I've started swimming. It's a lot of work and I'm not very good at it, but I'm committed to being able to do a sprint triathlon. Most of those have a 400 meter swim. I can swim 400 meters, eventually, by stopping every lap. I'm trying to slow down, and that's helping. I think I'm wasting a lot of energy. I'm trying to figure out what to do about pools. The nicest pools are also the cheapest but are also the least available: local high school pools have some time they're open to the public. A local gym has a 24/7 pool. Membership is expensive and the pool isn't as nice. But 24/7 is great.
My tip for swimming: use a foam pool buoy if you're working on freestyle swimming. They're less than ten bucks but they helped me massively in developing proper upper body technique. It will feel like you're falling forward, which is the point, as it helps your body be much flatter than you'd otherwise be. And keep at it - swimming in my opinion is one of the few sports where there's a noticable, gradual improvement curve if you just put in the hours.
What do you do with the bouy? Freestyle is what I'm working on. My form feels better already after only four swims, but it definitely needs work.
You put it between your upper legs, as high as feels comfortable (i.e. in a position where you can hold onto it with keeping your legs together). It's usually asymmetrical in shape, the bigger half should be on your belly side. One can get similar results with a foam plank if you want to try it out, but those are much harder to keep between your upper legs.
I swam last night and shared a lane. The other guy suggested keeping my head down. It felt weird but also felt like I had less resistance. I'll have to try the bouy, because I think I'm keeping my head and chest up. When I get everything right, it feels really good. It might only be one or two strokes every other lap, but I can feel it.
It's fluid dynamics at work. Swimming is really about reducing resistance, and there's no better way to do that than to make yourself flatter and longer. Try to extend your arms higher up than you're used to - your lower back should feel like you're getting something from the top shelf. Tight swimwear also helps; one trainer said something along the lines of "you wouldn't go running with a parachute, so why go swimming with baggy pants?". I also prefer to swim with a nose clamp too, but that's a personal preference.
I think I am going to miss one of my goals this year which was swimming 1000 m freestyle without stopping. I base this assessment on the fact that it is October and I haven't really been working towards it. I should start working on it though, it might still be possible. Swimming is nice in that it is hard to injure yourself even while doing things wrong, and in that it is self correcting to a certain extent - you can kind of feel what gives you more forward motion per stroke.
That is a very good point. I think why I set that goal was that I had in some ways stagnated in my swimming. I was swimming 1km every time and I didn't really think that was good enough exercise. And well, this year I am still mostly swimming 1km each time and then calling it a day. A better goal to have would perhaps be to "challenge myself more when swimming". That one is harder to procrastinate on as well.
Just because you might miss it doesn't mean you can't still shoot for it. 750 meters without stopping would still be very impressive. My goal for next year is to do a sprint triathlon. That would have a 400 meter swim. I've gotten out a couple times and stop at each length of the pool. I'm getting better and need less rest, but it's still a struggle. On Saturday I felt a bit of what you said about feeling when the stroke is right. I could feel my arm catch the water. Not every stroke, but it was giving me feedback of what a good stroke feels like.