Anyone else out there swimming for distance rather than speed? I am setting new goals to do the mile using just 1 stroke, and to do my combo stroke in less than 50 minutes. 1 hour is about the limit of my workout time per day, but I am working out 5 times a week (3 pool, 2 non pool). So I think speeding it up or changing strokes is about the only way to add onto the mile swim goal.

I swim for distance. I dont time myself bcuase of injuries i got years ago. I find it's better for me to swim as long as i can rather than swim few lap for speed.. I alternate between backstroke ( i can only do that) and water jogging (20 min each set),, as you said, we can burn alot of calories.

Also, I don't swim for mile, but more like,,, time, but not speed,, am I making sense? Because of my disabity, i can't keep track of my laps.

Try water jogging!

I love doing it as it gain leg muscles, something that can't really be done by swimming which it is more of arm thing. What I do, I jog up and down the lane,, not in place as many people do for some reason. The resistance is not as strong in place compare to going up/down the lane. This is why I do swim/jog in 15 or 20 minutes set.

Don't worry about being 350ish, I am 250ish now and I see many heavier people doing water jogging as well.

Many trainers recommend it if runners are injured for one reason or another. I guess trainers knows that water help keep the leg muscles in check while runner is in recovery because water is so easy on joints.

I swim in the sea, so I actually don't know how far I swim. I am just starting out so stick to the main swimming beach and use the bouys off shore to do laps. I currently swim for 30 mins and aim to increase the number of laps I can do in that time. As I get fitter I will start swimming along the shore. My aim is to complete the Bell Bouy swim next year, which is out into the Bay to a Bouy over a reef and back, it is about 7kms! (http://www.bellbuoychallenge.co.za/)

I followed the 0 to 1650 in 6 weeks program from Ruth Kazez - and it took 6 weeks (great program!). I was extremely surprised that I could do couch to a mile (swimmers ) in 6 weeks - I started more out of curiosity (or some joke on myself) that expecting to succeed. I'm by no means fast - I'm usually the slowest in the pool, but I don't care - I burn a lot of calories and I'm losing weight. I can do breaststroke, backstroke and crawl - but I usually only do crawl stroke. It seems the most intense and I'm only there really to burn calories anyway. After I finished the mile I started two new goals: 1) Swim 2000 yards non-stop (just recently completed) 2) learn to do flip turns (not completed yet - I'm still very clumsy). My next goals are likely to be something like, learn the butterfly stroke and start doing interval training - I can't help that I want to go faster . Also, I plan to keep increasing my distance as I become faster - I try to always swim at least an hour, and 2000 yards takes 63 minutes. Hopefully I'll reach a point where I can do 3000 yards in an hour, but I suspect that'll take a long time.

So I guess when all is said and done, I swim for time - but I keep hoping to pack more yards into that same time .

I wish I had the ocean to swim in. Swimming while your kids are in swim lessons is a great idea, I did this one once, but my kids didn't see where i went and it made them unhappy, so now I sit on the bleachers and do my swimming at other times. Things will change once they move from the very beginners section though I think.

Ditto the ocean. No ocean in Colorado ;-)

My daughter and I discussed it before I did it. She's 5 and in the preschool levels(passes to the big levels this week..I'm sad!) So she knew I was swimming and could look over and see me by I was too far away to talk to. Every once in awhile I'd see her looking and give her the thumbs up :-) Her swimming improved seeing me swim too! Gotta love good side effects!!

Do you ever use paddles or flippers? I use flippers and go on my back. I find it much easier to handle the flip turns when I can breathe for the 10 seconds before. I do 40 laps (2000 yards). I have started doing 10 laps to start- 5 free and 5 breast, then I do 10 with flippers -5 with a kickboard and 5 on my back, 10 wth paddles - 5 breast and 5 free, then finish with 10 more laps- 5 free and 5 breast. What I like about this is I am swimming 20 laps with no help. I find that I am able to push myself more when I can focus on my arms or legs. It takes me about 50 minutes and I can really feel the muscles in my legs and arms starting to gain some definition.

A standard sized olympic pool is 25 meters, or approx 25 yards per length. 1 mile is 1760 yards, so 36 completed laps would be a mile.

I count my miles in the pool this way. 35 laps or 1,800 yards is a "mile" in my mind, although it's obviously slightly more than a mile (40 yards more).

An Olympic pool is 50 meters. This is often called a "long course pool." Of course, most of us do not have access to an Olympic sized pool. The standard for most lap swimming pools in the USA is 25 yards, with a few that are 25 meters. In the swimming world, these are referred to as "short course" pools and more specifically "short course yards" and "short course meters." That metric thing still hasn't caught on here in the USA, for some reason. In other countries, 25 meters is more common.

Lap = from one end of the pool to the other and then back where you started or 50 yards in most American pools

Length = 25 yards or from one end to the other in most American pools

I don't use flippers (i.e. FINS) because they put more stress on the knees and I don't need that. They are fun, though!

I also don't use paddles, although some folks swear by them. Again, they put more stress on the shoulders. However, some folks find them very helpful in improving stroke technique.

Of course, fins come in all sorts and types as do paddles, so it's not very useful to generalize.

If you are training for something in particular (say a triathlon), then you want to be careful not to get dependent on the fins or paddles or whatever other tool that you will not be using in the race.

You are doing great gem cat. I count 36 laps as a mile (I typoed up there) but it is really 35 laps + 10 yards.

Keep it up!

So I've decided nothing. I've been swimming for 2 weeks not limited to the 30 minutes of swim lessons. I swam 42 laps in 61 mins, and then I swam 42 in 60, then 36 in 50 mins(kids had valentines parties). So I guess I'm swimming a mile minimum. But preferably an hour. I am going to try some freestyle today, I've been just doing breaststroke and backstroke. Hopefully I don't drown ;-)

I wear a Timex Ironman 100 lap watch and hit the lap button every 50 yards (while upside down in my flip turn... Yes, I'm strange). Then, I always know how far I've swum and can look back at the interval times if I want.

Andm I also count in my head, but I count yards (25, 50, 75...). I don't know why that is easier an 1, 2, 3, for me, but it is. On long swims, I count up to the halfway point, then back down. It makes the swim seem shorter to me (crazy, I know).

Scoobydo, 50 meter pools aren't that common in places I've lived. I grew up in a city of 1,000,000 and there was one (outdoors, summers only). I lived recently in a city of 250,000 and there was one (indoors and it's been there as long as I can remember so over 40 years). My current city is about 90,000 population and we have one, our public outdoor pool, only open in summer and only four swimming lanes, but at least it's long course!

Luxor, there's nothing wrong with a swimmer's mile. I used that for decades. When I started doing triathlons I switched to a standard mile since that's what they use in measuring open water in a triathlon.

This weekend was interesting. I did a walk/run workout and then swam a mile afterwards on Friday evening, then went out for cheap Mexican food (yum) and stayed up late watching a movie with the hubby. At 10:30pm I get a call from a friend who was doing an indoor triathlon as a relay the next day. "Our swimmer is sick, can you come swim at 8am?".

"Well, yes, I can, but after two evening workouts, a load of Mexican food, and less sleep than normal, it won't be pretty..."

"Come on, we need you."

So I did. It wasn't pretty. I swam as hard as I could for 500 yards and was still 25 seconds slower than my best resting 500 from a few weeks ago - but it could have been worse. However, I was the fastest in our heat, which was pretty funny since there were some younger, fitter, more athletic folks, mostly men, who were not amused that an old short fat woman out swam them! Ha!

I didn't get to stay to watch my pals bike and run because I had to go to a funeral, but they texted me later that we got third (not last!) among the relays. Cool. We are going to do it again next year and try to be faster (I.e. rested!).

emswanson, my coaches (when I was a child) always said lap for length as well. Starters at swim meets, however, always said length (technically correct, I suppose).

I was a flyer in childhood, but it's a lot harder in middle age than it was back then. HA!

this is gem_cat btw.
i deleted that account coz i got lots of not so helpful friends. i just added all of them when i started so i didnt know how to get rid of them.

anyway, with the counting thing.
i'd like to have those tools! i usually just count my laps coz its easier than lengths. also i do 3 laps of vigorous swim after 10 moderate laps. i know i'm doing vigorous when i can feel my body heating up in the cold water and i have to breathe more deeply to get more air in my lungs! i'm not able to keep it up after three though coz i would feel too tired. its like interval training on water.

also i don't technically touch the pool wall. i "swerve". lol. i can somehow see the lifeguard looking at me saying what the heck is that girl doing? hahahaha. my first months of swimming i had to rest every length coz i felt tired but now that i have more endurance, i try to swim like i'm at sea with no walls to tap. it keeps my breathing even and decreases my likelihood to stop early (laziness).