Looking for some advice on training. Most of the stuff I can remember from when I used to swim competitively isn't really practical in a busy pool after work. So I want something to spice up training.

I have been quite enjoying doing some distance swims (1 hour continuous, 2.5km, 2 miles) but I've stopped improving at about 40-45 minutes for 2.5km.

Sprints and intervals don't work too well as even on the endurance stuff I'm catching people in front and having to hold back.

join a swimming club, dont know if there are for adults, but ive been swimming competetively since i was 6 (now 15), and i still train 4 hours-6 hours a week, deffo helps.

I used to do the same thing. I think at one point I was swimming 8 times a week with waterpolo, club and school sessions (Thursdays I used to swim three times, morning, evening, and a school lesson). Got bored in the end and it's taken nearly 10 years for me to start again. Have my eye on doing the swimathon in April. Want a crack at trying to get near the 100minute mark (200 lengths) and the Great north Swim which is late summer.

200 lengths? 50 meter or 25 meter pool?

an STW for swimming..?

goggles inside your hat? ARE YOU A **** MORON, white hats are gay, backstroke? IDIOT…and so on…

The Tritalk training forum often has a lot of swimming info in it.

There's also swimclub or the US masters forums

As mentioned above, a masters club is something to look into. Doing decent sessions in a public session can be hard work even if you're self motivated enough. Plus clubs are relatively cheap, I pay twenty pound a month and can attend up to 5 coached sessions a week, far cheaper than just paying a swim entry fee

not funny.

25m pool, there aren't many 50m ones in the country. I think you can count them on your fingers.

friday A&A thread is what you want 😉

25m pool, there aren't many 50m ones in the country. I think you can count them on your fingers.

You'll make a good swimmer with 18 fingers 😉

Sprints and intervals don't work too well as even on the endurance stuff I'm catching people in front and having to hold back.

Just swim over the b@st@rds, serves them right for being slow.

On a more sensible note, you could give PT paddles a try. They make your catch weaker so you slow down some and really have to focus on technique. That is if the lifeguards at your pool aren't a bunch of tards and won't let you use paddles like at mine.

200 lengths? 50 meter or 25 meter pool?

If he was talking about doing 200 lengths in 100 minutes, then I'd have thought the answer was obvious (I'm assuming here that David Davies doesn't post on this forum!)

You'll make a good swimmer with 18 fingers

You've discluded Wigan from that list which has closed down? And Leeds which is only 48 metres?

Edit: And York is short too. Everyone else in the world uses metres, what do Yorkshire men do? Count in Yards.

Best place to look for a club would be British Swimming website. Most clubs would be glad of extra members regardless of age. Took me 30 years to start swim training again!

Where are all the 50m (olympic sized if that's different) pools then?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic-size_swimming_pools_in_the_United_Kingdom

But as I said, York and Leeds are not 50m.

edit: My apologies, Leeds international pool has now been closed it seems.

I was a club swimmer, stopped for ten years. Wanted to have a go at triathlons so did a Total Immersion swimming refresher course then joined a masters club. There was a mix of other strokes as expected but it was all good conditioning to get back into swimming. Once I built my strength up I joined a tri club swimming session as well and mixed it up with the masters club. That way I got lots of enduro swimming with the tri lot and power and sprints with the masters.

Open water swimming makes things much more interesting if you want to do distance and enjoy it. No chlorine, no lanes, more fun.

I don't know how popular it is up your way, but there's a number of places to swim in/around London and it feels more like an event than chugging up and down a pool dodging floating plasters and slow people.

It may not work too well if you want to be competitive in a pool though, because you have to change your technique a bit to deal with waves and you don't get to practice turns.

Open water swimming makes things much more interesting if you want to do distance and enjoy it. No chlorine, no lanes, more fun.

Yes, my local place to swim is great – 600m long, rapids, strong currents (if you really want hard exercise you can swim from eddy to eddy upstream), and if you're lazy, you can swim the 600m downstream round the bend, get out and walk 250m and you're back at the start. Oh and if I'm organised in terms of working out where to get in/out and getting picked up / dumping gear at the other end, potentially there's another 20 miles of nice enough swimming before I'd hit the big river.

I've also swum in Snowdonia (some great mountain rivers there), loads in the sea, in the Thames (surprisingly nice to swim in), up near Chatsworth (amazing views and lovely relaxing swimming), Dove Dale (a bit of a walk for the swimming, but it's an amazingly beautiful place). There are loads of lakes that you can swim in too, if you're not into swimming with currents or want to be able to measure distance swum in a meaningful way (although lakes are a bit boring, I dunno why anyone would choose to swim in a lake if they had a nearby river).

The most surprising thing is how cold it isn't. Once you're in, the rivers are lovely and warm this year (since about June anyway). Although I do find if I go pool swimming it feels a bit too hot nowadays (and I resent paying money for it!).

Joe

Hey Joe, whereabouts do you get in the water at Chatsworth? Always fancied having a splash there but never quite got round to actually doing it.

It is in the Daniel Start Wild Swimming book, which is worth the money if you like a swim, very inspirational.

Get in is between the two weirs: here is a google map that hopefully points at it.

Get in from the Edensor side of the river (west side), make sure you're out of sight of the house itself, and he says 'be discreet', but I'm not sure what he means – the day I did it there were about 600 people having bbq & jumping in the river down near the bottom weir. Nearer the top weir is a bit deeper and more of a proper swim – and quite a steep bank to get in at some points, so less kiddy friendly. Thinking about it, he may just mean wear swimming trunks, as I think he's a bit of a skinny dipping type.

Oh, if you drive rather than cycle there*, there's a big carpark near the garden centre, I think it's up the Calton Lees road.

Joe

*Although it is only a few hundred metres off several lovely rides, so you'd be silly not to ride there

Thanks very much Joe. When i do get round to it i'll probably run there. And make sure to keep my shorts on 😆

Daniel Start Wild Swimming book

you'd recommend this then as a good guide for finding places to swim, Joe?
Always fancied swimming in open water that isn't salt and I'd love to try some fresh water.