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Cr@p Swimmers R Us
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I have really fallen in love with swimming, still not very fast but plowing up and down the pool I find really enjoyable even on my own. I still go to Tuesday night tri club swimming though.
I have two different sets of pool workouts I use:
Workouts for triathletes (workouts in a binder) by tri coach Gale Bernhardt.
Swim speed workouts for triathletes by Sheila Taormina (4-time Olympian and world triathlon champion). The workouts are all on laminated cards so you can take them with you to the pool.
Wow, good to hear that plugging away is bringing some rewards. Still getting worried when i am so slow - this week a heavily pregnant woman waddled to the pool side and then trounced me....
Camlo - try not to compare yourself to others as you don't know their story. Yeah, she was pregnant and using your words she trounced you, but is she training for a 3.8k swim. Could she have kept her pace up for over an hour. Did she have perfect technique.. Was she going to hop on a bike for 112 miles and then run a marathon?
Spend some time watching others swim and you'll see that although they may be faster than you some elements of their technique could be poorer eg over rotate, windmill arms, too little or too much kicking etc etc
The only person you have to worry about is you; try to shut out what everyone else is doing because they, more than likely, have different aims and ambitions to you and so it is fruitless to make comparisons
Thanks Schmunks. That's an honest reminder.
Almost went for a run but went for a swim instead. That was so much more difficult, it was like training for the washing machine. Mayhem and madness. 4 lanes allocated to swim club, but they only had about 3 swimmers per lane. One area to general swim, and it was packed. One single lane allocated for public lane swimming. 7 in it when I arrived, with 2 whales and the rest plodding. Myself and another (thin and fast looking) wannabe looked around and basically were advised that we had to go in the packed lane.
So I made a nuisance of myself. Strong and powerful, but there ain't a shed load of space to overtake in a crowded lane. Eventually they allocated a Club lane to faster swimmers. YUP I got promoted! Then we all acted politely, despite varying abilities and one who wore paddles. Did about 2k, but I wasn't counting. Knackered at the end, so I tried to learn a bit about tumble turns. Hmmm.
Wouldn't waste too much time on that, no use in OW and most triathlons with a pool swim don't allow tumble turns.
Hi all, I'm working to crack the front crawl.
I came away from it last year after my shoulder rebelled and stayed that way for 4 mths, and once that had started to work again I put myself through a general conditioning/strengthening program for the last few months to try and set myself up for this year.
This year then with the Outlaw Half ahead I returned to where I was before my shoulder injury - the 25m/50m then gasping for air stage and feeling utterly frustrated by it.
I took a chance and tried joining the local tri swim group, luckily they were very welcoming so that's cool, and I've signed up for a small Swimathon in April just to add a little extra target.
After a couple of really rubbish swims this week I focussed again on being tall in the water and also increased the amount of rotation yesterday, and saw some significant improvement in forward drive and quality of breathing. Fingers crossed I can recapture that today and build on it.
Have you used a pull bouy before ? I found that it takes some getting use to. It didn't take long though. But I was a complete beginner when I started. May be if you can already swim OK they might be frustrating.
I've not had it myself JPO but it sounds to me like your hands are crossing your centre line and your legs are compensating mate of mine trying to overcome same problem
I agree, make sure your arms are not crossing your center line. I've never found a problem using my pull bouy, I use it to isolate my arm stroke and paddles during part of almost every session I do in the pool. I certainly don't think it replicates the feeling of swimming in a wetsuit.
I've noticed that after about 20 lengths I start to feel sick. I'm doing mostly front crawl, I have a nose clip. I'm not drinking the pool, but I wonder if it's something to do with my breathing. Can I accidently swallow air? Taking my nose clip off and breathing through my nose does reduce the problem but it doesn't go away and I can't stop every 20 lengths for a breather in a race.
Has anyone else noticed this?
JPO, I saw a video of myself in the pool and it was bloody awful. There were so many things that even I could see were diabolically wrong. Worth a try getting a video of yourself.
Mine's available for rental in the horror section. Or humour.
#likeadolphin
Dolphin Schmunkee!
So glad I found this thread. I'm training for my first tri (olympic distance, open water swim, in July) and would love some advice? I'm confident in being able to swim the distance, but expecting to set new records with slow pace. It's just a small local tri, do these tend to see lots of slow swimmers, or should I be really focusing on speeding up massively?
I also seem to get really bad headaches from swimming. Don't know if it's related to the goggles and cap, or the chlorine, but any advice on how to beat this would be amazing.
Thanks guys
Tri Matt,
If its a local tri it depends on the club arranging it, some are more elitest and attract faster people, other clubs are more general. Id say the chances are that there will be a mix of abilities, if its 400m you could see times from 5.30 to 12/14 minutes?
Usually the swim will be seeded, with people going off with those of a similar speed? Not sure if you were asked to estimate your time when you entered or will be allotted on the day?
I cant really advise on headaches, ive never experienced them but could be the combination of goggles and cap? Not sure if anyone else can advise, I would say its worth getting it checked out if it continues.
Hmmm this thread has made for interesting reading, good to know im not the only monkey trying to splash from one end of the pool to the other. Maybe we should start a Swimming Monkey Club!!!
I have mentioned in another thread that after many attempts to learn i took up the Total Immersion swimming technique. The post at the top of the page is spot on from swimming cat, just when you feel that you have it nailed you next get in the pool and feel like you have never swam before.
My biggest problem is breathing, i know im not going to drown but every breath i take feels like its going to be my last. Once i do about 20 lengths i calm down a bit. Add to that a busy pool every time i go swimming which all adds to the frustration. I even went for some hypnotherapy which i thought would crack it but it never worked.
Im training for the Staffordshire 70.3 and the main aim was to be a swimmer by the end of it......ive still got a long way to go. Did i read somewhere that learning to swim after a late stage in life (42!!) is incredibly difficult?
PipRam, don't give up on it ...
I was exactly the same when first starting to try front crawl ... took lessons and even then couldn't do more than a length without my heart and lungs making a bid for freedom.
Eventually I managed two lengths of front crawl, so for my first half last year I practised with 2 lengths FC then 4 of breaststroke to recover, repeat until finished.
After the half (of which I actually breaststroked about 90% of !) I didn't swim for a few weeks, got back in the pool and was back to square one ... 25m and die ... which was ridiculous I could run for 7 hours on an Ultra yet 25m in the pool and I was finished.
Kept at it, solely trying to work out how the hell I could breathe, managed after a few weeks to get up to 4 lengths continual FC but that was a struggle, then it clicked ... don't know what .. don't know how .. but it did ... doing my usual 4 FC, then revert to breaststroke for 4 to recover then back to FC, all of a sudden I found I didn't need to go in to breaststroke to stop the impending cardiac arrest, and that day I just carried on swimming and did a mile non stop with 90% of it FC ... (I was like a T-Rex after, as my arms were completely fecked!) ... it was absolutely bizarre .. and to this day I don't know what happened or how, but it did .. it just 'clicked'.
I'm still slower and less graceful than a wind up turtle bath toy but I've finally mastered the breathing. So I think what I'm trying to say in all the above waffle is .. keep at it .. it WILL click for you too !!
Pipram,
it is just practise and keeping at it. Breathing was the problem for me...still is...I found that as I turn my head to take in a breath, I need to start breathing out immediately and I breathe every 4th stroke, (occasionally I stick in a gasp after 2 or 3 if need be)... that helped with breathing problems...I now have to improve my fitness and confidence. I've been going twice a week since January and it's improving. Oddly, running to the pool made swimming easier.
I know it's frustrating, I did a marathon last year, but can barely do 8 lengths without dying.
It is just keeping at it and suddenly it'll click.
Thanks for the replies,
Went for my 3rd swim in 3 days last night. Doing the Total Immersion training they tell you do do a few lengths of jumping into floating down the pool like superman. The last few times i haven't been able to do this due how busy its been. I managed to do it last night and forgot how much it relaxes you and gets you used to breathing slowly and not being out of breath.
When i finished this i had the best session for many a week and comfortably did 1500m and it just clicked. I stopped a few times just for a drink and a nosey, but i did get out extremely pleased with myself.
Since doing the this Total Immersion ive come a long way and with 8 weeks left of training im sure ill get better. Im actually looking forward to some open water training as believe the pool is giving me bad habits as such.
When i first started front crawl last year for the warwickshire tri my focus was on doing 16 lengths and was doing one length and stopping for 30 odd seconds to re group and go again. This habit of stopping has been difficult to give up so im looking forward to swimming without walls.
I must say if you are also struggling like me check out the Total Immersion videos on youtube. I can promise it will really help and it will answer a lot of your questions. Ive been doing it now for about 4 weeks and before it i was clocking 3.60 per 100m now im about 2.50 per 100m without all the effort and wasted energy i was before.
I did the Total Immersion boot camp weekend .. Did me the world of good
Lessons and coaching are absolutely essential. I've been getting coaching every week for the past 2+ years. To be honest they were more like lessons at the start, and at the start I went to the pool as many as 3 times in a week just to get the hand in. Things started to click and within 6 weeks I could get by with 800m of crawl.
After a couple of years there have been many, many small gains and there are many, many more to be made. I'm still slow, but not now the slowest.
Working in the water is all about defeating the drag generated by the body, solely by utilising the drag created by your arms as they pass through it. The more you think about it, the more technical it becomes. Ironically, the best swimmers go beyond that and it all becomes natural, free flowing, and they make me puke with envy.
quite. I think we all start swimming thinking that a bit of hard work (like running) will make you better, quickly. There only SOME truth in that. as you say technique technique technique and most of that is around drag reduction. have heard total immersion boot camps are good, ; I read his book and that seemed ok too but others are somewhat scathing of his method (although what they say is remarkably similar!!)
I'd just like to add that after a whole season (last year) of trying and failing miserably to front crawl with my face in the water, I got in the pool a few weeks ago for the first time in months and, bingo, it just happened! I don't know how, or why etc etc but I managed to do a full length without choking or drowning....I was elated.
The following week, I had taken a step backwards, but on Sunday just gone I went again and it is all coming together.
Granted, it's not pretty and my technique is shocking - after one length I'm gasping for breath, but I'm getting on with it and doing a length of breast stroke, a length of front crawl and two of back stroke (just to mix it up a bit). My other half is going to come with me next time and give me some tips on technique - can't afford lessons - so we'll see how that goes but everything he's said so far has worked for me and as he started the same way as I am now, he's become a pretty good swimmer, I trust his advice.
I'm really pleased that its working and I'm starting to get my mojo back. I have a chronic pain condition, so my limbs will not always do what they're supposed to but I adapt and overcome and slowly it's getting easier and helping with my mobility. I'm now really looking forward to the open water season again and might, if I can lose some weight and start running again, even be tempted to have a go at a super sprint triathlon!!!!!!!
Happy swimming everyone!
I am really pleased to see the positivity on this thread! Let's keep it up!
Its great reading this thread and seeing the improvements people are making, because I truly am a crap swimmer. In fact i would go as far to say that I am virtually a non swimmer!!
However, at last I have started to do something about it. I have my second lesson with the fantastic local tri club tomorrow morning (so should be in bed really!). They are taking us through the Swim Smooth program which I have seen mentioned on here. It seems a logical way of doing things and will hopefully be the key to hitting my goal.
I would be ecstatic if we can get my swimming upto a level capable of completing the 400m of a sprint tri. I would love to do a triathlon around my 40th birthday which is in September - even if I have to freestyle a bit, rest a bit and breaststroke a lot!!
I am certainly not a great a runner or cyclist, but it really is the swimming that is stopping me entering a tri. I really want to complete at least one triathlon, even if its just a sprint distance, then hopefully kick on from there.
Beth, that's great news. Your progress is completely normal. Being comfortable in the water is all about visualisation. Have a shocker - go home and think about it. Next time you'll be focussed on cracking the little aspect that annoyed you last time. There's no miracles, it's just about small changes and improvements.
A big tip I got when I started was to forget about trying to breathe every 3, but to rotate and breathe every 2, ie every right arm in my case. Whichever feels easier. I did my first full season like that, progressing from 25m to 3800m. Obviously I wanted to breathe every 3, and that's what I now do. I was firmly told (several times) that there were other challenges I had to resolve first. They were right of course.
Lee1977, Swimsmooth or Total Immersion? Not sure I can tell the difference. Therefore I'm not bothered about the difference. They are both good. Or does that mean that there is a difference? It's all about stroke analysis and similar stuff. Technique and teaching, backed up with time in the water.
It's better to go to the pool more often for short sessions than to try and maximise a "paid hour" and just lose it after half that time. Look out for bargain block booking price offers.