Long Distance OW Swim

Full Moon swim on the 2nd August at Hayling Island if anyone is interested.  I used to organise these but it looks like someone else is taking it on in my absence.  The idea is to swim in the dark under the full moon.  Very beautiful and a great experience, particularly if you are training for an event that requires night swimming.

Artful Hen wrote (see)

.  Blue - fantastic.  What are you up to this weekend?

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Possibly swimming the channel with Supercaz

Edit to remove double post.

Race reports of the Channel swim from both Blue and I are in Clubhouse if anyone is interested.

My shoulders are feeling better so any time you're up for a swim I am too despite me saying I'm retiring for the rest of the month. The Seals sound like a lovely bunch of people to join in with.

"What are you up to this weekend?

"Possibly swimming the channel with SuperCaz"

That's HARD!

Absolute respect.

No Dustboy, doing an IronMan is hard.  The relay was only 5 hours of exercise.  I can't imagine doing an event of 15 hours... mind you I will have to get my head around the idea before I attempt the solo next year

Well done guys. That sounds like a real mental battle!!

I had mixed results in my races this week.. the sprint swim took 11:30 and the olympic took 28:30.. massive difference! (and cost me a top 20 finish in the olympic) I'm thinking I wasn't fully recovered for the olympic race because guys i normally swim with beat me by up to 3 minutes. I seem to feel fine the day after a hard swim but my stroke is definitely a little weaker. I guess that makes sense.

I've joined a new club for swimming so i'm getting a coached pool swim 3 times a week (in the pool for 6am ) and 2 open water swims. On average i'm aiming for about 3.5k per session. Its under 3 weeks until the 10k swim and another sprint to do before then. Should be okay to get through it now but I'd like to get another 6k+ swim in before it.

Does anyone use any swimming books as a reference? There were a couple i was looking at. Swim Smooth's book and Swim Workout's for Triathletes. I was given a £25 amazon voucher so bought the pair of them for £24.74.. Hopefully they are good. I always use swim smooths website for tips on technique. The workout book is a waterproof spiral bound book full of swimming workouts. Both should be useful!

I've looked for swimming books before and didn't find anything that  i couldnt find on the web. I have a book by David Wilkie (yes, we are talking pre-history) and an ASA basic booklet (which is faitlry useless for an adult).
I suspect that there is plenty of sources on the web that make a book unviable financialy.
Also there are a lot or swim courses and collateral is handed out with that. I learned more from a couple of weekend swim courses than from the books.

I think swimsmooth is pretty good and will handle most things you need.

There is nothing to compare with getting someone to watch your stroke and offer advice.  Its all very well knowing the theory, but a book won't tell you whether your head is too high or your arm too straight if you think that you are doing it right.

I got back in the sea last night but my arms were tired so I dawdled at the back doing breaststroke with a new girl who had joined us for the first time.

Then this morning I got back in again at 6am and managed to do 45 min gently.  It was beautiful - sun shining, water like a mill pond and nobody around at all.  So peaceful.  I'm going to miss the sea when I move inland on Sunday

You can get free basic swimming workouts from www.swimplan.com or you can pay a bit extra and get a greater variety of workouts.  I have a folder full that I dip into when I need to.

I'm so jealous.  But I am expecting a phone call today from someone who is going to tell me about open water swimming in Leicester.  There are places where I can swim, but I'm waiting to hear whether they are wetsuit obligatory

I get so fed up with not being able to swim without a wetwuit.  For me, I am safer without a wetsuit as I over heat so easily.  I've got evidence that I can swim without it so I don't think I am being unreasonable.

Swimming with a wetsuit must be frustrating for you. The lakes near me all allow non wetsuit swimming but you have to be seperatly approved to be allowed to do it.

I hoping to swim in the lake this weekend without a wetsuit. I need to improve my reslience to cold water 

AH - Glad you have found a new interest in your retirement 

 you? no wetsuit?? 

nice thread this, will I read in more detail later on as I am too looking to take atvantage  of my newly learned skill of swimming front crawl by doing some longer events. longest ow swim so far is 2 miles but felt ok to go further.

SuperCaz wrote (see)

Full Moon swim on the 2nd August at Hayling Island if anyone is interested. 

I'm interested, Ive just registered on the outdoor swimming society website but cant  see any more details other than the date, can you point me in the direction of further details please?

I have next week off and want to take the family camping somewhere in the south, I might be able to combine this with the bournemouth swim next weekend, will have to discuss with family tonight where we go but i definetely want to get some sea swimming in and an organised event makes more sense than swimming alone although would have family watching out for me.

any other suggestions where there are groups meeting for swimming on south coast that I could just tag along with next week?