What I talk about when I talk about swimming

[marathondan]

Walliams passed through Maidenhead on Saturday but we couldn't be arsed to travel the mile or so to the other side of town to see him. Inspiring, clearly!

I will persevere for now, when I get the chance. I got the missus to video me in the pool on holiday so I could look at my technique - it doesn't look as bad as I thought. But it still feels pretty terrible after 50m.

[El Gordo]

Just as I thought: best left to the fish

Two things have recently occurred to me:

1. I need something to train for during the summer months. I've now done one marathon a year for the last three years and my joints have never felt better. But I think two a year might be less good for me. It's still a possibility, but a low impact activity sounds like a better idea.

2. I haven't done any upper body exercise in the last 20 years, as witnessed by my limp flailings in the pool. And actually I didn't really do any for the 20 years before that either - I was just young enough for it not to be a problem. It would be good rectify that situation.

You need to head for the Indoor Rowing Championships in Birmingham - usually held in November, I believe.

[glaconman]

Good advice EG.

My Grandad won the Mens 85-89 Lwt category in 2008.

Grandad Glaconman

[marathondan]

Yes, a good call. Although here in the East Berks / Bucks border we are in the heart of English river rowing. The Thames is the other side of town, and we have Henley, Marlow and the Olympic rowing centre at Dorney.

The kids and I (all three of them this year - separately) went for our annual sea kayak session in Brittany this summer. I keep toying with the idea of taking one on the Thames.

[Bierzo Baggie]

A middle-aged Romany gentleman led his white horse past as we sat on the wall waiting for the swimming pool to open. The sun lay low in the sky but it was getting hot already.

“Hola,” I said “nice horse.”
“And rare too,” the guy answered.
The horse stared at me with albino eyes.
“Albino,” I say, putting accent on the i.
The guy paused, smiled and nodded proudly.
“That’s right.”

Then he marches the beast across the dusty wasteland that each summer acts as the swimming pool car park and leads it up to a tumbledown house opposite that I’ve always assumed was abandoned. He slaps the albino horse on the arse. It winnies, bounces up a couple of steps and trots straight through the front door. The gypsy follows it inside and closes the door.

“It’s probably got its breakfast on the kitchen table,” whispered Lara, my 7-year old daughter.

5 minutes later we were in the pool.

Tuesday, 200m 6 minutes 30 seconds.
Wednesday, 500m 15:40.
Thursday, 800m approx. 26 minutes.

I haven’t got any faster.
But I have met an albino horse that lives in a bungalow.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Speed really doesn't matter. It's doing the thing that counts.

Nice post!

[Sweder]

I haven’t got any faster.
But I have met an albino horse that lives in a bungalow.

It's as if Spike Milligan never left us.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Some stuff to write up from Summer. Or at least to comment on..

First the swimming;

September 1st marked the end of the swimming season. Swam regularly during July and August in an open 50m pool just up the road where I live. Achieved a few things.

I can now swim 1 km front crawl without stopping or changing my stroke.

I’ve managed to approximate (not master) bilateral breathing. Dan’s very excellent list (see the start of this thread) provides more boxes to tick but they’ll have to wait until next Summer.

Swimming, as mentioned by some, is infinitely more boring than running. The trick is to think of it as yoga. Empty your mind, concentrate on technique, and if you want, concentrate on time too.

Timed myself every session. Given that you can’t swim uphill and a pool of water is always, well.. a pool of water, there is an absence of variable factors which makes swimming everything that off-road running is not.
My running times are difficult to interpret. When I run I’ll just note the time, an approximate distance and a few banal comments about the anthropological landscape. At the end of each session in the pool ,however, there are just raw statistics, a general tingle of well being, occasional ear blockage and a few mouthfuls of heavily chlorinated water.

Here are some of the raw statistics.

Best swimming times; Summer 2012.

100m: 2 minutes.
500m: 13:38
1000m: 29:37

Let’s put this in perspective. I’m told a very average swimmer will take less than 20 minutes to swim a kilometre. Tiny Chinese girls will do it in less than 10.

Looked up some world records for freestyle.

100m 46:91
400m 3:40
800m 7:32
1500m 14:31

From these times I calculated a multiplier which I then applied to the world records for 10k, half marathon and marathon to find out some running equivalents for my swimming times. The results were humbling indeed, especially considering I’d put in a lot of time and effort to improve my swimming.

My 100m time was equivalent to a 67 minute 10K
My 500m time was equivalent to a 2 hour 50 minute half marathon.
My 1000m time would make me a 6 hour 25 minute marathon runner.

Asked Teresa, the beautiful Baywatch babe working at the pool this Summer to observe me for a few lengths. Apparently I drag my legs through the water a bit. I should be more horizontal. She did compliment me on my bilateral breathing though.

The difference between a good swimmer and a bad one seems so much greater than in running where body weight is more important than technique. And with swimming, technique can only be improved by many hours in the pool.

I’ll be back next year.

[marathondan]

Those stats are still pretty impressive, BB. I'm jealous of your 1km non-stop effort (and the time is still pretty decent despite your protestations). I didn't make it to the pool once over the summer. I can't even remember why not. I think it was to do with my bike being off the road.

Yes, it's hugely technical. I can see that it would take the like of us 5 years to attain the heights of a really average technique. During which time of course the C-V capacity is gradually reducing as we slide towards that horrible thing mentioned by Sweder beginning with 5. If only we'd started at 20... or 10...

But speed isn't everything. You could do a 1km open water swim with confidence now (if required).

I salute your efforts!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Yes indeed BB, a good effort despite (as Dan said) your protestations. I doubt I could swim a kilometre to save myself, let alone post a decent time in a pool or a race.

So do you have a triathlon or something in mind anytime soon? Or is that it until next season?

[Antonio247]

Congratulations, BB! You've been very constant. I'd like to swim well but I can't, so I get tired very soon. However, in cycling or running although I'm slow, I can be on the road a long time without feeling too tired or bored as I am when I swim.

Saludos desde Almería.

[Bierzo Baggie]

So do you have a triathlon or something in mind anytime soon? Or is that it until next season?

No real interest in triathlon, very time consuming and there's too much equipment to buy. There's a great tradition of triathlon in parts of Galicia. Not around here though...