Chris Hobson
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
In some of my previous posts on the subject of triathlons I have mentioned that my swimming is my weakest discipline. I'm a fairly average cyclist and runner too but it is my swimming that needs the most work. As a consequence, with Xmas now out of the way, I am dedicating the early part of the year to improving my swim and trying to, at least, become a bit less rubbish. Here are my thoughts about some aspects of my attempts to achieve this.
Going private.
About six months ago my wife and I decided to join a local health club.
The main reason for this was the restricted swim times at the council run swimming pools. The pool at the club opens at 6am and is available at all times until the club closes at 10pm. This has meant that I have been able to get a lot more swimming done. It has also meant that I had to buy several more bath towels and I now have five pairs of swimming trunks. Keeping these all washed and dried is a somewhat Sisyphian task. The pool only contains people who come to swim so you don't get people getting in your way just messing about. The health club also has segregated changing rooms which seem to harbour two different types of guys. One type emerge from the showers with a towel around their waists and then either put their pants on underneath it, or pull off the towel and put on their pants in one quick movement, seemingly keen to ensure that their dangly bits and bare bum are only exposed for the briefest possible moment. The other type just stride around the place like terminators newly arrived from a dystopian future. The constant exposure to chlorinated water is tending to make my skin dry and itchy so I am now having to constantly apply moisturising crème to various bits of my body.
On the subject of being a bit rubbish.
In his excellent book Accidental Ironman, Martyn Brunt describes the swimmers that form what is known as the Piranha Pack:
“The piranha pack is that collection of triathletes who start on the front row of the race, charge into the water at full tilt and spend the next 750m/1500m/3.8K cheerfully beating each other up...However, the pack always takes the shortest line so you have to decide whether to join the punchy fun for the quickest route, or stay well out of it and take a longer way round.”
Then there is my method of letting the proper swimmers speed off out of the way before setting off behind them and emerging from the water ahead of the handful of swimmers who are even slower than I am.
Swim classes.
I think that joining a swimming club or some kind of masters class is essential if you are going to make any progress. Our health club has classes available at no extra cost and I have now been attending these every week for three or four months. I'm now at the stage where I can sometimes almost keep up. The classes involve swimming harder and faster than I otherwise would, coaching aimed at constantly improving my technique and early attempts at doing tumble turns and butterfly stroke.
Bath toys and drills.
Drills are the various exercises that swimmers do to hopefully improve their strength and technique. I now have a collection of training aids that I refer to as my bath toys. Kick Board, a styrofoam rectangle for doing kick drills. This keeps your front half afloat while you practice your kick action without using your arms. Pull Buoy, a styrofoam brick shaped a bit like a fat hour glass that you clamp between your thighs to keep your rear half afloat and cause drag so that you can work your arms without kicking. Flippers for working your leg muscles harder while doing kick drills and gloves with webbed fingers for working your arm muscles harder while doing pull buoy drills. Once a week I set aside a swim session to doing drills using various different combinations of these.
Slow progress.
When I first started running I saw quite rapid improvements. I started out doing the parkruns and, in the early days, I posted a new PB every two or three weeks. With swimming it seems to take much longer and progress seems to be glacially slow, although that could be just me. I have to remind myself of the time, only a couple of years ago, when just one length of front crawl would leave me completely breathless and unable to go any further. One length with the kick board would leave me feeling as though my legs were on fire whereas I now do sets of twelve as a matter of routine. I don't seem to have become any faster, I used to be able to breast-stroke 2.5K in just over an hour which is pretty much the same pace that I do now. The difference being that now when I finish I'm pretty fresh and not completely exhausted.
It will be interesting to see whether all this effort leads to any improvement in my times for future triathlon events. Anyway,I'm enjoying myself and keeping fit and that's important too.
Going private.
About six months ago my wife and I decided to join a local health club.
The main reason for this was the restricted swim times at the council run swimming pools. The pool at the club opens at 6am and is available at all times until the club closes at 10pm. This has meant that I have been able to get a lot more swimming done. It has also meant that I had to buy several more bath towels and I now have five pairs of swimming trunks. Keeping these all washed and dried is a somewhat Sisyphian task. The pool only contains people who come to swim so you don't get people getting in your way just messing about. The health club also has segregated changing rooms which seem to harbour two different types of guys. One type emerge from the showers with a towel around their waists and then either put their pants on underneath it, or pull off the towel and put on their pants in one quick movement, seemingly keen to ensure that their dangly bits and bare bum are only exposed for the briefest possible moment. The other type just stride around the place like terminators newly arrived from a dystopian future. The constant exposure to chlorinated water is tending to make my skin dry and itchy so I am now having to constantly apply moisturising crème to various bits of my body.
On the subject of being a bit rubbish.
In his excellent book Accidental Ironman, Martyn Brunt describes the swimmers that form what is known as the Piranha Pack:
“The piranha pack is that collection of triathletes who start on the front row of the race, charge into the water at full tilt and spend the next 750m/1500m/3.8K cheerfully beating each other up...However, the pack always takes the shortest line so you have to decide whether to join the punchy fun for the quickest route, or stay well out of it and take a longer way round.”
Then there is my method of letting the proper swimmers speed off out of the way before setting off behind them and emerging from the water ahead of the handful of swimmers who are even slower than I am.
Swim classes.
I think that joining a swimming club or some kind of masters class is essential if you are going to make any progress. Our health club has classes available at no extra cost and I have now been attending these every week for three or four months. I'm now at the stage where I can sometimes almost keep up. The classes involve swimming harder and faster than I otherwise would, coaching aimed at constantly improving my technique and early attempts at doing tumble turns and butterfly stroke.
Bath toys and drills.
Drills are the various exercises that swimmers do to hopefully improve their strength and technique. I now have a collection of training aids that I refer to as my bath toys. Kick Board, a styrofoam rectangle for doing kick drills. This keeps your front half afloat while you practice your kick action without using your arms. Pull Buoy, a styrofoam brick shaped a bit like a fat hour glass that you clamp between your thighs to keep your rear half afloat and cause drag so that you can work your arms without kicking. Flippers for working your leg muscles harder while doing kick drills and gloves with webbed fingers for working your arm muscles harder while doing pull buoy drills. Once a week I set aside a swim session to doing drills using various different combinations of these.
Slow progress.
When I first started running I saw quite rapid improvements. I started out doing the parkruns and, in the early days, I posted a new PB every two or three weeks. With swimming it seems to take much longer and progress seems to be glacially slow, although that could be just me. I have to remind myself of the time, only a couple of years ago, when just one length of front crawl would leave me completely breathless and unable to go any further. One length with the kick board would leave me feeling as though my legs were on fire whereas I now do sets of twelve as a matter of routine. I don't seem to have become any faster, I used to be able to breast-stroke 2.5K in just over an hour which is pretty much the same pace that I do now. The difference being that now when I finish I'm pretty fresh and not completely exhausted.
It will be interesting to see whether all this effort leads to any improvement in my times for future triathlon events. Anyway,I'm enjoying myself and keeping fit and that's important too.
Last edited:
