šŸŠ Swimming - How Was Your Swim Today?

Do you do the traditional breathe every three bilateral breathing? Thatā€™s how my son swims freestyle. I prefer two consecutive breaths to my right, three strokes, two consecutive breaths to my left, three strokes, etc. Do you know what Iā€™m trying to explain?

But I now do very little bilateral breathing. I used to do it every other lap when interval training. I should start that again.

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My pace for a 10km swim is between 2h30m-2h50m. Thatā€™s a training pace not a racing time. Once Iā€™m in condition Iā€™ll do a 5km swim in 1h10m-1h20m. But I can go faster. Especially if I really want to smash out the laps. I think the best Iā€™ve done was just over 1h. Which kind of surprised me but Iā€™d only been doing short course drills and had the two days off before that swim.

Yes I do bilateral breathing every 3 strokes. My left arm was way out of strength and I made it a priority to rebalance after the first lockdowns. That was when I dislocated both shoulders in the space of a few weeks. It took me about 10 weeks to get my shoulders back to normal after that.

Bilateral breathing should be mandatory for all kids. It reduces the chance of neck and lower back injury. While making sure strength remains relatively the same on both sides. The other benefit of bilateral breathing is itā€™s easier to identify little injuries that could turn into big injuries. Things like a slightly damaged muscle in the thoracic region of the lower middle back. Or strained neck that develops into nerve pain.

I also try to swim using the immersion swim technique. I swim downhill which means crunching the belly and tilting the head down. So I have no idea whatā€™s in front of me. Just whatā€™s on the lane of the pool. So I watch the pool length numbers and the T and know my stroke rate to the wall.

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Those are some seriously fast times. Iā€™d love to see you in action. 5k in 1:20:00 is a 1ā€™36" pace. I might be able to keep up for about 300m before I needed a break!

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Itā€™ll take me a couple of months just to get back into form. Iā€™m fairly certain Iā€™ve torn the muscle in my groin which is causing pain in my knee. I wasnā€™t sure where the actual problem was h til I went to gym earlier.

Iā€™m also still struggling with Covid breathing. I was given some exercises to do that should take about two weeks to regain lung function.

Breaststroke on long length push, then the same but breathing every second stroke, and then the same again but on every third stroke.

I also admit that different pools make a big difference in times. Some pools are just harder than others. ZhongZheng is weird because the first half is naturally swimming downhill but the second half is swimming uphill. Banqiao pool is fairly good but the old people wonā€™t follow the rules and like to cause trouble. Youth park outdoors pool is a reasonable pool where you can get ok times. The indoor pool is easier. Taipei arena pool would have to be about the best but thereā€™s no point going there during squad training times.

Covid recovery has really hit me harder than I thought it would. And Iā€™ve got quite a lot on at the moment. So trying to fit in training along with medical, food, and work is taking its toll.

Honestly your son should be on roughly those times fairly soon if heā€™s in a good squad. The squad I used to train next to were doing 10km in just over an hour. The open water swims they were doing averaged 2h20m (some quicker and some slower).
edit 10km in just over 2 hours. Typing too quick again.

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I was swimming 70+km a week. Often closer to 100km. 6 days in the pool. Some weeks I was swimming twice a day. Morning and night. I was aiming to swim the 9 bridges and a couple of other long distance swim events.

I should also mention I donā€™t normally do flip turns. Just touch and go. The reason being that flip turns in pools distort your times due to the push off and kick advantage that comes with it.

The tempo trainer was probably the best thing I invested in as it forced me to swim at set paces which made me address underlying injuries.

The biggest problem is getting the right diet. Brown rice and grains are essential for slow release sugars. Beetroot is essential for muscle repair and oxygenation. Cereal is seen as a luxury item. I resorted to plant based protein powder but go through two tubs a month. And we go through about 10kg of bananas a week and 5kg of apples.

And I understand why people watch me swim but I donā€™t like it. The same thing happens with my youngest. Heā€™s even seen people film him swimming. I guess itā€™s because most people find it hard enough to co-ordinate arms and legs and are impressed when they see someone glide thorough the water like itā€™s natural.

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I think I know what you mean about the ZhongZheng pool. I believe thereā€™s a jet stream outlet that works against you going one way in the lanes.

I really, really like the Taipei Arena 50m pool. Even when there are teams swimming, the remaining lanes are enough for me as they are wide enough to allow for passing. Butā€¦they have very limited times that the public can use the 50m pool (6-8am and 6-9pm?).

My son isnā€™t on a team. His swimming consists of either getting one lesson per week with a private teacher, or one lesson per week with me. Itā€™s with me now. He doesnā€™t really enjoy swimming but heā€™s still young enough that heā€™ll listen to his dadā€™s requests!

Related to his like/dislike of swimming, heā€™s swimming once per week at school now. I think that will go on for a month. After the first swimming session, I guess he was really happy because he was the best swimmer and all the other kids took notice. The teacher even told him to swim alone in his own lane as what the rest of the class was doing was too easy for him. He also told me the girls took notice. He asked me why girls talk to you when you do well in sports. My answer was that girls like that. I guess even in Taiwan they do.

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My youngest is swimming 5 days a week and gym the other day. He used to swim squad but his mother pulled him out for some reason that makes no sense to me. He goes back into squad training around December.

He too dislikes swimming yet Iā€™ve given him his choice for what he wants to do. He also has to participate in two extracurricular activities per semester starting next year. Squad training ticks at least one of those activities. I told him itā€™s his choice whether he wants to go into competition.

I was considering trying out for Masters Swimming which led to blood tests that confirmed low testosterone levels.

For some reason a lot of people just donā€™t understand how sports helps with grades and focus. Especially in Taiwan. Iā€™ve seen what nutritionists have been advising top level athletes here and itā€™s pretty bad.

Taiwan could really use a dedicated sports program rather than the hodge podge they currently use. With testing at the end of grade 9 and admittance into what they call a sports based program type high school. Itā€™s too open to mismanagement and corruption. As well as abuse. It feels like the 80s all over again with abuse of performance enhancing drugs during those critical years of lung and heart development for powering the body.

As for being noticed you should remind your son it takes work. Luckily heā€™s not swimming full time and on a serious diet because that always leads to gaining weight when quitting or taking time off. Because you get so used to eating so much you donā€™t feel full even when youā€™re not doing the work to justify the food.

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So how was my swim today? Well itā€™s definitely a groin injury. My physio told me to take it easy until it settles down but that just means no dolphin kick or kickboard drills and less at gym.

But the swim? Well I was doing my warm up laps and noticed someone had taken a dump in the pool. Told the staff and they cleaned it up but it put me off and I decided to go back to the gym.

It never ceases to amaze me just how grotty and disgusting some people can be in Taiwan.

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:dizzy_face:

how? I mean pee, OK, but you need to pull down your swimming trunks in what I assume is somewhat deep waterā€¦

Iā€™ve got no idea. All I can say is it was about 10cm long and definitely brown. There used to be an older guy that would go there and he used to crap on the floor and all over the toilet. I get that accidents happen but this was a regular thing from this guy.

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How was your swim today? :nauseated_face:

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And here I am all happy I can comfortably swim
25m X 16 relaxing breast stroke with head out of water at maybe the speed of a very very old dog without stopping while my bud in the next lane is faster but beat up after the set

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Honestly who swims breaststroke with their head out of the water? Itā€™s like those old guys that swim upside down frog in the fast lane. And whenever the staff try to tell them to change lanes they just pretend to be deaf.

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Plus useful for looking out for floating logs ?

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They really need to have fast lanes where only freestyle is allowed (no breaststroke), not because thereā€™s anything intrinsically wrong with this style of swimming but because itā€™s swum wrong most of the time in Taiwan. The legs go way out and well past the halfway mark of the lane. Itā€™s dangerous when swimming in the opposite direction and especially when passing somebody (they donā€™t see you so donā€™t try to stick closer to their side of the lane).

Iā€™ve only had staff tell a swimmer to change lanes one time, and that was after I complained about how he was going waaay slower than the minimum time marked at the end of the lane.

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Check out some YouTube videos. It wouldnā€™t be hard to improve what youā€™re describing here. And look also at how to do the kick properly in breaststroke. Swimming is highly technical. Much of the joy for me comes from continually trying to improve my technique.

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Iā€™m not afraid to ask staff to tell people to get out of my lane. Especially when Iā€™m swimming on pace. Itā€™s dangerous. I might hurt myself but Iā€™ll definitely hurt them.

As for fast lanes they do have them. They just donā€™t enforce the rules. At ZhongZheng they also have a training lane. The problem for me is that Iā€™ll still belt out laps in the training lane. Thereā€™s no common sense placed on it.

Maybe if they had better experienced staff and those staff werenā€™t afraid of upsetting people then they could properly allocate swimmers into the right lanes for them. I say this knowing that some older freestyle swimmers should really be in the same lane as older breaststroke swimmers. But some people in the training lane could also be in the same lane as those older swimmers. Or maybe some people on the training lane could be in the fast lane.

To me it just seems thereā€™s so many rules to use a pool here. I was told at one pool I canā€™t use a snorkel for training because the staff wonā€™t know if Iā€™ve drowned or not. Iā€™m like ā€œif Iā€™m not moving forward thereā€™s a problemā€.

What can you do? As a westerner I get targeted anyway. Usually by older people but not always. It really comes down to the staff and allowing older people to do whatever they want rather than follow the rules.

At one pool I suggested creating a lane just for kids. Older people had caused issues with me and my kids so the solution was to just close the lane off for me. Other kids were getting groped by old men under the water. To avoid it they started coming into my lane. The staff tried to tell them to leave but I said it was ok. They were safe in my lane. Then the old men tried to follow them into my lane. The staff took notice and told the old men to leave my lane. The old men complained to the management. The staff even joke with me about how old people like to make complaints against me. One of the staff was in military college. He took no shit from these old people at all. Heā€™d give them an absolute dressing down in front of everyone in the pool. But still they complained about me.

I mentioned at another pool about the old man that would masturbate in the pool every Saturday morning. Standing up against the wall to try to hide what he was doing. I told the staff. The staff tried to catch him. I told them just get some police in casual clothes to come in and keep an eye on him. The old man complained to someone in the government. He was a retired public servant and used all his guanxi to get away with it. In any other country heā€™d be looking at a prison sentence.

Iā€™ve also had the displeasure of being groped on numerous occasions. Usually an elbow to the head as I pass them is enough to get them to leave me alone. But I have had to complain to staff. I even threatened to knock one gay guys teeth out in the pool if he touched me again. What did he do? He complained.

They do it in such a way that they demand Taiwanese should stand with Taiwanese against the lying foreigner. And if that doesnā€™t work then they try to get other people to make complaints against you. Itā€™s quite frustrating really. I wouldnā€™t put up with this kind of behavior back home so why should I put up with it here?

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There does seem to be very aggressive gay men there who have no shame
Not like in California gay people donā€™t mess with non gays

How long does it take to get used to bilateral breathing? Seems like I should learn it. Iā€™m nowhere near as fast as you. My 4K time is about the same as your 5K. But Iā€™m keen to avoid injuries as Iā€™m getting older.

Agree fully. Breaststroke seems to be an obsession in Taiwan. Must be something about the way they are taught but I often get kicked by breaststrokers going the opposite way.

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