Hi, new to the board, back in the pool about 4 months.
Worked up to doing Mo Chambers workouts, but always substituting for fly in the IM's because I just never learned it.
I've always been a lousy kicker, but I bought a pair of Zoomers and quit using the board, which has helped a bunch. I do dolphins front and side and flutter on my back. I just started to dolphin kick off the flip (without the fins), which has really helped reduce stroke count (10 catchup; 13 -- 14 normally; 15 + is a failed lap). I'm 6'2" and dropped from 200+ when I started down to 190 - 195, which feels great.
Today I tried doing the fly legs in the IM's wearing the Zoomers, and I think there's some hope. Can a 44 year old lousy kicker learn to fly? Is it OK to learn with fins? Are there bad habits to watch out for when learning with or without the fins? Or should I forget about fly and just concentrate on the other three strokes?
I'm having a lot of fun swimming again, love the workouts and chat here, and am not afraid of looking like a complete dweeb.
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Former Member
"Serious oxygen debt" is dead on.
Most of the time, the asthma is not a major impediment while swimming, considering only that I'm not planning to enter competition. The main affect is probably just the length of the sets that I can do. However, you know as well as I do just how short you can come up on breath (even beyond serious oxygen debt) when you push fly at the wrong time. But I imagine it's the same for any other stroke if you push hard enough (hmmm, funny how so far I can only get the same level of breath exhaustion from breaststroke).
Many times I switch to breathing every fly stroke, towards the end of a lap, but often not soon enough. I don't know why I seem to wait too long except that maybe it is not as obvious just how short the breath is getting until it's too late. I think I'm going to adopt "breathing every stroke" for at least all of the second 25's.
This past week the (hot) winds have been so bad that I'm having trouble breathing, swimming or not. And I'm not even downwind of the fires you see on tv. It's weird that even though fly can be extremely hard in times like this, if possible, I'll try to swim tomorrow because I am still motivated by the fly (and not so much by the other strokes I do). Otherwise, I would call it a wrap for the season given the water temperature and the congestion.
"Serious oxygen debt" is dead on.
Most of the time, the asthma is not a major impediment while swimming, considering only that I'm not planning to enter competition. The main affect is probably just the length of the sets that I can do. However, you know as well as I do just how short you can come up on breath (even beyond serious oxygen debt) when you push fly at the wrong time. But I imagine it's the same for any other stroke if you push hard enough (hmmm, funny how so far I can only get the same level of breath exhaustion from breaststroke).
Many times I switch to breathing every fly stroke, towards the end of a lap, but often not soon enough. I don't know why I seem to wait too long except that maybe it is not as obvious just how short the breath is getting until it's too late. I think I'm going to adopt "breathing every stroke" for at least all of the second 25's.
This past week the (hot) winds have been so bad that I'm having trouble breathing, swimming or not. And I'm not even downwind of the fires you see on tv. It's weird that even though fly can be extremely hard in times like this, if possible, I'll try to swim tomorrow because I am still motivated by the fly (and not so much by the other strokes I do). Otherwise, I would call it a wrap for the season given the water temperature and the congestion.
