Need to swim but no idea how much I should do

can you pool run? if so you could simulate running workouts. see the article below:

http://www.whatisdeepwaterrunning.com/

Unfortunately I can't pool run, only swim. Using a public pool with only 5 lanes and there's no room for me to run. They would probably make me get out for someone waiting to do laps.

Get a freestyle snorkel and you'll get a good workout w/o the worrying about breathing. You're not going to learn good form in a week.

Curious what kind of injury you could have that you can't put ANY pressure on your legs or feet, but you know for sure that you will be healed/cured in a week?

Also, if you don't want interval workouts and you can only swim freestyle (and not pool run), why not just do it? How are we going to know how many meters you can swim if we don't know you?

Back in the day, in HS, I used to swim quite a bit. Not for training while injured, but in addition to running in the summer. Realize that it really is going to only condition your arms and upper body and will not build aerobic endurance in your legs.

I used to swim 3000m in the outdoor pool on Sunday afternoon after my 15-17 miler in the AM. I used to swim fairly hard and tried to break 45:00. When I started to go under 40 I bumped it up to 4000m. My mom used to take us to the College outdoor pool and it was awesome, the college girls would stare at the little 5'9" / 120 lb freak. I had a great tan though! I always felt that it was a good way to recover from a Sunday long run and pump a lot of blood through your arms and legs without beating them up further.

One winter I did 2500y swimming two mornings a week (Tues and Thurs) on the days I was not weight training, but that was indoors. I was doing it because I was recovering from a chronic illness and I didn't think I could handle running AM doubles, like I really wanted to do, so I swam instead.

Alright, any thoughts on how far to swim and how detrimental stopping every few laps to catch my breath will be? Ill look into a snorkel.

Also, should I do any type of warmup or just get in the pool and start going?

sdfddf wrote:

Get a freestyle snorkel and you'll get a good workout w/o the worrying about breathing. You're not going to learn good form in a week.

^^^THIS!!!

Snorkeling sucks. I started swimming for cross training 9 months ago without any experience. Watched some videos online on total immersion swimming. Started off being very slow having to stop every few laps. Now a mile and a half is no problem. There is nothing wrong with stopping. If your efficiency is bad, you will be breathing and working hard so you will need to rest when you have to. As your technique improves you won't have any trouble. Your running fitness will help with endurance. It took me about a month of swimming every other day to do a mile without stopping. Also, get some saline nasal wash for use after swimming. I had sinus problems for 6 months when i started before i started using it and its a big help.

I think a good benchmark, in a 25m pool, is twenty times down and back.

That's 1000m and should take a decent swimmer 20-30 min or so.

When you start out, you might want to do about half that amount. But, swimming endurance seems to increase fairly quickly.

I don't think running fitness transfers at all when swimming. Totally different muscle groups. If you're lean then that's also going to count against you since fat helps you float. Try swimming with a pull buoy for awhile or every other lap to keep your hips up.

Look into swimming workouts. Basically they just do exactly what you would do in a track workout, but divide the distance by about 4. So instead of repeat 400s, you do repeat 100s. Rests are usually shorter, as well. You might do an easy 400-1000m warmup, but generally every day is a series of interval workouts. You need to go hard most days if you want to actually get a good workout. Don't worry about overtraining.

Learn how to do a flipturn so you aren't sitting on the wall every 25 meters. What else... breathing's pretty easy when you get the hang of it. Just breathe to the side during a stroke; don't push your head out of the water.

Saul Constitoosh wrote:

That's 1000m and should take a decent swimmer 20-30 min or so.

lol, that's like calling a 26-36 min 5k runner a decent runner. Oh the hypocrisy of letsrun.

To seriously answer the OP, I like to do the following easy set just to build up some endurance so that I can start doing real workouts again: 3*(swim 400m, pull 300m, kick 200m, scull/drill 100m) I often add in some sprint 25m reps at the end of the workout to work on my speed and form (like strides for running).

I'll do this type of training for a couple of weeks, until my arms have built up some endurance and my technique has improved and then I'll start doing typical hard aerobic sets. Since it sounds like you're not going to stick with swimming for more than a week or two, I would just stick with easy swimming. If you try to do intervals, your arms will give out on you before you can do many reps.

Yes I just want to do easy swimming. Keep fitness up a little. I know it won't be as beneficial as if I was doing a workout like swim intervals. So should I shoot for 1000m? I am in a 25m lane pool. And do I need to do any type of warm up or should I just get in and start swimming the 1000m?

I would just do as many lengths as you're comfortable with. Like I said before, alternating between swim, pull, kick and drill will allow you to do more lengths with less rest as your arms will recover on the kick and your legs on the pull (and drill if you use a pull buoy). Doing some drills (look them up on youtube) will drastically improve your technique if you do them consistently and you may find that you start to enjoy swimming a lot more when you're gliding effortlessly through the water rather than thrashing about.

1000m doesn't seem like much but I suppose that if your technique is horrible and you're really fighting the water, you may be able to get a workout out of it. My old roommate was on the National team for a while and he'd regularly swim over 100 km a week, for some perspective. Personally, I just swim for fun on my own and usually get in 4000-5000m per workout.

Don't JUST swim for yardage/distance/continuously. If you really want to benefit from swimming for your running, have an actual swimming workout.

I'd say 100 MPW

Running and cardiovascular fitness really transfers into any sport or activity that requires cardiovascular fitness, including cycling and swimming.

dsfsdfdd wrote:

I don't think running fitness transfers at all when swimming. Totally different muscle groups. If you're lean then that's also going to count against you since fat helps you float. Try swimming with a pull buoy for awhile or every other lap to keep your hips up.

As said before, get a pull buoy. That makes the swimming a bit easier for when you're starting out. It's going to take a while before you can swim more than a few minutes without having to catch your breath. However, the pull buoy allows you to go for a long time before exhaustion sets in. I'd rotate between swimming without and then with the buoy. So swim till complete exhaustion then use the buoy so you can keep going. You could also mix in some aqua jogging in between sets.

[quote]runnerswimmer wrote:

[quote]Saul Constitoosh wrote:

lol, that's like calling a 26-36 min 5k runner a decent runner. Oh the hypocrisy of letsrun.[quote]

No, I think you're way off base with that statement because you're so proud of your swimming ability and want to feel superior.

There is a wide variation in swimming ability among people. Many people can barely thrash their way across a pool. So, a "decent" swimmer means someone who can swim reasonably well. It doesn't mean a competitive swimmer or anyone who used to compete or, in fact, anyone who fancies themselves a hotshot in the pool, as you obviously do.

Okay I'm a little bit late to this thread but why bother with a snorkel? If you're concerned with breathing why not just swim backstroke?