Swimming - Would love advice, and when will it get easier?

[cynthia42]

Wow thank you! Fantastic advice and encouragement. I'm all fired up again. I'm also going to try to fit in a third swim workout each week too based on your suggestions. Thanks again for all the input. I'll keep you posted!

[peanutgrl]

Michelle,
I did use an indoor trainer during off season, spinervals were a killer for me! I kept up with biking, it just never seemed to get easier endurance wise. It was like all my oxygen was going to my thighs & my legs still needed more?

It's been a while since then, I plan on starting to train again next year, I am nervous to go through it again. After 5 months of biking outdoors & indoors, it felt just as bad as it did when I first started, I didn't get much faster either?! Very frustrating. Thank you for your advice & for sharing your experience with a masters group.... I'm going to look into one here


Clare

[Hazel Porter]

Originally Posted by peanutgrl

Michelle,
I did use an indoor trainer during off season, spinervals were a killer for me! I kept up with biking, it just never seemed to get easier endurance wise. It was like all my oxygen was going to my thighs & my legs still needed more?

Were you using the gears Coach Troy recommended? Because in case you were wondering, the boy is crazy. Seriously, even the most serious hammerheads at slowtwitch.com will moan about how unrealistic many of CT's gear/cadence combinations are. (In his more recent releases, he's taken to just prescribing a cadence and HR range and asking you to set a gear that allows you to maintain those parameters. Much more humane. And sensible.)

I always treat CT's gearages as suggestions, not requirements, and I became a much happier Spinervaler the moment I did so.

[Barbara P]

GREAT advice from everyone!
Congratulations on your goal!

I've been a daily lap swimmer for 30 years next year. I was not an exerciser when I started, and it was hard, but I hung in there. I love it.

But I vividly remember my first night, I swam the 25 yards from shallow to deep end, stopped, hung on to the edge of the pool for dear life. I literally thought I would drown. I swam 10 lengths that night, 15 minutes (now it takes about 3) and when I got in my car, I could barely lift my arm up to shift gears.

I started because my mom turned 50 on August 17, 1980. That was my epiphany. I was 27, 5'6", about 112 pounds, but SHE LOOKED GREAT (she still does) and I was totally out of shape, the classic "thin but unfit" person. Totally NOT fit at all. My mom is a life-long exerciser. I wanted to look like her then, at age 27, like she looked at 50!

I went back the next night, and the next. In 1987, I switched to morning swims and I still go in the mornings.

I think I kept going back because my mom is a swimmer and she was so happy I was starting, that she "outfitted" me. She put me on her YMCA membership, got me speedos, caps, goggles, etc.
My mom has swum Masters for about 30 years and still swims with her team but rarely competes anymore. She may next year for her 80th birthday in the Empire State Games.

The breathing is THE hardest part, IMHO. do not hold your breath as someone said. exhale under water.
It WILL get easier. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I really don't remember how long it took, it was so many years ago. I do know I was hooked immediately though.
There is nothing like gliding through the water. I love it so much. It is by far my favorite form of exercise.

Good luck with it and you can always come here and ask for advice and encouragement.
barbara JP

[cynthia42]

Barbara, that's a beautiful story. Thanks so much for sharing. You gals are inspiring me! I shall be a swimmer yet!

[Hej]

Are you breathing bilaterally during freestyle? It really helps to even out your roll and smooth things out, and once you get that other things tend to fall into place. Start breathing every 3 and then work up to every 5 strokes. You'll be amazed at how much faster you end up going.

Try to be relaxed while swimming... Even when you're really pushing. Think of it as if you are moving water rather than moving you through water. You start the pull and pull the water in front of your face and down the centre of your body to your navel and let it go out past your hip. When you get tired just don't pull as hard or fast, but keep the form...

Also, when you get tired, you can drop to 2 kicks instead of the usual 6 kicks. The legs use a lot of energy but they only contribute about 20% to the propulsion of that stroke.

Best of luck.

[yogapam]

Barbara - I agree, that is a wonderful story! You and your mom are both awesome! I hope I am still in the pool at 80. You are right - the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and there is nothing like gliding through the water.

[Barbara P]

Originally Posted by Hej

Are you breathing bilaterally during freestyle? It really helps to even out your roll and smooth things out, and once you get that other things tend to fall into place. Start breathing every 3 and then work up to every 5 strokes. You'll be amazed at how much faster you end up going.

Try to be relaxed while swimming... Even when you're really pushing. Think of it as if you are moving water rather than moving you through water. You start the pull and pull the water in front of your face and down the centre of your body to your navel and let it go out past your hip. When you get tired just don't pull as hard or fast, but keep the form...

Also, when you get tired, you can drop to 2 kicks instead of the usual 6 kicks. The legs use a lot of energy but they only contribute about 20% to the propulsion of that stroke.

Best of luck.

Thanks everyone.

Hej's post made me think of different swim styles that I see. I have a 4-beat kick. some people kick much more, and I think they get tired very quicky.

when I first started swimming, I had a bad stroke, and horrible kick. I knew it. I watched people with GOOD strokes/kicks underwater, and emulated them. Now I get asked where I swam in college, and people don't believe it when I say I've never even been coached.

I see people in the pool churning up the water like egg beaters. This takes a tremendous amount of energy to create all those bubbles and doesn't propell you forward very far in relation to the energy you expend. This is mostly in the kick. I can't stand swimming next to an egg beater because all I see is bubbles.

Slapping the water too, is another energy-waster. We have our share of slappers at my YMCA. Instead of having their arm/hand entering the water at an optium angle for the pull, they literally SLAP the water. This, too, is an energy waster as it takes more energy to then get your arm/hand into the water and at a good angle for the pull.

Then there are the breast strokers/backstrokers who take up entire lanes and part of the next two lanes. Instead of pushing the water away directly in front of them, they are pushing it away for their entire lane, plus part of each lane next to them. NOT efficient, not to mention kicking and hitting everyone around them.

Can you tell what I was doing while swimming this morning? mentally writing my DOs and Don'ts of swimming ettiquette. LOLOL But really, for efficient swimming your arms and legs should be in your body line and not flailing all over the place, not churning up the water, and creating motor boat bubbles like the fish swim class for pre schoolers. All that slows you down and wastes energy.

When I first started, I think I was guilty of all of the above, plus - add in the dreaded frog kick on the freestyle! but I made a conscious decision to have a straight, smooth stroke and I do. If I am the only one in the pool, there is barely a ripple. And I like it that way. Some people get in the pool, I can be at the opposite end, 4 lanes over, and I know *exactly* who got in by their 2nd stroke! I don't ever want to be that person. Some send up a plume of water and hit the ceiling with their kick. It all slows you down and tires you out, unless you are super strong and can bully your way through the water (like a Michael Phelps). LOL.

Barbara P

[Aquajock]

Lots of good advice here. Keep in mind too that traditional swimming, especially front crawl, is overwhelmingly an upper-body activity, so it's no surprise that there is an endurance-building curve you have to go through. In traditional land cardio legs are the prime movers, so it's usually a bit of a shock to the system to make the upper body the movers. The only way to get good at swimming is to keep doing it, as others here have agreed.

I'd suggest, as did your trainer, that you do kickboard work, and do mostly flutter kick and butterfly kick drills. Not only will these make your legs and core more efficient and productive; they are also great heart-thumpers because they recruit the thigh and glute muscles so well!

A-Jock

[mspina]

Originally Posted by peanutgrl

Michelle,
I did use an indoor trainer during off season, spinervals were a killer for me! I kept up with biking, it just never seemed to get easier endurance wise. It was like all my oxygen was going to my thighs & my legs still needed more?

It's been a while since then, I plan on starting to train again next year, I am nervous to go through it again. After 5 months of biking outdoors & indoors, it felt just as bad as it did when I first started, I didn't get much faster either?! Very frustrating. Thank you for your advice & for sharing your experience with a masters group.... I'm going to look into one here


Clare

In line with what Hazel posted, you might be mashing a bit too much (meaning, you are riding in a harder gear than you should be). If your thighs are constantly screaming at you, it sounds like you are using too hard a gear. Do you have a bike computer on your bike? While it does come down to personal preference, it's a good idea to try to keep up a cadence of 90rpm, while feeling good. Sometimes, that's impossible, like if you are climbing a killer hill or something. But for general riding (outdoors), try to shoot for 90rpm and shift around until you find a gear that lets you do that comfortably.

And yeah, for Spinervals, use Troy as a suggestion for a while. I remember the first time I made it through one of his workouts using ALL of his gear suggestions - it was a HUGE celebration! And after going on 4 years of using them, I still don't usually stick with him.