Hello,
first of all thanks in advance for having a peek at this...
I'm 'only' 38 and I've had very severe asthma until my mid-twenties. I only managed to swim back then in small doses, and in recent decade or so, after my asthma 'left me' finally, I managed to get my swimming up to the (maybe puny but for me never before thought) level of being able to do 1Km breaststroke in 26-28 minutes depending on whether I'm having a good or bad day... This with just a couple of short stops only, trying to keep going as much as I can.
Now due to my back, last summer I was adviced to switch to freestyle, which before I only used for maybe 50m or so as 'fun' for speed. I manage almost exactly 17 seconds on 25m, but then I'm dead :)
I found the transition extremely difficult, although I have tuned it with expert help, made it much more relaxed & optimal than before. I also cycle a lot, with some weight training, did martial arts and I'm quite toned, people think I must be at quite some performance level... but I really am not:
Please be gentle, but since August 'til now, swimming 3-4 times a week, I find it basically impossible to get past a 100-150m barrier (sometimes even worse, whether it is in 25m or 50m pool that I can use locally). Then I have to stop and really catch my breath. This even at slow speed of doing 100m in about 2 minutes, which I know is... very slow. I breathe on every 3 strokes, can change to every 2 on same side when I get really tired but I try to sustain every 3. I watch in amazement much older people who continuously manage huge distances I can't get imagine doing.
Being out of breath and heart pumping triggers, admittedly, old panics and fears, it used to continue with extremely bad things when I was a kid.
But if one assumes my current freestyle is not completely inefficient (I'm told it really isn't)... I just can't tell whether I carry some legacy from asthma days and simply I am never going to be able to increase my stamina AND I might do myself damage... or I simply have a mental block around the 'barrier'.
But that barrier, as per above, comes so early it makes me almost cry with frustration sometimes. I set out with realistic goals and I just can't seem to progress, my fear being that I just don't know beyond what point I really give myself a heart attack or something :)
But seriously, I tried to work on stamina by doing 100m-150m chunks with increasing intensity, after a proper warm-up, but by 2nd 'dose' I get so knackered I need to either stop or switch to breastroke after 50m...
Due to my past, I never managed to do any stamina-based sports, and I just don't know what a serious barrier feels like in swimming either, or one that can be just ignored and try and soldier through it.
It just can't be this bad physically... have you encountered such 'cases'? IF based on the above it is even possible to give advice, and if it's just a heck of a mental block, not sure how to get past it.
Any thoughts much appreciated, thanks in advance,
D.
First I'd say start off at breathing every stroke(same side breathing.)You have a history of breathing problems so you want to make sure you have plenty of oxygen early.I expect when you get a little short of breath you tighten up and get tired faster.
You might even try breathing every pull.I find that clumsy,but I understand some can do that just fine.
Most elite swimmers are doing same side breathing on distance over 200 and many on 100s and up.
Nothing to be embarrassed about here... you're working hard and trying to deal with your situation. I have asthma myself (although not severe asthma) and know what it's like to face that fear.
You say that others say your stroke is efficient. Who has looked at it? I'd be sure that the person looking at it is a trained coach. This seems to me to be a likely culprit.
I'd also echo the suggestion to breathe every stroke. You can breathe on your right side going down and your left side going back to keep things balanced. And yes, blow your air out slowly -- you definitely don't want to blow it out all at once!
many thanks for already looking at this - indeed, admittedly I've been really trying to keep the ideal every 3rd stroke symmetric breathing, but I start to wonder whether I can do it at all for longer. I have been in a way revisiting my childhood frustrations, where physically I feel perfectly OK and could go on and on, but simply lungs don't let me continue...
I received very firm but conflicting teaching (namely, must breathe out slowly vs. must exhale explosively), and to be honest for me slow gradual exhaling works best somehow. But then as you say, I just end up progressively going low on oxygen somehow, even if I give myself a chance to inhale slowly and properly.
I'll definitely try switching after a short while to what you just described, do that on one side for a length of a few, then switch to other side just to balance it out.
Thanks again and to everybody who might look at this - as I really had despair and embarrassment fighting each other for months :)
Everyone is right about having someone look at your form. But one thing I have to say (I have serious asthma too, so bad that one time my O2 sat went down to 78%!!) anyway, when I know I'm not wheezing, but I still feel really out of breath, I talk to myself, and tell myself "you're ok, you're ok" - after a while, my breathing calms down, and I kinda get past that "wall". Maybe that will help you too.
You might try a short pair of swim fins to ease the load, to provide propulsion, and depending on your current form, to pick your body up in the water and allow you to swim more efficiently. Swim at a relaxed pace with the swim fins, breathing every stroke on your natural side, and thinking about glide and distance per stroke. This should ease the load and help you go past the 150-200m barrier. The fins are a great tool to build confidence. Once you're feeling comfortable, you can pick up the pace with the fins to help build aerobic capacity. Also swim some of your reps (25s and 50s) without the fins breathing every stroke on your natural side. Knowledgeable coaching from time to time will help progress too. And, have you tried swimming some backstroke? Breathing is less of an issue.
thanks to all - definitely would try changing the breathing.
In terms of form, I have taken 2 months of 1on1 coaching from someone professional who also trains for thriathlon, as I was more interested in the endurance side than building up some speed technique.
So to a degree I must trust his 'tuning' of my technique/form, it all certainly felt radically different compared to what I started with, that was not sustainable in his words by anybody :), not just because of how tense I was, but also too much leg work, breathing was a mess, I was also going past center line often on hand entry etc. -- so quite a mess as it was never 'my style' before and had to then reprogram a lot of my brain, he went back to drills with me etc.
Not to sound biased, but I think I'm not the only one on the discussion forum who is a bit skeptical of triathlete swimmers on the whole (this is obviously a generalization -- some are really great). In a less biased vein, if you hang around these forums long enough, you learn that working on form is never finished; people continually strive to improve their form. So, as a suggestion, you might have someone film you swimming and then post it to the Forums for feedback. Sometimes it's helpful to have different eyes/different opinions taking a look.
thanks to all - definitely would try changing the breathing.
In terms of form, I have taken 2 months of 1on1 coaching from someone professional who also trains for thriathlon, as I was more interested in the endurance side than building up some speed technique.
So to a degree I must trust his 'tuning' of my technique/form, it all certainly felt radically different compared to what I started with, that was not sustainable in his words by anybody :), not just because of how tense I was, but also too much leg work, breathing was a mess, I was also going past center line often on hand entry etc. -- so quite a mess as it was never 'my style' before and had to then reprogram a lot of my brain, he went back to drills with me etc.
This then (i.e. ending up with some faith in my resulting form) contributed to my frustration, because until then I thought: fine, it doesn't work because I am really not doing front crawl properly and I'm wasting much more energy etc.
You're all quite right I think, just 'mechanically' sticking to ideal symmetric breathing every 3 might be too ideal for me...
Also with regard to question on exhaling: indeed, I found that by 'accident' I was always (and still do it that way) exhaling slowly progressively under water, rather than a big explosive push just before inhaling. This wasn't conscious, just felt more normal and didn't have to put in extra effort for the exhaling part this way.
Thanks again and will experiment in coming weeks-
