This is awful. I really want to be able to swim freestyle - I can do the *** stroke no problem. I'm taking a workshop and my instructor tells me "your freestyle stroke is very strong" but I'm so WEAK! I'm swimming in a 25 yard pool and I can't make it much more than halfway across the $#$@! pool without having to break into the *** stroke, and I feel like I am just dying.
I'm not in HORRIBLE shape, but not great shape (the current shape is round but my lifestyle changes will eliminate that in time)...I do martial arts, circuit training, can walk 2 miles without a problem.
What can I do to work up to freestyle without killing myself? I don't want to shorten my swims by trying to do freestyle and then dying and having to settle for less time in the water/moving around/burning it off.
Help!
When I was learning to swim, I had a breakthrough day when I realized I was swimming too hard, holding my breath too long and with all my muscles tensed up. I was also not doing a full exhale so I wasn't getting enough air while breathing. I went from barely surviving 25 yards to easily swimming a mile over the course of that one swim session. Perhaps you will have a similar breakthrough.
From your responses about the pull-buoy and fins, it does sound like you are using a lot of leg energy to swim with sub-optimal body position (sinking legs).
Fins are great fun and can be useful. You shouldn't be dependent upon them, but otherwise they have a legitimate place in swim workouts.
Breathe. Blow out hard and slow down when you feel tired. If you concentrate on the out breath, you will get through. Also learn how to glide on each stroke.
Hi all -
I wanted to look back at this thread from 2 months ago. This week, something amazing happened to my freestyle. I had a drill to do 100 yards of it. OMG. I decied to alternate the 25s with fs and *** stroke but then found that no, I think I had that...I am very happy to say that I can do a 50 of freestyle now without feeling like I am going to die! 2 months ago I could barely get across the 25 yards, so this is good. I think my weight loss is freeing up 'space' in my chest cavity so I can breathe better too (down almost 23 lbs so far). I'm keeping up the swimming and feeling so much better!!!!!!!!! I've learned to pace myself so I don't wear out and someone in my swim class was commenting about how smooth my freestyle is and it looks effortless. I'm learning the butterfly now - that doesn't :cheerleader:' exhaust me as much as freestyle in an 'air deprived' way; but it sure burns my arms (a good thing!)
Today was big. I did 100 yards of freestyle without a stop! No Defibrillators (sp?) were required either!
I've made great strides! And my weight has diminished by almost 23 lbs....
Today was big. I did 100 yards of freestyle without a stop! No Defibrillators (sp?) were required either!
I've made great strides! And my weight has diminished by almost 23 lbs....
Awesome! :cheerleader:
Today was big. I did 100 yards of freestyle without a stop! No Defibrillators (sp?) were required either!
I've made great strides! And my weight has diminished by almost 23 lbs....
I think you have crossed a threshold where you will be able rapidly increase how far you can swim. You should try this program, zero to 1650 in 6 weeks: ruthkazez.com/ZeroTo1mile.html
Whoa that looks scarily intense....I like my heart rate to drop below 100 in between my sets...I bookmarked it and will discuss it with my deck coach - she got really scared one time when my face turned bright red after a rather intense set about 6 weeks ago...I'm excited that I made a stride so suddenly!
Rethinking now that maybe I **should** work on that...this morning, my deck coach challenged me to do absolutely the minimum amount of *** stroke and concentrate on freestyle only. She threw in 3 100s. I decided okay, no *** stroke unless I feel like I'm going to die. That feeling never came, so I stepped up to the challenge and ran with it! My warm down was 200; I broke it into two more 100s. I am feeling very accomplished today. Next: She's going to get me off my nose clip. I have a nose clip that doesn't completely keep the water out of my nose so I have to blow out - I'm going to use that as my training wheel. I will be able to use my air a lot more efficiently without my darn nose clip! (45 years of swimming with one...)
