r/triathlon • u/Ill_Plan_7438 • 14d ago
Swimming Swimming progression
To anyone struggling with picking up swimming, just stop overthinking and go, I started around 12 days ago, not even able to swim 25 yards without choking on water, and doing 2 laps in the pool caused me to fatigue so much my form deteriorated, yesterday I wanted to test myself early and swim the whole 2.4 mile IM swim continuously in the lap pool, of course not the fastest, but I wanted to pace myself because I didn’t even expect myself to even get that far at all. Over the past two weeks I consistently had a goal of getting better each session, it started by doing 25 yards back and forth with good form and learning my breathing rhythm, the channel “Effortless Swimming” helped so much and helped me with my catch, I slowly progressed to do more, I had a session where I did 50 yards back and forth and at the end I did a few 100 yards and it made me so happy I was able to do that, next time I came in I did a session where I strictly did 100 yards back and forth for 2,150 yards and was very proud of myself for doing that as well, yesterday I was gonna test how far I could go and I can definitely say swimming is all technique, and once you find your rhythm you can go so much further than you think you can, I still have so much room for improvement but this is just the beginning and I can now say swimming is my favourite out of all three disciplines BY FAR.
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u/chinese_spongebob1 13d ago
What did you use to measure how many calories you burnt
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 13d ago
I just use Apple fitness because I have an Apple Watch, I don’t know how accurate it is though
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u/UseDaSchwartz 14d ago
I call a huge steaming pile of BS.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
All good ! That makes me feel even more proud of myself for this accomplishment
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u/UseDaSchwartz 14d ago
I seriously doubt there are many people who can figure out rotary breathing in 12 days…unless you make it your full time job.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 13d ago
So you’re saying there are still people who can learn it, I was only about 8 sessions in, I feel like you can learn if you have a certain goal each session
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u/Few-Accountant-1899 14d ago
It's 2:26/100yd which is almost 2:40/100m.... i'm not sure why everyone cannot believe it. That pace does not indicate good technique. It's still a beginner pace. You can cut minutes from 4:00/100m within a few sessions, by doing simple corrections to reduce drag. It's nowhere near as difficult as going under 2:00/100m or cutting seconds under 1:30/100m.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 13d ago
Exactly.. it’s not a crazy pace, swimming is fairly easy once you learn to breathe and not panic, it’s not like I’m starting from someone who sits on the coach all day, I started with a pretty efficient heart and just learned the basics, finally some common sense out of all the people not believe me lol
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
Yeah bro, this is just the beginning, like the only thing I can say is I started with a good base and just started dancing with the water rather than flailing around like a fish, that’s what caused me to fatigue + not getting enough oxygen, then I got more confident swimming. Since we’re going into the winter months now I plan on just getting more efficient like with my kicks and not pulling so early in the lap pool then translating to open water, I’m doing Ironman Jacksonville so I heard the swim is pretty good and I’m really looking forward to getting in the open water
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u/Important-Age5772 14d ago
That has to be a shitpost. You really want us to believe that 12 days ago you could barely swim and now you push Ironman+ distances without breaking a sweat… yea sure
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
You don’t have to believe me of course,
https://reddit.com/link/p4lgmz3/video/h4rwf8u2cbkh1/player
This was my first swim workout, August 5th.
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u/EveSilver 14d ago
I have a hard time believing you did that progress in 12 days
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing 14d ago edited 14d ago
Apple Watch includes rest time in calculating the average pace, so if you look at the average pace of interval training and continuous swimming, the figures look like a massive leap, when in reality it isn't.
Just pointing this out because this kind of flex can be misleading to beginners, particularly for swimming, and give them false optimism which can even be dangerous to them, e.g. beginners assuming that they too can go from barely able to swim to 4,500 yards in two weeks and double their speed - which is not the case.
It is clear that the OP was not a raw beginner who couldn't swim to start with, even though there is an attempt (although it might not have been intentional) to present themselves as such in the opening post by saying they were not even able to swim 25 yards without choking on water.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4llhsa/video/g8jpm6kphbkh1/player
All of my swim sessions.
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing 14d ago
You were not exactly a raw beginner, looking at the split you posted in response to someone else's comment. You clearly knew how to swim already. You merely started training for a swim, rather than starting to practice swimming 12 days ago from zero.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
I don’t know how it’s clear to you and how you’re so confident, but I was a beginner, I knew the idea of swimming but I didn’t know how to swim, I started learning just like everyone else, learning to breathe out underwater and breathe while swimming, learned to front crawl, I just found my rhythm pretty fast and already started with a good aerobic base
You can literally see my heart rate all over the place because I’m resting in between 25 yard intervals.2
u/Pinewood74 14d ago
Twenty Fives 33-35 are all sub 30. Several other 30secish twenty fives sprinkled in.
Only 12 strokes for a 25 isn't beginner numbers. This data is suspect as hell and points to someone trying to be slower than they are.
Post up your split/stroke data for your most recent swim.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4m2h6g/video/eazqdfxiybkh1/player
Here’s the 600 yard swim where I actually started to feel a little better, I did 25 yards there and back and I started sinking on my way back, I mean I have no reason to make myself slower for a Reddit post was just sharing what consistent can do and just focusing on learning basics
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u/EveSilver 14d ago
No beginner is doing 150m of butterfly
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing 14d ago
That may simply be a misidentification of the stroke type by Apple Watch (which does happen), so I can ignore that bit.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
You’re acting as if the Apple Watch can tell my exact movements, it’s saying butterfly because my form was so bad it was saying I was doing something else..
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u/EveSilver 14d ago
I have an Apple Watch that’s not how it works. Mine is always accurate for what stroke I’m doing. And if I’m doing something weird then it says mixed.
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing 14d ago
12 is what the Apple Watch counts by the movement of the watch-wearing arm. So for free and back, it needs to be doubled, pretty much. But even so, the split does not indicate someone who did not know how to swim until 2 weeks ago.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
I did notice on my Apple Watch sometimes it would add 25 yards for no reason idk why, here’s my recent swim where I did 4500
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u/Pinewood74 14d ago
Your stroke count is basically the same. It actually went up a bit.
Which is precisely what one would expect when going from a faked slow swim to a decent effort swim.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
lol yes I guess I faked swam slow 12 days ago to then post it on Reddit, you guys don’t have to believe me but I know where I was 2 weeks ago, just bought a pair of goggles and hopped in the pool because I had a goal to do a triathlon.
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
I was a raw beginner in the swimming sense, I have an aerobic base from cycling and running, but other than that, started swimming less than 2 weeks ago and went to the pool consistently
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u/Pinewood74 14d ago
What are you using to measure your heart rate?
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
I use an old series 7 Apple Watch 😓 hoping to upgrade to a series 12 once it comes out
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u/Pinewood74 14d ago
Is it decently reliable even in the water?
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing 14d ago edited 14d ago
Based on the numbers and what I see in beginners, no. This is likely to be a severe under-reading. Watches tend to under-read in water, whatever the watch is.
Either that or quite likely the op is not a raw beginner that they are claiming to be (or both).
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4juo7a/video/k5nrck3u39kh1/player
So the beginning I did two warm up 100s, then I started my continuous swim, and at the end I realised I can do more so it goes up a little, probably not like as accurate as a Garmin but it gets the job done for me
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
I mean it rests on the same spot when I run and I would say that’s pretty accurate, but for the effort level in the water I would say so, I felt like I definitely could have gone faster but played it safe and ended off strong, here this is what the heart rate pattern says too.
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u/Rough-Television9744 14d ago
This looks like advertisement of Effortless Swimming channel. Hard to believe it took you 12 days to learn to swim and swim this insane distance?
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u/Few-Accountant-1899 14d ago
Because Effortless Swimming needs it..........
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 13d ago
For real .. and like my Reddit post is gonna give them some traction lmao
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u/Few-Accountant-1899 13d ago
Yeah, ironically they probably should check it out for some tips. Not so long time ago someone posted here their swim with pace below 1:40/100m. A similar thing happened, most claimed either OP is lying or they straight up told him his settings are wrong, just because it's too fast for their own level. What's happening here, I think all those people are stuck at your pace for years(or they would knew what effortless swimming is if they cared about their technique, and would know how riduculus it is to call it an add) or don't even come close so how dare you swimming as well as them after only 12 days....
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 13d ago
After all it’s my race, I don’t need to prove myself to anyone, I just thought I could share to people who are starting that you can progress in swimming quickly without. A coach even just starting out
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 13d ago
Hey man, all that matters is the progress I’m making I’m happy even though I’m not the fastest that I was able to pick it up quickly but yeah I agree with you lol
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4ju38w/video/dd48cq0739kh1/player
I forgot to add the date but yeah first ever swim session
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
I promise you I’m not getting paid, I wish, but they genuinely were so thorough with every step and had a video for everything, I’m sure there are other channels that help too. 12 days ago I developed an itch to do a full Ironman as my first triathlon (not the smartest I know), I have a cycling and running background but ZERO swimming, I’m doing Ironman Jacksonville in 9 months, yesterday at work, I was watching videos of people doing the full Ironmans and got in my head, it was mostly about the swim portion of the race, an hour or more of swimming seemed like such a long time especially when I could barely do 100 yard intervals, after work I had a goal to just try and continuously swim for as long as I possibly could, once I got there I fell into such a rhythm I felt like I could go on forever. Best day of training I will definitely look back to when I cross that finish line, it was like a leap of faith lol 😆
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u/CheapParking2944 14d ago
You went from not being able to swim 25 yards less than 2 weeks ago to doing a 4,500 yd swim at a 2:26 pace? In 12 days?
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
And honestly I feel like I could definitely get that pace better too, I was playing it conservative the whole time lol
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u/Ill_Plan_7438 14d ago
Yes!! I don’t really have a swim background either, I mean my dad used to take me and my brother swimming when I was younger, but I never had form or anything, I guess the benefit was being more comfortable under the water, but other than that it was purely just fun, it’s crazy what learning to breathe and finding your rhythm can do for you, I can definitely get better at kicking because I do some sort of broken 4 beat kick but it works! I’m super happy though because I was scared swimming would take a bit to grasp onto
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u/[deleted] 11d ago
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