I have a swim partner right now, a young girl from Scotland who is training for our triathlon here; she pushes me big time even tho I could be her mother (she is always on my feet, I can't get rid of her!!)
I was a natural backstroker for 40 plus years, turned distance freestyle and no more backstroke.
Here's our personal challenge and wanted to see if any of you would be interested. I have never been a butterflyer except when I was young and didn't know any better and did the 400 IM, and I never butterfrogged; only dolphin kick.
On March 19th to build a different kind of strength, we are going to add to our training with distance fly (yes, I must have dementia).
From shore to a buoy, it is 350 yards and our goal is to do the entire thing fly. When I come up with challenges for myself, I always say Why Not?
So, my friend Jo and I are going to start training for the 350 fly and we don't have any turns, it is straight, non-stop to the buoy. I remember trying this same challenge for myself several years ago, and only got to about 150 yards and DIED. But it is always good to challenge ourselves in something we don't normally swim.
So, for you flyers out there and non-flyers, I ask my standard question: Why Not? Are you game? And if not fly, why not another stroke that gives you grief? All that can happen is you may not succeed at a particular distance, but you are giving your body a rest from its norm and moving into areas of different training.
I hope to report more than enough hilarious stories along the way toward this goal.
Donna
Yeah, that guy is nuts! I saw the title of this thread and thought, hmm ... nope, I don't even need to open it because it has to involved distance of some sort.
My advice would be to glide and get as much as you can out of every stroke ... glide, glide, glide ... think of leading with your elbows on the recovery and, you guessed it, glide, make sure you finish that pull, too!
GOOD LUCK! I don't have anywhere to do that 350 yards of fly straight unless I wanted to break through some ice and swim in Lake Michigan, but I'm a total whimp so ...
During the summer months, I train at Lake Minnewaska. We have a 200 yard buoy line with markers every 50 yards. I usually throw in a length or two of fly during each session. A 200 with no walls is very challenging! I am always careful to check the wind direction as well.....very important.
While in Eleuthera this past December, we spent a session at a current cut (a narrow channel cut in the corol that produces a natural "endless pool" effect)
swimming fly in there was a blast! OW fly is certainly a different animal than pool fly. Mixing it up will certainly keep it fun.
there is some guy that swims the big shoulders 5K in Lake Michigan in Chicago every year all butterfly. I can't remember his name....but 5K OW butterfly....can you imagine!...yikes!
Newmastersswimmer
You lasted 150 yards straight doing FLY? :bow: I considered it a huge success when I managed to do fifty fly and it wasn't pretty!
My fly is such that it is painful to watch as well as to do. But I've asked the coach to give me some tips and sometimes I'll get the movement a little and then... I want to get to where I can keep going through some IM sets only because I think using different muscles will help me avoid repetitive motion injuries from sticking to one stroke. Plus one thing the coach said that motivates me: it's in the hips... and when I felt for brief moments that I was doing it right, I felt it in the core muscles which need some work.
I think 350 yards uninterrupted (and 5k??? yikes!) is a reach, but I'd be happy If I successfully finish an IM set doing butterfly instead of free on the butterfly portions. (My backstroke isn't too great either but okay enough to sustain it. Breaststroke I'd like better if it were faster but again sustainable.)
I'm in!
I seriously need help in my fly. I thought I was doing o.k. Until at our workout today we were doing sprints from the blocks. 4x50 ***, 3x50 Back, and 2x50 Fly, in that order. They were getting increasingly more difficult to crank out. But my best *** time (our coach only grabbed to the nearest second) was 43, my best back time was 41, but my best fly...48!!! That is just plain ridiculous. Granted I was exhauseted as they were the last sets of a workout. But my stroke completely fell apart after the 25. It was so sad. Based on the other sprints, I should have been able to go 40-42 in fly if I could just get the technique together.
It should help my goal of swimming 200 *** in under 3:00, too.
Why Not?Donna
All I got to say is "Why?"
I think that young girl from Scotland is playing a prank on you down there with some smokey brownies. ;) Maybe she got the idea from Ande's prank thread?
Who knew you and Dave had so much in common? But you go, girl. Since your shoulders are all happy, I don't want you complaining about excessive fly on the whiners thread. :rofl: Just keep your eye on that 18 miler of no butterfly whatsoever. Meanwhile, as you see from my signature, I use a wheelbarrow for those +30 second distances. LOL.
When I was at my first college, at our meet against Kings Point: Merchant Marine Academy, one of the boys on their team had missed practice or something like that, and as a punishment, he had to swim the 1000 fly instead of freestyle. It was ridiculous. He did it, and didn't get last! He never fell apart!
I mentioned this before on some thread, but I'll say it again: being able to maintain your form on butterfly and not "die" whether it be on a 100, 200, 350 or 1000 really seems to me to be based on how much of an effort you are making to mentally think about your event. Most of us could swim 1000s of yards freestyle straight if we needed to...I know I have done up to 5000 yards straight in an 1.5hour straight swim and we don't really need to think about, but we do...at least I do, I concentrate on my form and that makes it so much more enjoyable and easy.
Fly can be the same way (of course being conditioned is half the battle, but once you have that base...) bringing a consistency to your fly swimming, including breathing patterns, speed throughout, and lengthening your stroke and really focusing on the body dolphin aspect of the stroke is essential. You can do it!
Thanks, Peter for bringing this up. Well, I was wondering how long it would take someone to read that article from 3 years ago in the Bay Islands Voice Magazine where the editor quoted me totally inaccurately where it quoted me as saying I smoked so many cigs a day, ate cheeseburgers, and drank rum and coke, the last one being the only one that is true.
The editor/owner can't stand me competing in the triathlon down here, he says I do not fit the image of an athlete which I have never professed to being one, only a swimmer. He says I am an embarrassment to athletes worldwide and trying to live in the past, yada, yada, yada, because I am old and fat. But it is interesting I always place in the top 3 in the swim, or at least up until now I have. Because of that article, many companies down here pulled all their advertisements from his magazine for several months awaiting a retraction on me. He never did retract, but publicly apologized. But we do not speak to this day and he avoids me.
He heard about my 18 mile attempt swim from Roatan to Utila and stopped me and told me the only way I would be able to do it, would be to cheat; in other words, I will say I swam it when I fail. I did challenge him to a 6-mile swim and he wouldn't do it.
So, that's the true story, folks.
Back to the challenge: I don't thinking breathing will be my problem on my goal of 350 fly; it is going to be the fact that I am heavy and trying to move forward with some upward movement is going to create a pile of drag. This will be the time when I wished I weighed 130!!
I plan on starting with single arm fly first and build from there. But I do have a feeling this will take months, but I am patient. I love goals that seem unachievable; I guess I like the journey.
Donna
