Swimming is much harder than cycling

[Leaway2]

Like you Maggot, I struggle to swim any distance. After half a length I'm absolutely knackered . I do a 15 mile commute on the bike. I asked at the local pool if there was someone who could watch me swim to give me some pointers, which resulted in blank looks, shrugging shoulders from the pimply youth.

 

[Archie_tect]

[QUOTE 1252102"]
Or are any of you a bit like a reversing car ferry, like me?
[/quote]

+1 I have never enjoyed swimming ever since school trips to the Victorian swimming baths on a coach on cold frosty winter mornings.
Hold my breath a lot so get tired very quickly. Hate it.

 

[steve52]

swiming uphill is deff harder than cyling uphill!

 

[Fnaar]

Can you take your bike into the pool?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I'm quite a good crawl swimmer using the correct technique and can swim for ages, it's usually the boredom factor that makes me stop. Hopeless at breast stroke though and just sink. As already said, open air swimming is much much harder but when the weather's nice and the water is clean, it's lovely!

 

[asterix]

I'm a competent swimmer and used to enjoy going to the pool frequently. Unfortunately I now find the chlorine or whatever irritates my nasal passages and is not at all pleasant so I can't do long sessions. Still love swimming in the sea especially with big waves off a sunny beach.

 

[Hawkeye]

I'm a swimming teacher. Just because you are fit and can cycle through the night or whatever don't expect to just jump in the pool and hammer up and down easily. It takes time. Slow down. Most of us float so match your effort to your ability to breathe. Water skills are transferable so try some backstroke.

If you are serious about improving your skills, most pools run adult improver lessons.

For those of you with strong cyclists' legs, those big muscles can suck the oxygen out of your blood if you kick hard. Slow your kick down; try and do less, not more.

If you're bored, count your strokes and try increasing the pressure on the water with your hands to reduce the number of strokes needed.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[Brahan]

I did nearly drown when I was a nipper

Me too. It happened when I was 8, I was at a swimming gala (but couldn't swim - well I had done a width before) and put myself forward to the relay. I was off third so was jumping in the deep end. I remember diving in and going straight down, like lead weight, then getting pulled up and aided back to the side. We laugh about it now but my poor mother was having kittens at the time.

Swimming is definitely more tricky than cycling. Sometimes I feel like quite a good swimmer, getting into the pool and doing 50 odd lengths or whatever, but then when I see some huge barrel chested old man shooting up and down the pool with ease I realise that my technique is terrible. If I do front crawl I'm normally knackered in about 4 lengths.

 

[numbnuts]

I've never seen much point in swimming, well unless the boat was sinking

 

[snorri]

[QUOTE 1252102"]Does anyone here swim like a joyful dolphin? Or are any of you a bit like a reversing car ferry, like me?
[/quote]
Swimming? I'd rather take the reversing the car ferry option, thank you.

 

[Silver Fox]

I'm an average swimmer and enjoy it as leisure activity but prefer cycling. The thought of swimming through pockets of other folks wee does tend to make me not want to consume gob fulls of the pool water.

 

[zizou]

It can be a difficult sport because alot is based on technique as well as power and fitness. I used to be pretty serious about swimming - up before school to train in the morning and most nights too - even with that amount of training i struggled at backstroke because i couldnt get the technique right. Then when i started playing waterpolo i also lost my technique for freestyle/front crawl because the stroke used there is alot shorter and choppier than a 'proper' stroke. Which was an advantage for short events like the 50m but was too inefficient for anything further....so weirdly when i was in my best shape and at my fittest i was actually posting slower times all because of technique!

 

[Yellow Fang]

I was a member of a tri club for about five years, but I never got further than the middle lane. Swimming is so much more technical than cycling. You have so much to remember: trying to stretch out and keeping your stroke rate down; trying not to let your elbow drop; trying to keep flat on the water; trying to catch the water with your forearm as if you were wrapping it around a barrel; remembering to accelerate your hand as you push it through all the way down to your thigh. I couldn't work out how the slender ladies could swim faster than me, because I'm quite muscular up top. Maybe that was it, poor aerodynamics.

It's easier with a wet suit. You don't have to worry about drowning then; you just have to keep your arms moving round. It helps to be a morning person because that's when the good swimmers tend to practice. Swimming with a tri club is more interesting than swimming in lanes. I found swimming in lanes quite tedious as you are constantly either trying to pass people or others are trying to pass you. Open water swimming is more fun too. There seems to be more lakes being opened up to swimmers in the last several years.

 

[Fnaar]

I'm good at breaststroke (

) but tire quickly when doing front crawl. I was good at diving too when I was younger... won a competition or two. Had a great swim across a massive lake this year on hols... spur of moment idea... we were walking around it, and I said to family I'll meet you on the other side... clear, calm water, fine day, had me swimming togs with me... lovely!

 

[fimm]

Another triathlete here - I'll second what others have said about swimming being very technical and not just about fitness. I couldn't swim crawl at all when I met my (keen triathlete) boyfriend 3 years ago - I'm still not very good but I keep working on my technique and I'm improving very slowly. I'd also never ridden a road bike when we met, so my boyfriend has got me into a lot of things...