Wow....just wow!
I badly sprained my ankle this past weekend and as a result missed my middle of the week (Wed) workout. I typically swim 3x's/week (Sun/Wed/Fri) and shoot for 1 mile continuous swim alternating laps primarily between *** and free.
Anyway, as a result of my bum ankle I decided to see how many laps of freestyle I could do today with a pull buoy.....I have a lap counter so can easily click to record each 50 yards (down and back lap). I was easily able to tick off lap after lap and before I knew it I had recorded 30 laps (1500 yards) in about 30 mins.
I'm 53 years old and in decent shape but never a competitive swimmer. I started pool workouts back in December for cardio vice jogging and as of now can only do about 250 yards of free before getting winded and having to switch to free.
My comment/question is this....I was shocked to swim 30 laps of freestyle today with the pull buoy and not being winded (if anything, I was a bit fatigued in the shoulders...although I should note that I had a heavy upper body weight lifting workout yesterday). My shock/revelation is that up to this point my max continuous freestyle distance has been around 250 yards and given today's pull buoy (continuous freestyle) swim it REALLY REALLY shed a light on just how much of an impact that the use of legs has on (my) wind/endurance. Up to this point, I don't feel I over exert use of my legs.....
I'd love to get to the point of being able to swim freestyle lap after lap (using my legs) and feel like I did today as I seemed to breath so easily (every stroke to my right side).
Any thoughts/suggestions?:banana:
yesterday's session turned into more of a angle rehab session but here's want I learned:
- did lot's of pencil drills and I found that I can perform an easy push off from a standing position and glide easily with the slightest of kick with feet at the surface. Point being, I don't appear to be one with sinking legs.
- focused on head straight down and pressing chest (down)...resulting in hips rising.
- pull buoy freestyle swim of 100 yards was accomplished in just under 2 mins (right at about 1:50), so about the same speed as pre-ankle sprain freestyle
I really didn't want to stress my ankle too much so I didn't get to work on the 2 beat kick.....I think if I can develop that type of kick my freestyle distance will jump from a continuous 250 yard free distance to considerably more before getting winded.
Make sense?
yesterday's session turned into more of a angle rehab session but here's want I learned:
- did lot's of pencil drills and I found that I can perform an easy push off from a standing position and glide easily with the slightest of kick with feet at the surface. Point being, I don't appear to be one with sinking legs.
- focused on head straight down and pressing chest (down)...resulting in hips rising.
- pull buoy freestyle swim of 100 yards was accomplished in just under 2 mins (right at about 1:50), so about the same speed as pre-ankle sprain freestyle
I really didn't want to stress my ankle too much so I didn't get to work on the 2 beat kick.....I think if I can develop that type of kick my freestyle distance will jump from a continuous 250 yard free distance to considerably more before getting winded.
Make sense?
