I am 48 years old and I had a meet last Sunday at Mission Viejo; (Those Nadadores do a great job), and though I posted two personal bests in the 100 and the 50, my hundred time could have been so much better. I say this because look at my times:
100 Free = 59.54 Splits: :28.06, 30.94
I felt lousy during the whole race. Then I swam a 50 free and felt great. In fact I only needed one breath:
50 Free = 26.30
There is no reason I can't go out at a 27:00 or a 28:00 and hobble back in on a :30:00. I really supect I was unprepared and I blame my anemic warmup.
400 yards 3x25s at 80% 3x25 breakouts at 80%
Any help or warmup suggestions would be great.
After similar experiences at my first couple of meets, I've been wondering about this, too.
I've noticed during warmup at regular practice that at first I have trouble not breathing first stroke off the wall, and I feel winded and oxygen deprived. As the sets start, it gets easier and easier to keep my head down, at least until I start to fall apart. I think it just takes a while to change gears from resting breathing technique to the big exchanges of air required to swim effectively.
Today we did a set of 150's as 3 breaths/4 breaths/5 breaths per 50. I thought it helped me get my breathing together pretty quickly, and the breathe every 5 50 really focused my mind on technique. I may try using those sets at warmup for my next meet, as opposed to my prior technique of just swimming back and forth for a while and then doing some starts and breakouts.
There also are some old threads addressing this topic I remember reading, but I don't have time to search for them right now. I seem to recall a formula of sorts, like 400/300/200/100 or something.
After similar experiences at my first couple of meets, I've been wondering about this, too.
I've noticed during warmup at regular practice that at first I have trouble not breathing first stroke off the wall, and I feel winded and oxygen deprived. As the sets start, it gets easier and easier to keep my head down, at least until I start to fall apart. I think it just takes a while to change gears from resting breathing technique to the big exchanges of air required to swim effectively.
Today we did a set of 150's as 3 breaths/4 breaths/5 breaths per 50. I thought it helped me get my breathing together pretty quickly, and the breathe every 5 50 really focused my mind on technique. I may try using those sets at warmup for my next meet, as opposed to my prior technique of just swimming back and forth for a while and then doing some starts and breakouts.
There also are some old threads addressing this topic I remember reading, but I don't have time to search for them right now. I seem to recall a formula of sorts, like 400/300/200/100 or something.
