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
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.)
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.)