Hi Everyone,
It's not my first time posting here (had different names I can't even remember) but I still trying to find a way to be able to swim many laps without having to stop for a few minutes after a few. I have seen it all/read it all/tried it all to no avail.
I have been suspecting that it has to do with my technique/breathing/muscle endurance/or all of these. I am a technical hermit and I can say that I have pretty good technique. Have been taking 1 on 1 coaching (I want to do that again by joining a swimming club that teaches recreational swimmers like myself). I've got many compliments as to my style. I can swim all strokes. When swimming freestyle I have high elbow, good DPS, etc. I have read tons of articles, watched days of tutorial videos, bought fins, pull buoy. I am fairly athletic, broad shoulders, lean and long (6'1") body I could go on and on for pages about my past with swimming and the things I have tried, but I won't. I wrote all these down so you get the picture a little bit of my background.
The question:
I have a coworker who is a girl, short (I'd say 5'5"), a bit overweight, but the firm kind and not full fat - but she is not athletic at all just by looking at her. Although she was a member of an elite Hungarian jump-rope team. She went all over the world (World Jump Rope where they won several golds,etc.), so she is/was good at it.
So this girl started swimming just recently and she can swim 1000 meters without stopping (mainly breasts, but free/back too) whereas I swim for years now and can hardly swim 200 meters before I have to stop. Also after a little preparation she was able to run the Marathon last year. again, she is not athletic and no one would pick her out of a line to run the Marathon...
Her resting pulse is like 40. What is it that she has and I don't? What do I have to work on? I kinda know it: endurance, cardiovascular strength, but I would like others to say it.
Sorry for the words I used when talking about her, but I had to be descriptive.
Thanks
...elite Hungarian jump-rope team...
Interesting. I never would have guessed there is such a thing.
Afodi -- First, I want to compliment you for your "sticktoitivness." I think many other swimmers would have given up by now. I don't really have an answer for you, but I will offer a couple of comments. I think that if 'a swimmer' wants swim longer, non-stop distances...maybe, for now, they (i.e. you) need to just leave all the swim toys on the deck and focus on swimming longer distances. I mean building endurance is a long process. But I'm sure you know that. Decades ago in my early 20s when I decided to become a fitness swimmer, I was already a distance runner. I could "swim" per se, and thought that distance swimming would just come naturally. I was wrong. It took a while before I could swim longer distances non-stop. And to do it I just concentrated on swimming longer...one stroke (crawl) not using all the equipment. Why did it come so naturally to your co-worker? Who knows. In distance running there's a saying: "Sprinters are born, distance runners are made"...through long, hard work. Generally I've always believed that. But I also believe that everyone has a natural ability to some degree or another. It just needs to be refined and/or improved upon. And that it applies to not just running, or swimming, but to any athletic activity. So, if swimming longer is your goal, for now. I think that alone is specifically what you should focus on.
Good luck.
Dan
...elite Hungarian jump-rope team...
Interesting. I never would have guessed there is such a thing.
Afodi -- First, I want to compliment you for your "sticktoitivness." I think many other swimmers would have given up by now. I don't really have an answer for you, but I will offer a couple of comments. I think that if 'a swimmer' wants swim longer, non-stop distances...maybe, for now, they (i.e. you) need to just leave all the swim toys on the deck and focus on swimming longer distances. I mean building endurance is a long process. But I'm sure you know that. Decades ago in my early 20s when I decided to become a fitness swimmer, I was already a distance runner. I could "swim" per se, and thought that distance swimming would just come naturally. I was wrong. It took a while before I could swim longer distances non-stop. And to do it I just concentrated on swimming longer...one stroke (crawl) not using all the equipment. Why did it come so naturally to your co-worker? Who knows. In distance running there's a saying: "Sprinters are born, distance runners are made"...through long, hard work. Generally I've always believed that. But I also believe that everyone has a natural ability to some degree or another. It just needs to be refined and/or improved upon. And that it applies to not just running, or swimming, but to any athletic activity. So, if swimming longer is your goal, for now. I think that alone is specifically what you should focus on.
Good luck.
Dan
