Cross Training: Swimming

[L CC]

I've entered the Great Swim, Windermere 9th June.

Is anyone else seriously swimming? Done it before?

[andrewc]

I've renewed my membership at the local sports centre and have been a few times.  I need to build it into a routine though. 


I've seen these people whilst walking to a dockside restaurant.  It looks far too cold !  https://www.livpost.co.uk/p/move-over-st-tropez-princes-dock

[mike]

Lovely other ½ bought me some 'smart goggles' for christmas, they project your speed and stroke rate on the inside of the right eye so you can get feedback as you go along - plus other stuff like head angle, heart rate and such.  They work surprisingly well.

On the plus side, I'm already going at least 10 seconds quicker per 100m in a normal session in just 3 weeks of wearing them.  On the downside, seeing your speed slowly dripping away as you get tired and bored, and having to work so much harder to hold it has stripped any joy out of just swimming.  Hey ho.

[ian]

I've entered the Great Swim, Windermere 9th June.

Is anyone else seriously swimming? Done it before?

I seem to have volunteered for a 24-hour outdoor charity swim, not the entire 24 hours, three one-hour slots in a team of eight. It seemed a better idea when I had a drink in my hand, admittedly. I have a couple of months to rue my foolishness and hope the bloody water warms up.

[tom_e]

Lovely other ½ bought me some 'smart goggles' for christmas, they project your speed and stroke rate on the inside of the right eye so you can get feedback as you go along - plus other stuff like head angle, heart rate and such.  They work surprisingly well.

On the plus side, I'm already going at least 10 seconds quicker per 100m in a normal session in just 3 weeks of wearing them.  On the downside, seeing your speed slowly dripping away as you get tired and bored, and having to work so much harder to hold it has stripped any joy out of just swimming.  Hey ho.

Ew; can't decide if I'd like that!  Can you wear them once per week as a training drill, and enjoy the other sessions more?

[L CC]

I've entered the Great Swim, Windermere 9th June.

Is anyone else seriously swimming? Done it before?

I seem to have volunteered for a 24-hour outdoor charity swim, not the entire 24 hours, three one-hour slots in a team of eight. It seemed a better idea when I had a drink in my hand, admittedly. I have a couple of months to rue my foolishness and hope the bloody water warms up.

Is that the Level Water thing? I'm waiting to see if there's a team who'll have me, which lake will you be at? I've stopped pretending I'm hardy enough for just a cozzie and its indoors over the winter and a wetsuit for the summer. Love a heated lido though...

I'm mostly aiming for Coniston End to End this year.

And because I didn't fancy swimming for 5 hours I'm having lessons. I want to shave 20% off my pace- which would sound ridiculous except that it's quite a slow base to start from.

Lovely other ½ bought me some 'smart goggles' for christmas, they project your speed and stroke rate on the inside of the right eye so you can get feedback as you go along - plus other stuff like head angle, heart rate and such.  They work surprisingly well.

On the plus side, I'm already going at least 10 seconds quicker per 100m in a normal session in just 3 weeks of wearing them.  On the downside, seeing your speed slowly dripping away as you get tired and bored, and having to work so much harder to hold it has stripped any joy out of just swimming.  Hey ho.

I'm using the excuse that I need prescription goggles to avoid the tech-lust.

[ian]

It is the Level Water thing at Shepperton Lake. It might have to be a wetsuit, I hate the cold, and have also not swum outdoors for an age. I'm singularly ill-equipped for this venture.

[mike]

I'm mostly aiming for Coniston End to End this year.

 

[L CC]

Coniston is 5.25miles. About double my current longest swim. What could possibly go wrong?

First proper lesson since I was about 11, yesterday.

My coach is a nagging witch 

[citoyen]

Lovely other ½ bought me some 'smart goggles' for christmas, they project your speed and stroke rate on the inside of the right eye so you can get feedback as you go along - plus other stuff like head angle, heart rate and such.  They work surprisingly well.

Are you still getting on with them three months later?

I went for my first swim for a long time this morning. Going to try to get back into the regular habit. If I do, then I will be able to justify to myself the investment in some kind of tech to measure my distances - because I'm really crap at counting lengths. I mean, I think I did 30 lengths this morning but it could in fact be anywhere between 28 and 34 lengths. And when it's a 50m pool, that adds up to a significant difference. Not that it really matters, I just like having numbers to put on Strava.

Anyway, I'm interested in smart goggles as an option. Or some other fitness tracking device that works in water, if anyone has any recommendations - my Garmin FR620 is not really any good in water, only useful for measuring time not distance.

[chrisbainbridge]

The newer Garmin watches have a pool swim option which is really good at counting lengths.

[mike]

Are you still getting on with them three months later?

I went for my first swim for a long time this morning. Going to try to get back into the regular habit. If I do, then I will be able to justify to myself the investment in some kind of tech to measure my distances - because I'm really crap at counting lengths. I mean, I think I did 30 lengths this morning but it could in fact be anywhere between 28 and 34 lengths. And when it's a 50m pool, that adds up to a significant difference. Not that it really matters, I just like having numbers to put on Strava.

Anyway, I'm interested in smart goggles as an option. Or some other fitness tracking device that works in water, if anyone has any recommendations - my Garmin FR620 is not really any good in water, only useful for measuring time not distance.

yes, still love them.  They're *awful* for looking out of, it's not just that there's no peripheral vision, there are actually weird, occasional reflections of stuff happening in the other direction on the sides of the goggles which has taken some getting used to, but apart from that minor detail, they are brilliant.  Having a realtime stroke rate, heart rate and speed is really good at keeping me consistent, and the coaching functions do seem to be working too and I'm averaging under 1.45 / 100m for the main part of the session, down from about 1.55/2.00 in December.  Programming the workout before the swim is a bit too much of a faff beforehand to do every time but is quite nice to be told what to do without looking at the soggy bit of paper stuck to my drinks bottle!

They count much better than my 2 year old garmin too. Hardly ever miss a length compared to the garmin which undercounts a few every session.  Mine are the Form goggles - this is the level of data you get on the app, from my Monday swim:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zwRGCjwluVkHoYtoZLmRE4WK4yx7E8HnQf0LD9LW8c8/edit?usp=sharing
(swim was 300 easy, 3x100 drills, 5 x 300, 100 easy, 4 x 25 hard, 2x100 easy).

[citoyen]

The newer Garmin watches have a pool swim option which is really good at counting lengths.

Mmmm, yes - I should probably ask my wife about this as she has one of the newer Forerunner watches and uses it for swimming.

yes, still love them.  They're *awful* for looking out of, it's not just that there's no peripheral vision, there are actually weird, occasional reflections of stuff happening in the other direction on the sides of the goggles which has taken some getting used to, but apart from that minor detail, they are brilliant...

Good review, thanks.