Hi
I would really appreciate some advice. I'm really know nothing about this stuff. I always loved the sport of swimming and wanted to get better. I've been trying to swim 4-5 x a week but I'm really bad. I pretty much only go 2-4 lengths of the pool swimming freestyle without stopping. I'm 28 and in decent shape. I can jog on the treadmill for 30+ min without stopping, lift weights and play hockey.
I'm going to try to get a swim coach, but I am really curious...
Do some of you guys swim freestyle without stopping for 45 -1 hr straight? Do you kick the whole time? Maybe I'm swimming too strenuously...I'm trying to float more, it feels like I sink in the water. I've been watching videos on youtube. How do you swim slower without sinking? It feels like my swimming is using mostly just my arms...I have an idea in my head that most swimmers can swim for like 45 minutes without stopping.
Any other recommendations. My long term goal is to be a good, everyday swimmer. Eventually I would love to learn new strokes, etc.
I'm 64 and still a slow swimmer by comparison to a lot of people here. In 2002, I had a running injury and missed competing--saw a flyer for a mile open water swim and decided it was worth a try. Problem was that my swimming was abysmally slow and over-reliant on breaststroke (not the competitive, beautiful kind you see in the Olympics but probably more like the kind that annoys real swimmers). Because I didn't want to stop doing interval workouts, though, I had started incorporating freestyle into my swims when I wanted to push myself. When I looked up the last place time in the swim I had my eyes on, I was worried--it was 45 minutes. Even with gradually incorporating more freestyle, I was still around 50something minutes, close to an hour. That wasn't going to cut it, so I added more and more freestyle until I could swim a mile in about 45 minutes and figured I wouldn't disgrace myself too much.
It helped that the morning lifeguard was an experienced swimmer and triathlete, so he gave me some good tips on my stroke and encouraged me to try the swim.
I did and finished around 47 minutes--convinced I had finished last, I was surprised to find someone coming in a few minutes later.
Not long after that swim, my running injury was beginning to heal so I was back on the roads and put swimming on the back burner for a bit. But a few years later, I noticed a flyer for a masters' group forming at my Y. Out of curiosity, I joined--by that time, I was running pretty regularly, so I didn't see swimming as the fallback but as adding to the fun!
There I received some great feedback and regular workouts which made it so I now can easily swim freestyle for 45 minutes and longer, no problem.
Since that first open water mile, I've done open water swims of up to 5.4 miles. I'm still not fast, but with the technique help I've gotten (and the first coach's pushing me to breathe on both sides), I don't find freestyle a struggle as I did once.
This past year, I completed my 3rd 5+ mile swim. If you'd told me in 2002 that I was going to swim over 5 miles in open water, I would have wondered what you were smoking. I plan to swim that same distance again this year, plus a 5k swim on May 30. My dream is to complete the 8 mile Boston Light Swim.
I'm not a star. I finish pretty much at the back of the pack for the swims I've done. But being in open water is so freeing and exciting and brings you so in touch with the natural world that it's more like what I get in running. So just for the experience of it, I find it worthwhile.
Think of where I started--and if I can do this, you totally can develop the endurance to swim 45 minutes--or more!
Funny thing is, though, just as I love track workouts in running, I also enjoy intense pool workouts, where I do a bunch of shorter repeats as well as building up endurance. I figure they contribute to each other in a yin-yang kind of way. And the faster work is helping me bring some times down again (I'd been swimming on my own for a bit and am now in a masters' group again).
Suggestion: a coach or instructor to work with you one on one and/or a masters' swim group--great camaraderie in the latter. But the one-on-one technique work has helped me as well. Good luck!
I'm 64 and still a slow swimmer by comparison to a lot of people here. In 2002, I had a running injury and missed competing--saw a flyer for a mile open water swim and decided it was worth a try. Problem was that my swimming was abysmally slow and over-reliant on breaststroke (not the competitive, beautiful kind you see in the Olympics but probably more like the kind that annoys real swimmers). Because I didn't want to stop doing interval workouts, though, I had started incorporating freestyle into my swims when I wanted to push myself. When I looked up the last place time in the swim I had my eyes on, I was worried--it was 45 minutes. Even with gradually incorporating more freestyle, I was still around 50something minutes, close to an hour. That wasn't going to cut it, so I added more and more freestyle until I could swim a mile in about 45 minutes and figured I wouldn't disgrace myself too much.
It helped that the morning lifeguard was an experienced swimmer and triathlete, so he gave me some good tips on my stroke and encouraged me to try the swim.
I did and finished around 47 minutes--convinced I had finished last, I was surprised to find someone coming in a few minutes later.
Not long after that swim, my running injury was beginning to heal so I was back on the roads and put swimming on the back burner for a bit. But a few years later, I noticed a flyer for a masters' group forming at my Y. Out of curiosity, I joined--by that time, I was running pretty regularly, so I didn't see swimming as the fallback but as adding to the fun!
There I received some great feedback and regular workouts which made it so I now can easily swim freestyle for 45 minutes and longer, no problem.
Since that first open water mile, I've done open water swims of up to 5.4 miles. I'm still not fast, but with the technique help I've gotten (and the first coach's pushing me to breathe on both sides), I don't find freestyle a struggle as I did once.
This past year, I completed my 3rd 5+ mile swim. If you'd told me in 2002 that I was going to swim over 5 miles in open water, I would have wondered what you were smoking. I plan to swim that same distance again this year, plus a 5k swim on May 30. My dream is to complete the 8 mile Boston Light Swim.
I'm not a star. I finish pretty much at the back of the pack for the swims I've done. But being in open water is so freeing and exciting and brings you so in touch with the natural world that it's more like what I get in running. So just for the experience of it, I find it worthwhile.
Think of where I started--and if I can do this, you totally can develop the endurance to swim 45 minutes--or more!
Funny thing is, though, just as I love track workouts in running, I also enjoy intense pool workouts, where I do a bunch of shorter repeats as well as building up endurance. I figure they contribute to each other in a yin-yang kind of way. And the faster work is helping me bring some times down again (I'd been swimming on my own for a bit and am now in a masters' group again).
Suggestion: a coach or instructor to work with you one on one and/or a masters' swim group--great camaraderie in the latter. But the one-on-one technique work has helped me as well. Good luck!
