swim goggles and bruising/puffiness around eyes

I swam competitively for many years and never had that. My guess is that your goggles don't fit your facial structure very well, and you have to really crank them tight to compensate. Your goggles should fit well enough that the strap only needs to be tight enough to hold them in one spot.

Go to a swimming store and spend some time dry fitting various goggles. A proper fit goggle, if you press it slightly into your face should be able to "hold" just from the slight suction created.

Edited to add: Do you also keep the goggles on the entire time? When I swim, I'm almost always flipping them off my eyes in between sets where my rest is longer than 20 seconds or so.

John

Edited by tkd.teacher 2009-08-24 11:30 AM

UGH! I'm having the SAME PROBLEM!

I use to use the Speedo Pro goggles, because they fit on the OUTSIDE of my eye socket, not right on it or inside of it.

Well they changed the design on them and now they don't fit my face.

I got some TYR's to fit my face, but they sit on the eye socket/right inside of it, and have been causing bruising and puffiness around my eyes. It's pretty bad.

I'm not sure how to fix it, as most goggles don't fit me and I found other goggles to be even worse they as dig into my eye socket.

PS- I hate Speedo for changing the design of my favorite goggles!!!!

I'll echo what John said.  Go to a store and try a few out and remember they do not need to be tight!  All you need is the right suction and the strap is just to keep them in place.

I'll echo the echo.

Good observations.  Yes, I do find myself tightening them and pressing them against my face to get a good seal.  I do take them off between sets, but I've been working up a mile which can be a lengthy block.  And those are indeed the days I notice the most puffiness.

They are Aqua Sphere and they do have the suction hold.  Well, this simply will not do.  I'm going to look like a bug-eyed racoon if I'm not more careful.

I will most definitely go goggle shopping for a better fit.

Thank you.

You're welcome, although I do feel obligated to point out that the mile swim doesn't need to be more than once every couple of months. A set of 16 100's on :10 rest interval will do just about the same thing. :D Very rarely do you need to swim it all straight.

Good luck with the goggle hunt!

John

Ok, will do!  I couldn't even swim 50 yards just over a month ago, so I was concerned about building endurance.  But now I need to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing for drills etc.

Wonder what Mr. Smoooooth recommends? lol

I'm sure there are tons of drills to be googled and I will find them.

It could definitely be the fit of the goggles like previous posters have mentioned. I know when I use goggles that don't fit quite right, my face physically hurts after a half hour in the water. And the marks take much longer to go away. So, I've had bruising from goggles that don't fit. But not necessarily puffiness. The only time my eyes got puffy was a couple of weeks ago when I spit into my goggles to clear the fog up. I'm thinking I got some spit into my one eye, because I took my goggles off and my right eye was so puffy I could hardly see. Honestly, it looked like someone had punched me! I spent the next 24 hours washing my eyes out good with soapy water to clear it up. So, (even if you're not a spitter) is it possible you have something in your eye from the water too that's aggravating it? Was it a bad chlorine day?

Yep, drills and some good stroke instruction will work wonders!

Threshold - lots of short distance (50-200), near a race pace, on short rest. Increases time you can spend at a given speed
Interval - Lost of short distance faster than race pace, generally around 100% effort, long rest between. Increases top end speed.

A mix of both increases your speed and the time you can spend at that speed. Get swim workouts in a binder, do the 3x300 test at the front, and use that to figure out your workouts. You'll be golden! :D

John

McFuzz - I looked up those goggles online and they look like the perfect answer!  If I can't find them at Dick's I'll order them.  You've come to my rescue once again.  You are so..... insightful!

John - I looked up the drills in a binder on amazon.  I think I'll get that so I'm not just out there floundering around.  I've taken printouts from online a few times and they of course become wet blobs.

Learning is fun!

.. and eyes are still puffy <now where's that cucumber?>

Hey, for your printouts that become wet blobs... just put them in a ziplock baggie (quart or gallon size) and you won't have to worry about them getting wet.

 

Yoda,

Try different brands until you find some that fit you well with minimal damage. I had some that did similar but it went away in a few hours. Everyones face is different (thankfully most don't look like me) so you need to try different manufacturers. Unlike improper bike fit this is a cheap fix.

lodeway - Thanks for the baggie suggestion!




Yoda?  Ha ha.  Very funny.  Actually, I did laugh out loud at that.  lol

Yes... I'll definitely try different goggles.  I like those ones McFuzz suggested.  Will go on lunch hour today and hopefully have new ones in time for swim day tomorrow.  If not, I'll run.  I'm swapping out a swim day for an extra run day anyway.

Tracy - I'll keep the perscription goggles in mind.

I did find the aqua sphere seal while I was out on my lunch hour.  They definitely press against the face much further away from the delicate eye skin tissue.  But the true test will be to see if they leak tomorrow.

Karen - If these work out, maybe you should give them a try!  You're face is much too pretty for bags.

Barracuda Standard swim goggles dont leave the rings and are gentle to the eye areas. The only problem is that they have to be worked with and tweaked to get sealed for some swimmers. Goggles like Speedos Hydro Spex can be slapped on and work for lots of swimmers and they leave marks.The Seal mask 's leave marks also. The Barracudas are extreamly comfortable and you will swear by them if you can get them to not leak..

A love em or hate em goggle , they were very popular several years back. I did write a review of them see the gear reviews of goggles (upper right hand corner gear reviews button)

The Barracudas have two adjustments 1 the strap which is a double strap, 2 the nose bridge which has to be set with the tiny tool with the goggle and adjusted bit by bit for some swimmers. There are three nose bridges with the goggle and somepeople have to take the closest one and trim it down bit by bit.

The "cudas" are more expensive about 35 dollars but today even the "cheap" goggles are going 12-15 dollars

Happy now!  Tried the Aqua Sphere Seal goggles this morning.  They are MUCH more comfortable than the others.  They do not leak and they fit on the outside of the eye sockets, so no more dark puffy eyes.  I like the added vision surface.  Too bad they are ugly, but oh well.

Thanks for the help and suggestions!

I was going to recommend the Aqua Spheres as well.  They are a little big and clunky but I did notice the other day I left them at home and used my regular speedo goggles and the wake around my mouth on my breaths was a little smaller.  Not very scientific but it seems the bigger goggles also create a slightly larger wake when you rotate to breath or at least for me they do.