Swimming

Is that the implicit no perving whilst swimming agreement?

yep... or at least the "no admitting that you actually do perv while swimming" rule.

well i've not been swimming for a week, and the change of not doing 2k every day is fucking weird.
running is shit in comparison.
and obviously, being in CA means i didn't compete over 3.8k as i had planned to this weekend and I've pulled out of a triathlon.
so i'm a bit bummed.

However, the other day I went to the place that got me into swimming- which is here, in Palo Alto, and my name is still on the wall as an old record (beaten now) for butterfly and back, it made me smile a little. I love this place, such good memories.

breaststoke set last night.

marred slightly by the fact that i started the evening by dozily swimming backstroke straight into the end on my very first length of the session.

i've got a sore head and pronounced lump on my arm where i banged it down on the edge of the pool.

dufus.

my name is still on the wall as an old record (beaten now) for butterfly and back, it made me smile a little. I love this place, such good memories.

^ this is very cool btw.

breaststoke set last night.

marred slightly by the fact that i started the evening by dozily swimming backstroke straight into the end on my very first length of the session.

i've got a sore head and pronounced lump on my arm where i banged it down on the edge of the pool.

dufus.

classic.
swim today i think.
jet lag is fucking with me...

Does anyone have any tips for treading water? Ive never been able to do it in any other way than wildly flailing limbs which is exhausting and only works for a few seconds.

Ive been trying really hard to learn egg beater technique which Ive seen demonstrated in videos. I find it impossible to get my legs to do the motion while in the water and my torso never stays vertical. I just cannot get it to work.

If staying vertical doesn't work, try leaning back a little. Maybe you're trying to stay too high in the water (polo player style)

I thought that might be the problem, so I went to practice with the specific intention of letting myself sink right up to my mouth next to the water. But yeah, it doesn't work. The eggbeater style I have seen recommended as the most stable form of treading water is actually the one used in water polo I believe.

Today I did 1.5km sub 27 mins for the first time. I wasn't even really trying. There just seemed to be a load of good swimmers at the pool this morning which must have made me quicken my pace.

right. i desperately need to do more exercise and thinking swimming could be the solution. I know london fields lido is open year round and heated. Will it be cold as fuck there now? Do i need a wool hat?

If anyone goes there regularly, when's best to go in the mornings? dead early or at 9ish?

I can never be arsed to get to the pool in the mornings. Problem with LFL is that doesn't open before dawn and shuts at dusk which means that I basically can't get there on schooldays in winter. I'm getting fat as a result. That and the double whoppers.

Bacon double cheese burgers FTW.

Im off for a swim.

:)

managed to haul my exhausetd arse out of bed for saturday morning training as well as the usual thursday night this week. felt smug all weekend as a result. recomended. *stretches satisfyingly achey shoulders.

the main set on saturday involved doing reps of 100m of backstroke with fins on 1min 40 sec. it was supposed to be 5x100m sprints repeated 4 times. but because i was struggling to make the time i basically ended up "sprinting" the whole 2000m of main set without a breather. i went up two lanes to make space in the more crowded middle lanes but had to come back down as i was flagging quite badly. ouch.

have solved the problem of the chlorine sinus irritation by taking to wearing a noseclip. apart from looking incredibly sexy it's yet another thing to lose/carry/forget. weirdly one of the things i always liked about swimming is that you don't need anything to do it... i now find myself lugging a bag absolutely stuffed with: trunks, drag shorts, towel, goggles (+spares), fins, hand paddles, pull buoy, kick board, noseclips and water bottles... going to to have to get a kit bag to keep it all together now.

wtf is a drag short?

I've tentatively started swimming again. I really want to be like those folk that you see going up and down without making a single splash but have a good pace: endurance swim. How many leg kicks do you do per arm stroke?
Plus I feel when I start to get fatigued (on front crawl) my legs sink yet on back stroke my legs have no problems at all. Any ideas what may be up?

try not to lean.

when doing long distances i generally only do one or two little flutter kicks per stroke, just to keep my legs from sinking. try and keep it to the bare minimum.

not sure to be honest 'grooves. i'm guessing than when you start to get tired you're breathing harder, more frequently and probably exaggerating the movement required to get a breath. if you're raising your head to breathe rather then just rotating around your body's axis your legs will start to drop. it's only natural, you just have to overcome the urge to lift your head and trust to the fact that you can get all the air you want with the normal breathing action.

drag shorts are just baggy over-shorts you wear over your budgie smugglers to increase water resistance in training. they're made seperate (rather than just wearing normal baggy shorts) so you can take then on and off as the session requires without having to go and get changed or whatever.

I'm trying to concentrate on various bits. One of them being when I breath trying to keep 1/2 to 1/3 of my head under water- but yes that rotation of the body not lifting my head up and out of the water. I'm sure an old swim club coach pointed out the body offers less surface area on its side than staying flat in the water.
Thanks for the input I've been doing three kicks per stroke. I'll try to drop down to two.

MG - my 2 cents woth (based on just swimming from a young age but not having any kind of formal coaching in recent years)...
Front crawl and backstrokes kicks are different motions. When you're doing front crawl you do little controlled butterfly kicks from the hips keeping your legs pretty straight and your toes pointed - force is downwards.
When you do backstroke, you're bending your knees a bit more and the force comes from the upwards motion, not the downwards motion. I feel my kicks are bigger and more powerful when I do backstroke than crawl. For crawl I think the kick is more for stabilising the body.
Some things I've found are useful:
Bilateral breathing..... seems to be the key to long distance swimming (for me). Only really stuck with it this summer, and now I always breath every 3rd stroke. Breathing every stroke isn't efficient and breathing every 4th is hard to maintain.
Get a pull bouy, stick it between your legs and swim. This helps your style SO much. You become aware of how much your body twists when you breath (you can work on keeping your hips still) plus it makes you aware that so much of your power comes from your shoulders, rolling them and gliding. There shouldn't be any thrashing. Kicking doesn't really add speed.
Brixton rec has kickboards and pull bouys available for use.
I've been trying to keep off my knee since a physio apt last monday. This means no gym and more swim!
Mornings are best.
Found this too - seems like a good read
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VwiXl-ZzbT8C&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=difference+backstroke+kicks&source=bl&ots=Ay8IF8t__z&sig=Rm1QSbxU1wuTa4eEoMMndCeYedM&hl=en&ei=a3XqTMSeJYaKhQfm_cgP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

sound advice kp! especially re bi-lateral breathing. that was the tipping point for me being able to swim distances when i came back to it a few years ago. it become second nature surprisingly quickly too.

one of the drills our coach makes us do is either 25 or 50m sprints starting with breathing every 2 strokes then decreasing to every 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and eventually 9 strokes. it's torture! by the time you get to 9 you're tearing at the water doing 50 knots to get to the end so you can take a breath. it's a good motivator!

Dook, I actually stole your little program yesterday - had to modify it a bit cause breaststroke is to be avoided (dodgy knee).... so did:
who's was the little fixie skidder with polka dot rims and risers outside cally pool tonight? quite a few first timers tonight. anyone from here? fun session, breaststroke main set.

500 free
300 free pull
200 free kick

4 x 100 free

12 x 25 backstroke sprints. 20 secs rest between.

200 breast

100 free.

Obvs not nearly as much as you do, but on my tod on a tuesday morn pre work, it was lovely! I really should bother coming to masters - but its north and its cold out!

All you swimmers, you have my full support, I'm right behind you.

I'm going for a run ;-)

nice one kattiep! that's a sweet set. i don't really have the discipline to stick to a set when i'm on my own. i need to be shouted at and shamed into not giving up. I NEED DISCIPLINE!

masters tomorrow if you can brave the cold and rarefied northern air.

btw, never less than two locks outside cally road pool, it's a bike theft nightmare round there.

Started regular swimming again but at my local pool which is a small 25 metre one which is really aimed at leisure swimmers and families. Usually there are about 3 people in the fast lane on Wednesday night and it is all very pleasant. Until last night that is.

Has anybody here ever experienced Lane Rage and almost come to blows in the middle of a pool?
Why is it always the same sort of fuckers who cause this? They are always big fat turned semi-muscle, short legged idiots who are more at home in the water than on land who decide they need the whole pool for their Whale like bulk.

God almighty these fuckers get everywhere

you have to get in the zone dude ignore these fuckers and keep on go faster than them.

I managed to get the breathing for freestyle sussed today,
totally stoked as when i got it just felt like could go for ever,
anyway did a mile and intend to keep on doing a mile 46 lengths on a regular basis,
you know when its just like youre watching the body and movement,
really reaching out with the stroke into the flow of it,
getting more and more slinky,
love it.

yo! how's it going swimmers? mikec, i used to get regular lane rage (threw my goggles at somebody once). as a rule i stay out of public sessions these days, especially during peak times.

haven't seen any of you lot down the cally masters training yet? actually i quite like it that way. it's just me and my crew of middle class, middle aged ladies keeping it real in lane three. i won't be about tomorrow but honestly, i highly reccomend it. it's a very friendly, relaxed club and I intend to keep going despite having moved south. sessions are 90 minutes coached 8pm thursday, 8 am saturday and 4pm sunday. costs £5.20 or £1 with an iz card. come!

anyway, a couple of things. just signed up to do this again. www.swimathon.org had previously said i wouln'd bother but i thought it'd be churlish not to really. you don't have to do the full 5k. could even enter a lfgss relay team? Just a thought.

lastly, and i'm sure i've asked this before. i really need a decent pool within striking distance of the southbank (SE1) to use at lunch time. i can't get to london fields lido before dark and getting up to islington or cally for the after work rush seems perverse as it involves waiting for the pool to open up at it's busiest time then heading off in the wrong direction for home to experience lane rage. there must be something passable i can get to from here for a good 45 minute swim at lunchtime? is oasis really the only option?

the swimming pool here is just to busy to train properly. It drives me mental, when your doing tech work and some jackass overtakes and then slows down.

gahhhh....

http://www.nuffieldhealth.com/Individuals/Community-Fitness/Q/Queen-Mother-Sports-Centre/

anyone been here? i'm tempted to boycott them based on the shitness of their website alone. there is no information available on it or on the phone about the pool itself or the pool timetable.

edit: google frenzy reveals it's 25m. interesting. i shall investigate at lunchtime today.