Trim Speed - Some Findings about Swimming Slowly

Are you doing yourself a favor when you take it easy one day and swim slowly? While I do a pretty good job of getting myself to the pool daily, it's not uncommon that I find myself with little motivation to actually push myself hard. I once considered these slow days as a treat since I knew I would not find myself feeling the burn in the last half of the workout. That's a good thing, right? Not so fast (no pun intended). I find that on my slow days, things actually hurt more!

On these "off" days, I envision myself gliding through the water effortlessly, like a sea otter, enjoying his pond. Problem is, when I do the slow thing, I don't find myself gliding so much as I find myself slogging through the water. Sure the first few laps could give one the idea that things are fine, but after a while that goes away. Only when I pick the pace back up does that glide come back.

It seems that there is a minimal speed my body must have to achieve a comfortable swim. If I go too slowly, my body wants to sink such that the glide next to impossible. I must make a conscious effort on these slow days to not go too slow such that my forward progress is impeded by gravity. Often I'll have to feel the pain of the extra effort needed to move forward before I realize that if I just pick up the pace - even just a little bit - things will actually be easier.

My conclusion? Keeping one's pace up to its minimal trim speed is essential to comfortable swimming.

Finding Your Trim Speed

If you've ever ridden in a speed boat and seen how it accelerates from zero, you'll notice all the effort the boat makes to get started. Once at speed, the bow lowers parallel to the water and the boat skims almost effortlessly through the water. I'm finding swimming is like that.

When I have my days where I'm achy or tired for whatever reason, my speed is naturally slower than usual. It's these days I notice that the effort to just go slow seems unreasonably difficult. Shouldn't it be easier to swim slower than faster? I find that the answer, surprisingly, is no. If I can break out of the achies - sometimes just working the muscles for a while helps - and I can pick up my speed, the "efforting" I'm engaging in seems to actually decrease. Yes, you read that right. I find myself streaming through the water easier, my strokes more efficient, and my speed unproportionally faster for what additional extra effort I've engaged. This is because my body becomes more horizontal in the water (as opposed to the more diagonal angle of slow speed). It's my trim speed.

This may explain, at least in part, why some fast swimmers are seemingly less tired after a long workout than slow swimmers after a short effort. Sure fitness has a lot to do with it, but finding and maintaining your trim speed helps a lot too.