This is my first post here.
I started swimming four years ago. I grew up with a pool at our house and swimming was always an important part of summer for me, but I never swam competitively. Fast forward a few decades (I'm 47 now). I started swimming because running was becoming too painful for my knees and back, and I was tired of other problems (shin splints, for example).
I started out with breaststroke but now I swim almost nothing but freestyle. I started practicing bilateral breathing just a few months ago because my goal is to enter triathlons starting next year (Olympic distance), and I found that being able to breathe on both sides would be an immense asset after a few open water swims in which I breathed only to one side.
After a timed swim last week in which I tried to do bilateral as much as possible during a 1500m swim, I came up with a time that was slightly better than normal, and this even though I deliberately took it easy for the first half of the swim.
I knew it must have been the higher stroke rate that this unnatural style forces me to use. Yesterday, I timed myself again for 1500m and ended up under 28 minutes for the first time ever (27:48). I again used bilateral breathing and the higher stroke rate.
Now I'm sold on a higher stroke rate! When I breathe to one side, it's very smooth (almost no bubbles even when I push myself), but I pause for a second with my right arm in the water.
Has anyone else experienced something similar with a higher stroke rate?
I had a similar experience - I swam a 1000 free, switching breathing sides every 50. My splits were very even all the way through, but the splits for breathing on one side for the first 50 of each 100 were consistently about .5 to 1s faster than breathing on the other side for the 2nd 50 of each 100. Like you, I was trying to figure out why on earth there might be a difference between the two. I naturally breathe to the left, and I like to breath every 2. I started doing some slow lengths breathing every 6 or so concentrating on form and then a length using my comfortable breathing while maintaining the form. I noticed that when I get into a longer distance rhythm, I start dropping my right arm and elbow and not taking quite as hard a pull with my left arm. When I breathe to the other side (right side), it forces me to keep my right elbow up and to take a more powerful stroke with my left. This could possibly account for the difference i noticed in my time.
This is a very long way of saying that posting a video would be very helpful, because it may be something about your stroke mechanics, rather than just turnover rate, although if your turnover is greater when breathing to one side vs the other, that could be a reason.
I had a similar experience - I swam a 1000 free, switching breathing sides every 50. My splits were very even all the way through, but the splits for breathing on one side for the first 50 of each 100 were consistently about .5 to 1s faster than breathing on the other side for the 2nd 50 of each 100. Like you, I was trying to figure out why on earth there might be a difference between the two. I naturally breathe to the left, and I like to breath every 2. I started doing some slow lengths breathing every 6 or so concentrating on form and then a length using my comfortable breathing while maintaining the form. I noticed that when I get into a longer distance rhythm, I start dropping my right arm and elbow and not taking quite as hard a pull with my left arm. When I breathe to the other side (right side), it forces me to keep my right elbow up and to take a more powerful stroke with my left. This could possibly account for the difference i noticed in my time.
This is a very long way of saying that posting a video would be very helpful, because it may be something about your stroke mechanics, rather than just turnover rate, although if your turnover is greater when breathing to one side vs the other, that could be a reason.
