Starting swimming, any advice?

I'm guessing there's a big difference in the drag?

Does anyone know about the Swimovate Poolmate Pro? The official site says "out of stock until 2016" but it's said that for ages. I wanted to grab that because it's the same size as the Poolmate2, but uploads data. I looked at all the Garmin's etc and they're just huge for my skinny wrists.

Perhaps I could just get the Poolmate2 to count laps. Not being able to look at data would be a shame though.
 
Not sure if posting these stats will work but I'm thoroughly enjoying having my Poolmate2 now. Having started swimming I guess like a year ago (:confused: ), I still haven't taken any lessons so I'm just learning as I go and going off what I was taught when I was at school :D I must take some one-on-one lessons and do some drills I guess..

Code: 
Date		Time	Cals	Laps	Distance Avg Strokes
Mon 27/6/16	0:31:56	282cal	38	1,026m	15
Wed 29/6/16	0:35:57	327cal	44	1,188m	15
Mon 4/7/16	0:38:15	312cal	42	1,134m	15
Wed 6/7/16	0:28:09	238cal	32	864m	15
Mon 18/7/16	0:35:32	337cal	49	1,225m	14
Fri 22/7/16	0:33:04	297cal	40	1,080m	15
Mon 25/7/16	0:44:33	371cal	50	1,350m	15
Tue 26/7/16	0:37:38	312cal	42	1,134m	15
Fri 29/7/16	0:35:00	312cal	42	1,134m	15
Mon 1/8/16	0:38:25	327cal	44	1,188m	15
Thu 4/8/16	0:44:10	386cal	52	1,404m	15

It's a 27.5m pool and my watch only let's me put 27m or 28m. So I'm logging as 27m, so I get a free 0.5m for every lap? (not added above) :p

I'm still sorting out my breathing. I just get too out of breath doing bilateral. Towards the second half I resort to breathing every time on my right side which is so much easier. I've also been trying bilateral, but twice on both side as mentioned above. Breathing on my left side is just not great, I don't "trust" the breath so I think I hold my breath more and don't take in as much oxygen. Not great. All these sessions are in my lunch hour, usually twice a week.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I've only got the Poolmate2 which doesn't upload for you. Takes 2mins to put in my data to a Google sheet, on which I've also set up some pretty graphs :p
 
jpaul said:
so would that be the oasis 27.5 m outdoor heated pool Holborn (lucky ...) sun /environment can be a good motivation to breathe both sides
[I see they are part of Better company so I think my membership works - would like to try the olympic one, some time, too]

are they continuous lengths or with pauses ?
Do you look at poolmate as you swim so that you can try and keep individual laps ups to spec ie I should be half way down the pool by now.
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Certainly is. It's a great pool, but ironically in the summer weeks whenever the kids are out of school it's pretty hideous and I tend to either not bother or get relegated to the indoor pool! Looking at the ladies sunbathing is nice, but dodging the morons in the middle lane, or trying to keep up with the furious/angry swimming in the fast lane is not much fun :p

Generally I do 2-4 lengths then a quick rest. My breathing isn't good enough to go continuous yet, which is really holding me back. I think my other main issue is that my ankles are really not flexible and I do occasionally get cramp. Trying to flex my ankles in the water makes me nervous of getting cramp in my feet as has happened a few times. Not so much anymore - but it probably means I don't have such a good foot position.

The Speedo Dive-in looks interesting, I'll have to investigate. That's exactly what I need! I think somebody asked the same thing a few pages back, but is there a guide online somewhere that goes through drills.. when to do them, what they're for etc? I see the better swimmers doing kick drills, using hand flippers and buoys between their legs but I'm hesitant to try because I have no idea what I'm doing :p
 
Dano said:
Not been in the pool for ages, second lockdown got to me with depression and I ended up putting on a load of weight which exacerbated my back injury, now too self conscious to get in the pool at all, slowly trying to build fitness back currently and lose enough so I can start back again.
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I forgot I started this thread all that time ago (it must be my most popular/enduring one ever! :p). I felt similar to you recently, maybe not so worried about the weight although now I'm getting to my late thirties there's definitely a small paunch forming. It was more difficult for me because I swim at an outdoor pool near my work at lunchtime. The recent good weather has meant it's just rammed with teenagers etc. and is more akin to Marbella than London. Not fun when you're a bit self conscious about getting back into swimming.

Anyhoo, just wanted to post that I managed 900m today. Pretty happy although because I've been out of it since COVID it just makes me super hungry so I'm not sure I'm helping re. the paunch :p

Also agree on the not worrying about what you look like too. There are all shapes and sizes at my place, we're all human.
 
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