. I'm sure that's it. Possibly aggravated by the fact that I pushed myself super hard last night after a week of no swimming.

After a 150m fly stint in the middle of a nasty middle distance medley set the coach was looking at the clock and saying to me "Ok, ready let's go again in 5, 4..." then she looked down at me bent over at the wall blowing like a steamtrain and said "...maybe just rest a few more seconds".

Heh.

I get it quite often in warm pools, the chlorine seems to be quite damaging when its hot, slightly concerning actuallly... Is it dangerous?

Jesus Nackers/ I feel tired just skimming over that. Looks like it'll toughen you up if you can stick to it though.

Question: has anyone here ever experienced shortness of breath/nagging wheezy cough after swimming in a pool?

Two weeks in a row now I've come home from pretty intense sets at Otter feeling fine, then woken in the night with a tight chest and short of breath. Not, seriously so just enough to register. Like as if I had a bad chest cold. Feels like I can't quite get a satisfying lungful of air. Last week it faded away part way through the folowing day. I'm still feeling it now though. *wheezes.

I seem to have developed hayfever and a few other minor allergies over the last couple of years. And I already know that chlorine plays havoc with my sinuses so i'm wondering if forcibly inhaling chlorine vapour during, say, a fly set might be causing the shortness of breath afterwards? it would make sense given that this has only happened twice both times the night after a hard pool swim set.

Do not like.

Dooks you only do 1 set per week. Just add it in to your normal swim. (re the css training)

As for the tightness, I would say it's the intensity of Otters. I used to get it when ever i did alot of anaerobic. Sounds like straining the diaphragm ???
You are getting fitter but probably a bit too much too soon. Maybe just go Otters once a week,and swim yourself at a pool for any other session you want to do.

Seem to be loving the fly at the moment, it's getting flatter and easier with each session. Love it. Still needs rests though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00v9gnx/Faster_Higher_Stronger_Stories_of_the_Olympic_Games_Swimming/