Hey everybody! I am reporting back after my summer swimming laps outside at my NYC parks pool—I hit my 25 miles on Friday, right under the wire! I’ve never consistently lap swam before, and getting past my first mile in a day felt like a hurdle (as did getting up early!), but I settled into a routine and by mid summer was logging 40 laps a day. It was so great to start my days swimming outside, with so many other New Yorkers from a range of ages, swimming levels, etc. Last night I got invited to the end of season lap swim celebration with all the other 25 milers!

I loved it and am already going through withdraw. Do any New Yorkers have recs for an indoor pool? Chelsea rec is pretty close to my work so that may be the default, but I’m wondering if I should try to join a masters team or get some coaching too? The laps definitely got easier but it was still a challenge by end of summer so thinking maybe I need some coaching/training to get better?

Anyway thanks to everyone here for your encouragement and tips early on! Psyched to become a swimmer in my 36th year!

Hi, 51 year old guy (UK) here who's recently started swimming during lunch break in order to try and loose a few pounds. I've been going most days for a few weeks.

I go at 12 noon adult session lane swim.

The locker room and showers are open type with no privacy.

I haven't been in this situation for decades (probably since high school) and upon observation it appears about 3 or 4 in 10 men go naked.

I haven't taken the plunge yet and I keep my shorts on.

Today after my swim there were 5 men all showering naked chatting away quite happily.

I waited at my locker till the showers cleared as I thought I would look odd showering in shorts with the rest of the guys naked.

What's everyone else's thoughts on this situation?

Should I join the "nudist club" or not?

Is it just the depth? I normally swim in a 4 lane 25 yard pool, max 4 feet deep. While traveling I got to swim in a pool where the depth was 10 -12 feet. I think it was a 50 meter pool set up for short course and I was in the diving well area. My pace in the deeper pool was at least 1 sec better per 50 with way less effort than it should have been.
Only asking as the difference felt too great to chalk up to having a good swim day.

I usually swim early in the morning so my pre-swim meal is just my breakfast wich consist of 4 slice of bread with chocolate/biscoff spread wich is enough for my morning swim.

But now I'm considering also going to swim in the afternoon after work but then it'd be a longer session so I'm wondering what you all eat before to have enough energy and strength for your session

EDIT : whats also your post swim meal if you have one ??

Hi all! Im sorry if this is a silly question as I’m incredibly clueless, but I’m wondering how you guys know what to do/plan your workouts when you’re swimming?

I currently swim like 3x a week for an hour or so, and for the whole time I’m frolicking around doing front crawl as I’m absolutely baffled as to what else to do 🙈 I’m training for an Olympic distance triathlon in a few months and come from a running & cycling background as I’ve been doing both of them since I was a kid, but I’m pretty new to swimming and started at the beginning of August.

I’m definitely aiming to get a little bit faster as it currently takes me just under 27 minutes to swim a kilometre and I’m not sure if doing the exact same thing every single time is doing me much justice or not?

If anybody has any suggestions or advice on how you actually know what you’re doing or what I should be doing it’d be totally appreciated, thank you!!

Hello everyone!

For years, I have been only doing one type of swimming whenever I get to swim in the pool: I get inside and just go freestely until I get tired or until certain time passes (in my case, 30 minutes or around 1 mile).

I wonder if this is OK or do I have to add certain variety here. I just think that variety kinda ruins my flow, idk. Like, I can go breast stroke or backstroke, but both feel annoying and slow (probably because I barely practice them).

The pool I visit is just 75 ft long and is usually full of elderly people that can barely swim (just flap around), so I only noticed that I lack um... variety when I finally had "contestants" for the fast lane who suddenly started alternating their styles without any coach telling them to do so.

So what do I do: stick to my favourite or try other options? Does it matter in any way for staying fit?

Thanks in advance!

I am reading Katie Ledecky's book Just Add Water and I really enjoy reading about her competitions and then watching them on YouTube. I was too busy with life to follow her trajectory while it was happening. Any other books by or about swimming superstars I can read?

I watch so many YouTube videos about front crawl (I guess especially for long distance) and I usually see stuff about taking your time, not rushing to the next stroke, one arm almost waiting for the other while extended to make the most of the glide.

I had a swimming lesson though for improving my techniques and the instructor had told me to keep my arms moving so that one arm is never paused? It kinda put me off but I'm having to decide between YouTube videos and swimming teacher, it feels silly but the YouTube style has worked alright for me so far in terms of energy conservation

Hi, there, I'm curious what some more knowledgable people think about Cam McEvoy's training practices and in particular whether they can scale up to longer distances. It really is a revolution in swim training. For people who don't know, Cam has focused on speed and power over high volume and has broken a world record in the 50 Free.

In this short interview he gives some examples of his training philosophy being used in the 200 fly.

Also, in the context of Bob Bowman's team's PanPacs performance, I wonder if coaches like him, who still stick to a very high weekly kilometre training program, will start to adopt some of his practices. It was interesting that the Australian swimmers all seemed pretty fresh and I wonder if Dean Boxall has incorporated some of these strategies.

Hi all, I’ve just got a membership at my local pool as I’ve set myself the goal in the next couple of years of completing an Ironman.

For context I’ve done 1 sprint triathlon before and my swim training was 30 minutes twice a week and obviously I struggled with the swim part of the tri.

I’ve got at least 3 sessions a week I can commit to swimming now, so was just looking for a bit of structure if anyone has anything they could recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone.. 53m only 3 weeks into starting swimming for fitness. I’ve always been able to swim but I have never done it for fitness (never done laps).
I’m pretty rubbish endurance wise but I’m happy to be able to swim 1km (40 laps of my 25m local pool) .. I can’t do much more than 50m without stopping but getting to 1km after about 35 minutes in the pool..
so I have been doing 10 laps, then get in the sauna for 10 minutes (because I like it) then 10 more laps, sauna etc… just the little habit I have gotten into..

In your experience, would breaking up the swim be helping or hindering my progression ?

Question 1: is it "cheating" to use breath control to tread longer? I've noticed that if I tread water with my regular breathing cadence, I start getting fatigued after around 4-5 minutes. But if I breathe strategically (holding air in my lungs for longer, only working my arms and legs harder when I'm exhaling to compensate for the temporary loss in buoyancy) I can tread basically forever. But is that bad? If I have good technique should I be able to tread forever while breathing completely normally?

Question 2: I'm confused about how eggbeater kick pushes the water down. Is there any diagram or visualization that shows how the movement actually affects the water? I feel like it would help me to understand the physics of it.

Question 3: I've gotten further confused about eggbeater because some instructors describe it alternating one-legged whip kicks (which means my knees should go up and down, right?) and others have told me to just make big circles with my feet which feels like a totally different movement in which my knees stay pretty much level. Which is it?

My son broke two metatarsals in his foot and just had a cast out on today. 6-8 weeks depending on progress. Before the injury he was swimming 9x/wk (Mon-Sat with doubles on M,W,F). He wants to set himself up for success when he eventually gets back in the water but he knows nothing will ever be a perfect match.

He’s thrown out a couple ideas including an AirBike or rower for cardio, potentially while using an altitude training mask. Dumbbells and cable machines for strength, etc.

He’s primarily a back/free swimmer. Anyone here ever had to be out of the water for a couple months and found a way to not completely lose progress?

(For context, he just turned 15 last week and is a top-100 NAG swimmer)

I keep getting water in my nose when I do it. Cant go more than 50 meters before I have to stop and clear my nose.