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[recipher]

That's a very relaxed swim!
You should go swimming without having knackered yourself on the previous exercises some time... if you're sapped of strength to begin with it's really hard to get going in the pool.

It was. It was only 20 minutes since I'd been in the gym. It was only 400 metres because I was taking my time, working on my stroke. It's only an 18 metre pool, so it's a bit tedious. I'd swim a length, stop, take a couple of breaths to gather my thoughts, and then go again. After 100m, I'd take an extended breather.

At the moment, my stroke isn't strong enough, and my swim fitness isn't good enough, to go much faster than that. In another month, I expect 400m to take less than 10 minutes and for me to be able to swim it in one go. I've only been swimming FC for a month.

It's amazing the difference between my swim fitness and my running and cycling. On Saturday I'll be running 17 miles at about 8 min/mile pace and on Sunday I'll be cycling 60 miles at about 16-17 mph. If my swim was good, I'd be on easy street but it's not, so the hard work continues.

At the moment, I'm aiming to swim 6 days a week. 20 minutes on Monday and Thursday after weights, 60 minutes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, drilling for most of that, and then 30 minutes on Sunday. I'll master it if it's the last thing I do.

[Spagoli]

.................moment, I'm aiming to swim 6 days a week. 20 minutes on Monday and Thursday after weights, 60 minutes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, drilling for most of that, and then 30 minutes on Sunday. I'll master it if it's the last thing I do.

Did hills last nite, .3 mile 12 reps in 1.55 very windy very hard and still prob's with chest, first one was 1.48 and struggled to recover, glad I did it but I am having night rest tonight, hacking up phlegm is no fun.

[Nijo]

At the moment, my stroke isn't strong enough, and my swim fitness isn't good enough, to go much faster than that. In another month, I expect 400m to take less than 10 minutes and for me to be able to swim it in one go. I've only been swimming FC for a month.

Crawl is surprisingly tiring when you first start it. I find breaststroke to be a 'rest' stroke, so I tend to alternate rather than stopping for a break. Begin with 2 lengths of crawl in every 10... given your fitness in other areas I would expect you to be able to complete 1km doing that, right off the bat. Each time you go, increase the proportion of crawl: in a month you should certainly be able to do it all in one go.

As for the stroke itself, focus on length. I can swim breaststroke as fast as all but the fastest crawlers in my pool because I take loooooong strokes and let my body glide after a hard kick. For crawl I always imagine I'm rock climbing, shoving my fingertips as far forward as I can possibly manage. I'm still pretty crap at doing fast crawl - need to work on that - but at least I can do efficient crawl. 1600m @ 400m/8mins pace is my normal target, after which I can barely stand.

[recipher]

Nice one, cheers. I might try that breaststroke thing. I'm a pretty decent bs swimmer. It can be a bit hard on the leg joints though if you're not careful.

The other way to do it is to reduce the rest intervals. Hopefully, they'll reduce themselves as my body gets used to it. I'm off to the pool this lunchtime to drill. Staying relaxed seems to be the key but my body hasn't worked out how to do that yet for more than a couple of strokes

[Nijo]

Nice one, cheers. I might try that breaststroke thing. I'm a pretty decent bs swimmer. It can be a bit hard on the leg joints though if you're not careful.

The other way to do it is to reduce the rest intervals. Hopefully, they'll reduce themselves as my body gets used to it. I'm off to the pool this lunchtime to drill. Staying relaxed seems to be the key but my body hasn't worked out how to do that yet for more than a couple of strokes

Yeah, don't go all out on the BS as the 100% power version will hurt your knees. Long slow strokes.

If you want to relax during crawl try this: if you got any of those leg floats at your pool stick one between your legs and do a couple of lengths of arms-only. Try to get a quiet lane so you don't piss off the others. Do it *really* slowly, concentrating on form - reaching ahead as far as you can, pulling back the full stroke, arching your arm over with elbow up and fingers close to the water. Breath every two if you can't do three.

If you work it up from there you can easily go as fast as the guys that have all four limbs going mental, plus you've still got an overdrive in reserve. Of course, for the 400m start of a triathlon everybody is going mental, but if you're trained up to 1-1.5km it should be easy.

[recipher]

If I can master balance, breathing and efficient kicking, these seem to be the foundations of a relaxed stroke. I spent some time working on my body rotation, working from the hips, today. It I can get my body roll working then that helps with propulsion, distance per stroke and makes breathing without lifting my head easier (I don't lift too much but sometime it does come up).

I'm a bit 50-50 about trying a pull buoy. I'm given it a go once and my legs are so long, they just dragged in the water, meaning that I had to do a minimal kick anyway, which was kinda off-putting. I'm working on getting a 2-beat kick going, mostly by not really overtly kicking too much. I need to be better balance to do that though, to keep my hips and legs high when they aren't doing much. Maybe I'll get a pull buoy anyway and give it another chance.

I tried 450m today (in my 18m pool - 24 lengths) with a 1 fc 3 bs pattern. I'll go to 36 lengths on Sunday using the same pattern, and then keep going until I'm up to, say 72 lengths, then I'll add in more crawl.

[MonkeyWrench]

Went for a my second run tonight, I'm was surprised how much easier it was than the first one, I really wasn't expecting results that quickly. Stretched for longer afterwards and did the cold shower thing on my legs so we'll see how they fair in a couple of days. Amazingly I was the lightest I've been for over 10 years this morning which has spured me on no end.

[recipher]

17 miles in 2:15 today. I almost didn't go, the weather was horrible and though I don't normally bother about the wind and rain, 17 miles in p1sh conditions didn't appeal.

Anyway, I waited half an hour and it calmed down, so out I went. It was a bit gusty but I got through it ok, and was pretty comfortable most of the way round, despite a pretty high (for me) pace for that distance.

[ascender]

Nice one Recipher. I often find its those runs that turn out to be the best. Its funny like that, but sometimes when you're not in the mood, it can really turn your day around.

Schedule was for 3 miles today and 8 tomorrow, so I'll see how things go.

As for swimming, I basically started my crawl from scratch last year using the TI method which worked well for me. Biggest shock was how I could feel like I was too hot in a swimming pool. I guess its that thing of using whole new muscle groups. I'm starting cross training on Monday again, so I'll be back to the pool and back to trying to sort out my legs. My body position in the water is OK and the TI video really helped sort out my body roll, but my legs are a hindrance just now. Last time swimming was a couple of months ago in the sea and I was actually making better progress without kicking.

[recipher]

Cheers. I'm using TI as well. I get hot in the pool too, but my gym pool can be a bit tropical sometimes. I'm trying to get a minimal 2-beat kick but it's not too easy.

[MonkeyWrench]

I woke up this morning expecting my legs to be killing me and they were absolutely fine. Looks like the cold shower, extra stretching and pineapple juice did the trick So I should be all set for another run tonight.

[spagmasterswift]

Now that my Birthday week is over I'm back on the Diet/Gym regime from today. Had my Weetabix for breakfast, bought a load of apples and some cottage cheese for jackets, salad and plenty of water. I've put on a stone of the Xmas period and really feeling it too. So expect to see me in here more from now on

[ascender]

Managed my 8 miles yesterday, but these hills are killing me! When I last did a marathon schedule I did most of my runs on the flat canal near my work. Now I'm doing them from my house which is half way up a hill, with hills in every direction, and its tough going.

I think maybe part of the problem is that these schedules assume you've been running 20-25 miles a week before you start them, while I'm starting it from scratch, so I'm hoping that the first month is going to be the toughest.

[MonkeyWrench]

Another successful run for me last night, I can't even tell I went running this morning, my legs feel 100% fine. I'm really amazed how quickly the body increases fitness, whereas the first time I was running and walking, I could have probably ran the whole distance last night, but I decided to stick to the plan and forced myself to walk, which was probably wise as there were still patches of ice and snow everywhere.

[Dazzla]

I joined a gym back in November and weighed myself today, I've put on 7 lbs since I joined :/

The last 2 years I've been obsessed with weight loss and dropped a tonne of weight but I still feel I need to drop more, this has come as a bit of a shock to the system.

I know that there's the whole "muscle weighs more than fat" argument and I feel better then ever but it's pretty demoralising. Not to mention I'm still on the same stupidly light diet I've always been on.