How far have you swam continuously with the backstroke?
I swam a mile backstroke in high school on a challenge, going lengthwise.
No one else was in the pool, and think it took at least 45 minutes.
I was very tired afterwards but felt good.
Do you always use goggles for backstroke?
This week I swam a few laps, and found it easier to see without goggles.
Before I started swimming with a Masters coach who fixed some serious problems with my freestyle form as well as gave me planned workouts, I preferred back stroke because I could breathe the whole time and because I could see the sky. I seriously might do 1000 m backstroke and only 200 free. Now that I kind of know what I'm doing and have a coach that doesn't happen any more. If I'm doing backstroke for fun or as a cool down I skip the goggles. They are still necessary for timed sets with flip turns or for IMs
I've done 1000 SCY straight backstroke, 2000 SCY backstroke sets and probably exceeded 3000 SCY backstroke in a single workout.
Back in the 1970's the Red Cross had a program called the "50 Mile Swim" If you swam a total of 50 miles in chunks no smaller than 1/4 mile, you earned a patch. My Mom did it one summer, almost entirely backstroke.
I like to swim backstroke in the OW. In a lake, swimming parallel to the shore, one can look up or to the side and see clouds and tree tops go bye. A pair of tinted goggles helps, depending on sun conditions. In the Ocean its fun to get out past the breakers and swim backstroke while the swell periodically lifts you up and lets you down.
LCM backstroke seems swimming a mystery - where in the heck am I and when will this length end - probably just cause I'm not accustomed to it.
For me UDK w/fins on back is a real gas, looking up through the water at lane ropes and objects on the ceiling.
Two mad people have successfully crossed the English Channel swimming backstroke - Haydn Welsh (17:02) in 1993 and Tina Neil in 2005 (13:22).
A third swimmer, Nik Haynes, attempted a backstroke channel crossing last year. Was pulled after ~10 hours due to hypothermia: mobile.facebook.com/Niksbackstrokechannelswim
Tina Neil (article wrongly says she was the first to successfully cross the channel swimming backstroke): www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../
Hayden Welsh: www.haydnwelch.co.uk/.../
