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I stopped 4 years ago for some reason. Never been fast but was happy doing 5-10 km open water. I used to pool swim at lunchtimes.
I stsrted again 2 months ago. I can't believe how hard it is. I'm managing 1.5km in about 40 minutes but the issue is cramp in my feet.
Absolute agony. Will try some stretches and see if that helps
Out of shape, and a lack of ankle flexibility at a guess. Same thing happened to me when I started swimming again after Covid lockdown.
Definitely out of swimming shape. Bizarrely it's not like riding a bike
I used to get this a bit. It was especially bad after a long run the same day. I used to do a 10-12 mile run on a Sunday morning and a club pool swim session that evening and I could almost guarantee getting cramp in my instep. Things that helped were stretching and also not pushing too hard off the wall.
I have suffered cramp, in the feet, calves and hams, when swimming the crawl ever since childhood. A couple of years ago I met a yoga teacher who persuaded me to do yoga every day. a couple of months later I was able to snorkel, in Bali, with flippas for two or three hours a day, with no cramping at all.
Downward dogs for the win!
I got it after 20mins every time, but more recently focused on relaxing my feet constantly in the water, rather than flapping them around, and was able to swim 2 miles for the first time ever. I find if i use my feet suddenly, to overtake someone, the cramp sets in very quickly, and also pushing off the wall.
Cheers all,
I do very little like leg flapping but pushing off the wall definitely induces it.
I do pilates, not every day but that has definitely helped other issues, especially back ache in bed. Incidentally it was a super hard session last week, making me think I'll try with a heart rate monitor next week
I found eating lots of bananas prevented premature ending of surfing sessions due to cramp in the feet, YFMV.