I am in love with swimming!

mo_chuisle

I suffered a hip injury about five years ago, that has severely limited me being able to push myself in walk/run/bike type things.

Years before that, I was a swimmer in high school for a bit and here and there throughout the years I have used swimming as a means to deal with stress, to get a good workout in, or to get through a break-up (lol)!

I started distance swimming the past year, and really really love it. I signed up for a relay sprint triathlon this summer, just to have a place to swim. I'm nervous and excited about it.

I was so happy to find a Swimming group on MFP

Lately I swim around 2000 meters in about an hour, and want to start swimming a lot more... maybe put together a total goal for the month of what I want to reach for fun. I can easily swim for another hour, I think, so that might be my next challenge. I find it completely relaxing, and when I get out of the pool my whole body feels full of oxygen and energy. I feel alive and awake!

Hope y'all have a great day, and get your swim on!

Macstraw

It's always nice to find a passion for something - especially when other stuff you like to do has been taken away from you. Good for you for taking the bull by the horns & jumping fully into it!!!!

I'm a life-long swimmer & can understand what you're going through with the hips, I had both of mine replaced 14 years ago. Instead of any formal physical therapy my doctor advised me to walk & to swim, if I had access to a pool. I didn't then, but I do now & love being back in the water on a regular basis..........

mo_chuisle

That's amazing - both hips! I know being limited has made me feel very weak, but in the pool I feel strong and motivated. There is really no other feeling quite like it! Just keep swimming

Macstraw

One big advantage to swimming is that it's zero impact on your joints, so you won't have the pounding on your hips that would come from running. Another advantage is that swimming works every muscle group, & helps strengthen your core. You will get much stronger & gain flexibility from swimming, so remember that the feeling you are having is real.........

holly1283

I have always loved swimming as well. I have bad knees. The doctor told me 2 years ago that I haveknee replacement in my future. I trying to make that future a little further down the line. I also swim 2K but it takes me about 65 min. I have a question for macstraw: I noticed in previous posts that you coach swimming so could you give any pointers on how to get my mile faster. At present it takes me 48 min. Freestyle is not my tecnically strongest stroke, I am still overweight, and I'm built like a fireplug. I know not the most ideal body build for a swimmer. Any tips from anyone would be appreciated. I plan to do an open water swim in Aug. I don't mind coming in last just not far away last.

Macstraw

Swimming is all about the efficiency. What you want to do for longer swims (like a mile) is to streamline things as much as you can. Think longer with your stroke instead of faster - with a longer, more powerful pull you will move a lot more water per stroke. What this does is move you further with each stroke, which means less strokes per lap. Also, you're not windmilling your arms as fast so you are not becoming as winded, allowing you to keep a good pace. Think of making an elliptical or oval shape with the arm stroke instead of big circles. Pull the water down past your hip, as you complete that back part of the oval & you're lifting your arm let the elbow bend. Make sure the arm & hand clear the top of the water's surface, but you don't need to go crazy high with the arm/hand. Instead, think now of the top part of the oval & reach out over your head so that your arm is close to straight out over your head (but not so far that you lock your elbow - leave a little bend to the elbow) instead of dropping your hand into the water just over the top of your head. Keep telling yourself that the longer the pull the less strokes you have to take. Combine this with a consistent kick, doesn't need to be as fast of a kick as a sprinter uses because that pace is hard to keep up for distance, but keep kicking the entire time. Your legs (particularly the upper part - the quads & hamstrings) contain some of the biggest & strongest muscles in your body. You have 2 choices - use the arms to pull that weight through the water, or use those nice, big muscles to help propel you........

Sorry this is kind of general, but without seeing you swim I can't give you any real specifics. Try what I've said (or at least some of it) & reach out to me as questions arise & I'll be happy to try to answer them. Other than what I've kind of laid out here the single best thing that will help you is yardage - the more you swim the more you will fine tune your stroke because you will feel what works for you......

Hope this helps (or at least starts to help).......

holly1283

Is there a routine that I could also do along with improving my technique? At present I do variations of meters with breast stroke and freestyle. Sometimes I alternate equally between the two:sometimes I warmup 200M of breast and do 400M free, 50 breast, back to 400free until I have 1600 of free. I can do the full 1600M of free but I want to do it faster.I'm not even sure how to warmup correctly either. FYI I'm almost 63 so a spring chicken I ain't.:blushing:

Macstraw

One of the important things to remember is to make sure you're stretched. I find I get a better stretch after I get the blood flowing, so I do a short warmup set at a medium pace making sure I am reaching far out over head (if you put your hand straight up over your head like you're answering a question in school & then reach higher toward the ceiling you will feel the stretch you should get on the warmup stroke down the back of your side, the area I would kinda call the wing). I swim in a pool measured in yards, so that's my point of reference - that set for me is 250 yards (10 laps). After that I stretch right in the water - for me the main areas I need to stretch are down the sides/back & my calves. I raise my arms up over my head & bend over to the side until I feel the stretch down my sides & hold it for a little, then I switch sides back & forth until I feel loose enough. Then I face the wall with my feet back & lean my upper body to the wall to get my calves stretched out. After that I do a 500 yard (20 lap) set the same way I did the first set - then I'm usually ready for the rest of my workout. A good cool down is important too so that the muscles don't cool down too fast on their own after you're out of the water, making you feel stiff. I usually finish up with a 500 yard set & then a 250 yard set....

As for routines, swim the sets however you're comfortable but push yourself at a little faster pace - especially on the shorter sets. As I said before, yardage is what's going to help the most - the more often you're in the pool the stronger (& faster) you will become. If longer sets are your goal I would swim them more often than shorter sets - but not exclusively. Your body needs change of pace, otherwise it gets too used to what you are doing & it is no longer effective. I try to alternate days, one day I do my distance workout (250 yards, 500 yards, 1000 yards, 1500 yards, 1500 yards, 1000 yards, 500 yards, 250 yards) & the next I eliminate the longer sets in the middle & replace them with other sets (sprints, sets of the other strokes, pull only sets, kickboard sets). Work with pull buoys & kickboards, you can not only strengthen those areas by isolating them, you can pay attention to the form of that particular part of the stroke because you're only working that 1 part which makes it easier to concentrate on it. You can use pull paddles if you like, they are good for building strength but you need to be careful of your shoulders. One of the most common injuries in swimmers is in the capsule of the shoulder. It is one of the most unstable joints in the body & swimming puts a lot of torque on the joint. That, coupled with the unnatural motion of so much reaching overhead, puts a lot of stress on the joint. One way to combat that is to do shoulder strengthening exercises. USA Swimming has some good exercises to build the muscles in & around the shoulder to help stabilize the joint, which helps greatly reduce the chance for those kind of injuries. Here is a link to 1 group of exercises I was told about by a trainer at my gym, they do have others & I'm sure there are more throughout the Internet. These ones seem to be working well for me, I was getting shoulder pain in the fall & it's gone now. The trainer referred to these exercises as "pre-hab", they are for people who do NOT have any existing injuries. There ARE other exercises for people with injuries, but they are obviously best undertaken after talking to a doctor....

http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1645&mid=702&ItemId=700

Some days do the full 1600 free as 1 set, other days break it up like you are & on some other days do some shorter sets (50 or 100M) as fast as you can. All of these things will help, especially if you mix it up to kind of keep your body guessing. The days you do the shorter stuff would probably be better days to also do kick and/or pull sets, use them in between sets of the faster stuff to give your muscles and heart a chance to recover before you ramp them up again. Don't worry if you can't do a lot of sprints at first, keep adding as you go & push yourself a little more each time. Do other strokes as well, if you want to work on the form of them you can do them the same way as working on your freestyle form by using the kickboard to work on the kick & doing pull only sets to work on the stroke portion.....

Age doesn't matter, I'm 50 & swimming better than I ever have in my life. My times aren't near what they were when I was a teenager, but my form is much better & I know my times would come down if I set up a full swim team like workout. My biggest concern right now is health & strength, so my focus isn't on racing times. If I decide to look into a Masters' team/program my focus might change, but I'm not sure yet if/when I will do so. Just keep working at a level that is good for you, where you feel healthy & strong. You should push yourself a bit out of your comfort zone, but don't do so to crazy levels where your muscles are sore all the time, you don't feel well or you're getting unusual joint pains. That's where the improvement will come from & I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with what you can do......

holly1283

Thanks so much for your input Macstraw. I saw someone at my granddaughter's swimmeet today that looked like your avatar. I have no delusions of grandeur to win this race. I just don't want to embarrass myself. I've never done any swim racing. I will try your different tips. Thanks again.

Macstraw

Any time, best of luck to you. If there's anything else I can help with please feel free to ask. Sorry I'm speaking so much in generalities, but it's hard to get specific without watching you swim. Please keep me updated with how you're making out & what did or didn't work for you......

fishgutzy

I'm a chlorine junkie too.
Swim 4500 to 5500 yards minimum per day.
Setting goals for the month/year is a great way to push your endurance.
I don't do drills or "sets" per se.
I just try to see how many minutes I can shave off the clock. Some days I stay right at 60 seconds average per lap for 110 laps (50 yard laps). Some days I knock 5 or 6 minutes off the 110.

Keep on lapping

holly1283

OK fishgutzi! Are you trying to make me feel bad?!:laugh: Way to swim. I live 20 miles from a pool and car pool so there is no way I have to time to swim that far but kudos to you.

Macstraw

Swimming straight through is great for endurance, but sets allow you to work on different things which will help increase your speed. I try to alternate days, my distance days are all freestyle, 6500 yards & I run some nice long sets. My higher intensity days right now are 5500 yards, I eliminate 1 of the longest sets & replace it with shorter sets that I hit harder. As I add more shorter, intense sets I will eliminate more distance. I was doing a lot of the high intensity stuff in the fall, but I didn't eliminate enough yardage & was having pain in my shoulders. That led to the conversation with the trainer in my gym who told me about the shoulder "pre-hab" exercises, which have definitely helped. Now I'm starting to add back in the short stuff after I did nothing but distance days while my shoulders got stronger & stabilized......

fishgutzy

Awesome distances.
Depending on how much time I have, my "sets" vary lap time. But i do not stop to rest. Sort of like in a spin class. Varying effort without an actual full stop. Some "sets" I sort of rest my upper body doing freestyle with my TYR Burner fins. Shift effort to the legs, also decreases lap time by 10 seconds :bigsmile:

Holly, I didn't get to these distances over night. Took time, perseverance, and goal setting.
My longest single swim is a 10km. actually 10.06km. 220 laps in 3:54.
Luckily I live only 3.3 miles from my Y.

holly1283

The farthest that I've gone is 2000M. I've been swimming full time for 3 years so I guess I should be doing better. I'm only trying to get faster for my open swim in the summer. Had a relapse with my weight loss in 2013 because of thyroid issues and gained back about 20lbs. I could probably do better if I could get some more of this extra adipose tissue off. Both you guys are good motivators. Thanks!

Macstraw

Holly, what you can do is add 1 lap to each set & then push yourself to do that again - whether it's the next day, the next week, whatever, but push yourself - you'll be surprised how quickly you'll add yardage to your sets. I didn't start doing these distances immediately after I started swimming again, I had to build back up to it. After a few times of adding a lap I was able to start adding 2, then 5, etc. - it will build exponentially if you push yourself just a little further & a little further.......

fishgutzy

Holly, what you can do is add 1 lap to each set & then push yourself to do that again - whether it's the next day, the next week, whatever, but push yourself - you'll be surprised how quickly you'll add yardage to your sets. I didn't start doing these distances immediately after I started swimming again, I had to build back up to it. After a few times of adding a lap I was able to start adding 2, then 5, etc. - it will build exponentially if you push yourself just a little further & a little further.......

^^This.

Though I was a little too impatient when I decided to extend beyond 1 mile. But once I get to one mile, getting to 2 and 3 miles was a lot easier.

holly1283

I really don't have a problem swimming the mile, I just want it faster. I added 2 more laps most days. Once again I really can't swim too long since I car pool so I'm only adding a little at a time to try to do longer distance in about the same time constraint. It's great that you guys have the time to swim longer distances. I really appreciate all the input. I've been adding short sprints throughout my swim also. Hopefully by August I will be faster. Do either of you men know what a good time is for a 63 year old female in open water for the mile? I have no idea. Thanks again.

Macstraw

I don't know what a good time would be, but I would bet it's easily found online. maybe the U.S. Masters site?

holly1283

Just out of curiosity what state do you live in?

Macstraw

New York, about an hour north of NYC