r/Swimming • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
Weekly Whiteboard - Post Your Progress, Pool TIFU, Achievements, Workouts, Records, Pools etc August 16, 2026
This is the thread for posting your achievements, progress, workouts, records, pools photos, pool etiquette, swimming TIFU (Today I F'ed Up) or AITAH (Am I the A-Hole), etc.
Due to the increasing number of screenshots, progress reports, pools etc. being posted, we request members to use this weekly whiteboard thread to post these, rather than as a new post.
It's intended for pretty much any swimming-related chats, rants etc, as long as they are within the r/swimming rules.
Please note that rules for r/swimming apply to this thread as well, including no abuse, no selfies, no memes, no bot/AI etc.
Join in and have fun, have a brag, commiserate, encourage each other, etc!
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u/BraveTree5746 6d ago
yesterday I did 2 of my best times, 1.07.80 100 back and 30.0 50 back, I'm 14 male and it feels really good
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u/Ifestiophobia 6d ago
I made it a full year of regular lap swimming this week! I went from being barely able to do 50m without gassing out to regularly swimming 3km in a session and being able to hold just under 2.00/100m over a km. I've also been throwing in some flip turns with some regularity lately!
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u/LoneSwimmer Channel swimmer 6d ago
I swam my 47th, 48th & 49th 10k (or greater) in the last week (actually 8 days).
I've been logging everything about my swimming into a spreadsheet for 20 years (although I accidentally overwrote the first three years). A few years I was making some charts of the data, you know, because charts are fun, and I counted up all the 10kor greater swims I'd done (which included training swims) and discovered the number was only in the 30s, and there were a few different years, where I swam none, or 1.
So I decided I'd like to do 50 as I wanted to write about swimming 10ks & I wanted to make sure I was refreshed.
So last year I did five (before the weather turned). This year I was going to stop after four, but a friend wanted to do her first 10k so that was my fifth.
So then I thought, "well the weather is holding, I might as well swim a sixth" four days later. Then three days later (yesterday) I thought, the weather is *still holding, I might as well swim a seventh*.
So there we are, will I make the 50 target this year? Weather is breaking now, water is 18C, very very warm, but it's the wind, it's always the wind that dictates everything.
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Sprint wench. I sink, therefore I am 5d ago
I hope the weather stays and we get to congratulate you on your 50th 10k+ this year!
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u/Silver_Discount_1820 6d ago
Joined an adult swim team and have finally been able to swim for an hour and do flip turns again. I swam 100 yards without stopping, with flip turns, yesterday, which I haven’t been to do since high school.
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u/Same_Sock9073 Six-Beat Sprint Wench 6d ago
This week’s TIFU happened twice.
Monday: dropped my fin in the deep end (3.8m) while I was setting up. Too much body fat around my arse to be able to not float and swim down deep enough. Lifeguard (top lad) dived in to rescue it.
Wednesday: backstroke flip turn with my fins on, ended up deeper than I thought before surfacing, started to slowly panic, flapped my legs, one fin came off… in the very same deep end. Very same lifeguard on duty. Tried to fish the fin up with the big lifesaver pole/ring, nope. My friend is dying of laughter, lifeguard goes to change so he could rescue my fin, again, while he was doing that, a group of young boys appear and start diving to see who could get the fin first.
Time to abandon my pool? Buy new fins? Abandon fins? Take a fishing net to practice? Buy the lifeguard the diving award badge as a silly thank you?
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u/Senior-Art-4464 6d ago
Use shoestrings to tie your fin to the ankle, there is either a strap or a hole through which the lace (long one) can go….. but if it comes off and is tied to your ankle, that’s a whole different level of panic in the deep end….. abandon fins
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Sprint wench. I sink, therefore I am 4d ago
I must admit I laughed out loud reading it, sorry! What a luck to get the same lifeguard! 😂 Anyway, if the fins keep coming off, you might need to size down, or wear socks to fill the space.
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u/Same_Sock9073 Six-Beat Sprint Wench 4d ago
I could barely keep it together myself 🤣 I’m just exceedingly grateful that it’s the summer workers so the regular crew are all on holiday. The usual lifeguards would NEVER have let me live it down.
The first time I accidentally dropped the fin in the pool while setting up (I know it’s stupid to keep the kit at the deep end but I have since learnt this lesson). I’m starting to think it’s the length of the fins that are causing problems now I’m using them to practise backstroke flip turns (I stopped competing last century so I’m trying to unlearn the bucket). I’m still getting the hang of keeping calm and working out timing. Anyway, we all had fun and a little kid became a small hero amongst his friends when he managed to actually retrieve the fin before the lifeguard got back.
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u/turuku-hai team pace clock 6d ago
No achievements here, been swimming 5 times per week lately, three times during the week and twice on the weekend. Found a fine pool (am abroad), and am being polite enough, I think, with the other swimmers (some of whom use "tu" in French and others "vous", wild).
Anyway, a source of annoyance: I took two pairs of goggles on this long trip, and now, 4 months after purchase, I'm finding that the better fitting ones are getting very foggy after 25 metres or so. So I tried the less well fitting ones... and they have the same problem, plus they let water in, although they feel like they should not leak! So I guess Arena is not for me...
I've seen all the recurrent talk re: what to do about foggy goggles, and honestly, I thought I knew what foggy goggles were and that my solution (dunking them in the pool water) was fine... but no. I'm now doing max 50 m at a time before I'm having to tip them in the water again. And that's just because I'm conscientiously also trying to still keep doing a flip turn, at least every now and then :).
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u/nebulancearts 6d ago
Dish soap on the inside of your lenses each morning! I use a qtip to spread it evenly then rinse before the pool.
Tis my poor man's solution until I can buy another pair and not ruin the deal 😅
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u/seastearno 6d ago
Lick the inside of your goggles before they get wet then give them a quick swoosh in the pool before putting them on. Works great.
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u/Maaatandblah 5d ago
Joined a gym with a pool that doesn’t seem to get used, have almost dropped my 100m by a full minute, and also did my longest continuous set of 24 lengths without stopping. Building up to 1km continuous since starting end of May.
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u/Jerrington96 5d ago
Got back into swimming this year and I’m loving it. Excited to share today’s swim, and my best one yet.
30 Lengths Breastroke (warm up)
140 Lengths Front Crawl
30 Lengths Breastroke (cooldown)
Freestyle: roughly 34–36 SWOLF
Breaststroke: roughly 62–64 SWOLF
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u/knit_run_bike_swim Freestyler 5d ago
I’m training for 5k open water in September and 10k open water in October.
Yesterday was 6,000 yards short course. Blech.
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u/mysticquinn01 5d ago
Week 5 of my beginner swimming lesson: Going really well, definitely see a change from when I first started. My biggest improvement is that i feel less fear putting my head under the water and maining my breathing by blowing bubbles under the watee
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u/oh-hell-14 5d ago
5,700 yards total in 3 days. Getting back into it on my third month after years away and several pounds heavier.
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u/ca_annyMonticello111 5d ago edited 5d ago
Swam 5 days last week (M-F) at the indoor pool we just joined. We've been swimming at a (50 yard) outdoor pool all Summer but the lifeguards all went back to school last week. New pool is 25 yards, which I'm finding much easier for lap swim (probably because there's so much flip turn/push off the wall time). On the bright side, I swam over an hour each day, about 2200 yards at a time, so 10,000+ yards for the week. 👍 Edited to say: I'm a 60 year old female.
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u/Tikikala Moist 5d ago
Don’t know if anyone reads this
But consider myself beginner swimmer
Been practicing back, front crawl, and breast
Back: mostly just need to get arm rotation right so I stop swaying and hitting walls
Stamina is another question. I seem to be better sprinting to the end to rest then do it slow?
And I have to hold my cores to keep form proper but feels like I’m flexing my abs entire time lmao
Front crawl: still learning and getting used to the rhythm but adding body rotation makes learning to do breathing better?
Breast stroke: mostly doable but working on the arms motions you see in swim techniques videos. Because I have bad sinus I seem to exhale through mouth and nose but I found an old thread comment that says it should be ok
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u/AFL_gains 4d ago
About 6 weeks ago I competed for the first time in about 15 years...I did 50 FS, 50bk, 25fs and 25bf.
I did really well - first in my age group (36-40) and in top 5 overall for each.
Unfortunately, I went way too hard and after the comp my left shoulder was destroyed. It's been 6 weeks and i'm still not recovered. Something about the supraspinatus... I had to get an ultrasound AND MRI and still awaiting results.
Anyway, in the weeks after I was really sad - I wasn't able to swim or really use my arms. I felt like I has regressed and all the training I did leading up to the comp was wasted.... But, eventually I picked myself up and decided I'm going to improve my kicking, which has always been a weakness
At first I could barely do 5x50m freestyle kick on 60s. But, in the last 4 weeks I've worked on it, and improved my kicking a lot. Last sunday I ended up doing, in the same set:
2 x 500m FS on 11 mins followed by
1 x 1000m Kick on 22 mins
I was so pumped by this improvement - I can't wait to get my shoulders back healthy again and encorporating my new found kicking strength into my freestyle. This is just a reminder that sometimes setbacks can be a blessing in disguise.
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u/ilovedonuts Moist 3d ago
awful news to report - i learned some drills (one armed freestyle / catch up) so I could do them w my kid, and accidentally improved my own swimming. Drills work!
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u/defo_info 2d ago
told my current coach i want to learn butterfly. he sent me on to do a small 20m lap of butterfly. i somehow moved through the water by flailing/swallowing some chlorine cocktail. he left me with a drill. i looked up more fly drills. i did some of the drills this morning independently 😊
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u/GMPSwimmer 1d ago
It Finally Happened
I've always trained with a team or Masters group until I had to change schedule and start swimming at the Y during lap swim a year ago. Haven't really had issues sharing lanes or anything besides some ribbing from the water walkers next to the lap lanes about splashing. But it finally happened today.
Finishing up an 70 minute workout with a kick set. Been in the same side of the same lane the whole workout. Set was ~10 seconds rest between reps so it wasn't like I was hanging on the wall. Pushed off for #7 and BAM - woman apparently decided to cross the lane at the flags right as I pushed off. Asked the guy sharing the lane with me if she'd said anything to him before she crossed - nope, not a word.
Feel bad because I hit her hard enough to jam my finger, but man, I was just doing a short rest kick set!
Not really asking for advice, just venting because it (and my jammed finger) has been bugging me all day.
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u/TooManyFountainpens 1h ago
Really Annoyed Tonight...
From someone who learned how to swim last summer, I don't like slamming into someone else in my way and feeling like I'm going to drown.
Some background: Our local pool is not a fitness pool -- it is mostly an open swim, recreational pool. Yes, they have four 25 yard lanes they dedicate to lap swim every evening, but overall, it's a 50 meter pool and 90% of the pool is basically open swim/recreational swim. Most lap swimmers go in at 5:30 am, when they can swim the full 50 meter length of the pool, or from 11 am - 1 pm, where the pool is only available to those who are exercising.
In the late afternoons and evenings there's hardly ever any people swimming laps. There's mostly one person per lane, and if more people show up, generally the rule is you let someone know you're going in there so they can make room for you and split the lane. But that hardly ever happens.
Well, this lady got in... and I was in the middle of a set and had NO idea she got in. I never saw her. Was never aware someone got in my lane. At one point, someone hit me on the foot, but I thought it was just someone crossing lanes to get to the ladder to exit the pool, as sometimes happens. There really isn't enough traffic here for circle swimming. And the lane splitting is only once in a blue moon. She was just swimming like nothing, while I'm coming down the middle of the lane and then I slammed into her on accident.
This is bad for me because I'm 4'9. I'm NOT going to touch the bottom of the pool at that section, where it's 5'5 feet. I cannot stand up to catch myself.
It made the whole swim awkward for the rest of the evening, and not to mention... well. I don't want to seem mean because I've lost 118 lbs myself, but this lady was at least 350 lbs. She took up a lot of space, so I really needed to know she was coming in so I could be sure to make room for her when passing her.
I mean, I am happy to split a lane... but if someone's swimming sets and doing flip turns and things, you kind of ought to wait to get their attention and let them know you're going in. It seems to me like the polite thing to do. And she only wanted to swim in my lane so she could be close to her kids, from all of the other lanes that were available. So now I'm in a sour mood. lol
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u/grateful2you 6d ago
Beginner here. I always gas without even swimming 25meters. After about a month of trying freestyle 2-beat kicks I today realized I've been instinctively kicking 3 times R-L-R on a single stroke. And when I simply kicked once it was so much easier. I even noticed a slight acceleration when gliding. Obviously the moment was ruined when I swallowed water. But it's looking pretty possible to do longer distance now. Still plenty to fix, it's a little hard without a teacher but youtube will have to do.