Due to injury last fall, I spent almost the entire winter - from October through till now, with swimming as my primary form of exercise. Here are things that I’ve noticed:
I’ve gotten much, much faster in the water. In this regard I need to thank a lot of folks and threads on ST along with watching videos on Youtube. Even without a “real” coach, I was able to get a reasonable idea of things to do to go faster. I would NOT have gotten any better with the old training standby of “time in the water.” In this regard - THANK YOU to all of those who post swim workout suggestions, tips, drills, etc.
I have gotten considerably less fit. Even though swim workouts are workouts, for me at least they are still no substitute for the heaving, gaping maw zone 5c interval workouts that produced such gains in my cycling. Once I swim over a pace that might be 80%, there is no way for me to get my body’s requested respiratory rate to match my stroke rate.
Swimming hurts less. Other than my bum shoulder acting up every once in a while, I can do some very high-strength workouts (50Y sprints with paddles) that I can’t duplicate on bike or run anymore. This has led me to prefer swimming if I’m pressed for time to fit in a workout, as I become more of a wuss in my middle-age.
What’s been the experience here? Has anyone else experienced this, and are the swim gains worth it in the long run?
Since October you haven’t injured yourself.
You haven’t had athletes foot, your kit bag doesn’t smell and you aren’t windburned, sunburned or road rashed.
The equipment costs are minimal and bonus, the fatter you get the better you float.
So when you do go back to running and riding part, the swim will always be that little bit easier and faster and will leave you with more gas in the tank for the rest of the race.
These are all good things
Your hair unfortunately probably has the consistency of a Brillo pad and you smell like a swimming pool.
I’m in the same boat. So on your first run you will feel like you are swallowing your lungs, although the bike won’t be so bad.
(assuming you didn’t do lots of kick sets)(neither did I)
Due to injury last fall, I spent almost the entire winter - from October through till now, with swimming as my primary form of exercise. Here are things that I’ve noticed:
I’ve gotten much, much faster in the water. In this regard I need to thank a lot of folks and threads on ST along with watching videos on Youtube. Even without a “real” coach, I was able to get a reasonable idea of things to do to go faster. I would NOT have gotten any better with the old training standby of “time in the water.” In this regard - THANK YOU to all of those who post swim workout suggestions, tips, drills, etc.
I have gotten considerably less fit. Even though swim workouts are workouts, for me at least they are still no substitute for the heaving, gaping maw zone 5c interval workouts that produced such gains in my cycling. **Once I swim over a pace that might be 80%, there is no way for me to get my body’s requested respiratory rate to match my stroke rate. **
Swimming hurts less. Other than my bum shoulder acting up every once in a while, I can do some very high-strength workouts (50Y sprints with paddles) that I can’t duplicate on bike or run anymore. This has led me to prefer swimming if I’m pressed for time to fit in a workout, as I become more of a wuss in my middle-age.
What’s been the experience here? Has anyone else experienced this, and are the swim gains worth it in the long run?
I don’t quite understand: you say that you can’t get your “requested breathing rate” high enough, which sounds like you are gasping for air. So how is that diff from your running intervals??? As for me, I can certainly get myself “heaving for air” just as hard in the pool as when running or cycling.
It could be that your swim training has not been quite optimal as your example of doing 50-yd sprints with paddles is not the way most swim programs use paddles. IME, sprint sets of 25/50 yd are almost always done w/o paddles, with paddles used mainly for the longer aerobic sets, not anaerobic sprint sets. OTOH, you did get a lot faster, for which you are to be highly commended:)
Well, I did something similar last summer. Oppressing heat and some lingering injuries led me to spend most of my workouts in the pool, and I’m reaping the rewards this season. Knocked a healthy 7 minutes off my 1900m time, and routinely swim 0:20-0:25sec/100m quicker than last year in the pool, across all workouts. Bonus: Getting on the bike within touching distance of the lead pack and with less fatigue!
Your hair unfortunately probably has the consistency of a Brillo pad and you smell like a swimming pool.
Your post gave me a good laugh! A very succinct summary of benefits of swimming. My three jammer purchases and two pairs of goggles cost me about the same amount as one tubular…
I am going to take my new wetsuit to the pool this week for a test run, hoping not to look too much like a walrus but looking for the additional float to help out with my other built-in floatie. However the hair concern is minimal as I haven’t much of it left anyway. This does contribute to my swim speed though as the bald pate produces less drag.
Thanks again for the good sense of humor. I appreciated it!
I don’t quite understand: you say that you can’t get your “requested breathing rate” high enough, which sounds like you are gasping for air. So how is that diff from your running intervals??? As for me, I can certainly get myself “heaving for air” just as hard in the pool as when running or cycling.
I’ve been running / cycling for 30 years - and I’ve become entirely accustomed to things like matching my breathing rate to my cadence - i.e. one COMPLETE breath per stride or rev. I can sustain that for an hour or so, and I just breathe harder for intervals. So I’ve trained myself during hard exercise to breathe continuously at a very high rate, inhaling immediately as soon as I exhale. I can get myself good and out of breath at the end of the pool during intervals, but that mostly seems to be from built up oxygen debt from not being able to breathe as often as I’d like.
As an adult-onset swimmer, this may just be something I’ll work through eventually. There have been other examples here where folks who’ve swum for a long time said things that seemed foreign to me - like being able to swim faster without a pull buoy. Now I think I’ve gotten that example at least, I almost never use my buoy anymore because it changes my float enough to screw up my stroke - I have an easier time keeping my head down without it. So I was very dependent on it for the first few months, and now I don’t touch it. Also there was the winter “kick more” thread where it was suggested that 800Y of kicking per workout would greatly benefit many swimmers. I tried it (mostly) by increasing my kick distance per workout to 400 or 500Y, which really knocked down my total workout distance (causing distance anxiety, of course) since my kick is very slow. As a result of it though, I no longer think about my feet - they just kind of do their job back there, and I don’t have to concentrate on pointing my toes or preventing scissor kicks.
The paddle set was my last of four 500Y sets, with each followed by 100Y kicking. I was “polishing off” my workout. I use Finis Agility paddles, and I’ve noticed that they are very good at amplifying things like lousy hand entry or finishing the ‘push’ at the end of a pull stroke, when my arm is down by my waist. I’ve noticed that I get sloppy when I get tired AND I’m trying to go fast, so I was using the paddles to amplify the mistakes. Also since they kick up my speed a little more, they help me work on keeping my head low during breathing, since any head lift also becomes very noticeable.
I do think that you were one of the folks that helped me a lot with your swim suggestions. Thanks!
Do you breath every cycle of your arms??? If that is not enough, you could even breath on both sides every other arm cycle. There have been several threads addressing breathing patterns. Personally, I just breath every cycle on my left side and that seems fully adequate. I’ve never timed my breathing on the bike and run to match my cadence but rather just breath as needed.
Also, one other thought: do you ever swim backstroke, or kick on your back??? You would have unlimited air supply then, except of course on the turns:)
Anyway, keep up the good work and I suspect your feeling of swimming making you less in shape than running or cycling will go away over time. My experience has been just the opposite, e.g. when I’m in excellent swim shape I can still run pretty well for a 5K, but of course this is because I had done a lot more swimming than running in my pre-triathlon days.
I tend to agree. I found that regular swimming has been better for my overall fitness than I ever would have thought.
Ya, I think that your experience is by far the majority viewpoint. In fact, I can’t recall ever having heard someone on ST, or just in “regular life”, say that they felt like they were “less fit” after swimming a lot. Usually it’s just the opposite. Swimming is hard, even if you have decent form, and that’s why most people at most fitness centers I’ve belonged to either don’t swim or only swim rarely. This is also part of the rationale for the swim almost always being the shortest leg in a tri.