For every event there's a right type of pain that you feel. In your favorite event (stroke and distance). How do you know you've hit the right kind of burn?
Right now I am trying to put together a decent 200 ***. That kind of burn is frankly scaring me to death lately. It's the kind where you just plain can't get enough breath, I'm going to give up because I feel like I'm going to die burn on that 3rd 50. It's an all over dead can't move my body feel afterwards.
So I decided that in order to train for this 200 I have to feel at ease (read: not panick) when I can't breathe. I'm also starting to add in more hard core sprint work as I'm in a period where I'll start tapering by the end of next week. Now, I've been doing sprints all along during my workouts, just not as many as during a taper phase.
Today I was smacked in the head with a brilliant idea which works both for sprinting and for my not breathing breaststroke burn. 25's sprint no breath breaststroke. Take as much rest until I feel comfortable at the end. I'm thinking I'll try these as 50's next time, trying to breathe 0 times down and only once or twice back. It'll be better for getting close to that 200 Feeling without doing the 200.
I noticed three things from this experiment.
1. I can seriously turn on my breaststroke in ways I haven't been able to since I got back in the pool in October when I don't breathe. I've only been managing a meager 41-42 in my 50 *** from a dive. Today on those 25s from the WALL I cranked them up to 20-21 seconds.
2. I've gained a mental advantage knowing I don't HAVE to breathe.
3. I am feeling a burn in my arms and upper back like I haven't felt since I was swimming in college. A shaky, can't move well, like I tried to lift a fridge up a flight of stairs by myself kind of burn. I thought I had been sprinting in practice before. But now I know I wasn't. I wasn't hitting the right kind of burn.
Anyways, pretty long.
But I thought we could talk about the good hard pain. Not the kind that keeps us from swimming. But the kind where we know we are doing it right.
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Former Member
Thanks for the pointers - I love breaststroke, but I have the same fear of swimming the 200 due to lack of breath.
When you say you don't breathe - do you mean you hold your breath, but keep the stroke going?
For me, it doesn't matter how long I maintain the streamline vs. a quick cadence, I go the same speed. The only thing that slows me down is losing my breath and feeling the burn. So, I know it must be partially due to technique and partially due to the fact I can't seem to get in the right shape for breaststroke. I'm self-coached, so this has become a huge area of frustration.
Any other pointers you want to share would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for the pointers - I love breaststroke, but I have the same fear of swimming the 200 due to lack of breath.
When you say you don't breathe - do you mean you hold your breath, but keep the stroke going?
For me, it doesn't matter how long I maintain the streamline vs. a quick cadence, I go the same speed. The only thing that slows me down is losing my breath and feeling the burn. So, I know it must be partially due to technique and partially due to the fact I can't seem to get in the right shape for breaststroke. I'm self-coached, so this has become a huge area of frustration.
Any other pointers you want to share would be greatly appreciated.
