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
Parents
Former Member
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!!
In the way of encouragement, the second meet I swam in I entered the 1500m free. The woman next to me swam the whole thing fly! She was heavy and I seem to recall being told that she had bad knees and couldn't swim free. Remember, Vickie Keith swam across Lake Ontario swimming fly! If you don't try to swim it like an extended 50 I bet you will do it no problem, you just need to adjust your stroke. I have never done more than 200m, but I think I could do more as long as I got and kept the rhythm.
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!!
In the way of encouragement, the second meet I swam in I entered the 1500m free. The woman next to me swam the whole thing fly! She was heavy and I seem to recall being told that she had bad knees and couldn't swim free. Remember, Vickie Keith swam across Lake Ontario swimming fly! If you don't try to swim it like an extended 50 I bet you will do it no problem, you just need to adjust your stroke. I have never done more than 200m, but I think I could do more as long as I got and kept the rhythm.
