I've been focusing on stroke work for the past year or so and I'm hitting on a phase I'm hoping others have hit and have answers to.
My 75-85% efforts are when my stroke is best but 1) It seems to fall apart when I really put the pedal to the metal and 2) If I try to slow down to build endurance, the stroke also does not stay together. If I can't maintain stroke mechanics during peak sprints or cardio/muscular endurance sets would that amount to garbage yardage?
This funky middle ground means I get some decent effort in practice, but it seems too short compared to other swimmers workouts. Without building power or endurance using 'the right stroke' I worry that I'm not really making as good of progress as I can.
Thanks in advance.
Beards247 - Thanks for some more good suggestions. Watched the video and tried really emphasizing the extension of my shoulder - and found that it makes a big difference when coordinated with everything else. But as with every other good suggestion which I've tried incorporating into my swimming, it tends to make me get tired even faster. That tiredness is what makes my stroke fall apart. I was actually about to post some further observations here about this "falling apart" issue when I stopped to check out the "kicking rhythm" thread that just got started. On that thread, vo2 makes a post that really gets to the bottom of what I think has been going on with me. In short, he talks about learning to swim with an engaged core, which is very exhausting if you aren't used to doing it. I highly recommend checking out that thread to see if it relates to your own stroke-falling-apart issues.
Thanks also for the recommendation of Salo's book. I've been doing general dryland conditioning, but not specifically aimed at swimming. Looks interesting.
I feel your pain GregJS! And ditto on the core (Salo's book emphasizes the same approach). It seems like everything I learn also adds a new style of agony : ). But I as I stretch out my stroke, I feel it in my core more and more - hopefully that is good!
I am off to check out that thread, thanks for the find.
Apologies if posting to an old thread is bad form.
Re. feeling the core, I just had laproscopic surgery that cuts in thru the belly button and two points to the side of it.
Wow! I can feel where the ab muscle just to the side of center, about four inches over, hurts when I reach and pull the water.
