Ack. It appears that I am going to have to break down and finally swim my first masters 100 SCY free at zones. Since I'm sure you all have done it many times, can someone please tell me what is the most ideal breathing pattern(s)? I noticed watching the World Championships that many of the 100 freestylers (especially the men) breathed almost every stroke, which is not how I used to swim that race. Were they breathing more to save for the SDKs? What say you freestyle sprinters?
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If you usually go every 4 in practice, why would you breathe more in a race? I'd definitely give in a few spins before race day, just to see. Then again, I stick to my patterns as well as I can and find I race worse when I don't, so maybe you don't mind the ambiguity the way I would.
I found that I exerted a lot more effort in an actual race than in a workout so I usually started out with one thing in mind and had to make changes during the race but well before my body started screaming at me. I actually used to breathe every 4 but by the end of the first 50 I needed more air so mid-pool I would take two or three breaths in a row and then resume the original pattern. Sure kept me from dying too early.
If you usually go every 4 in practice, why would you breathe more in a race? I'd definitely give in a few spins before race day, just to see. Then again, I stick to my patterns as well as I can and find I race worse when I don't, so maybe you don't mind the ambiguity the way I would.
I found that I exerted a lot more effort in an actual race than in a workout so I usually started out with one thing in mind and had to make changes during the race but well before my body started screaming at me. I actually used to breathe every 4 but by the end of the first 50 I needed more air so mid-pool I would take two or three breaths in a row and then resume the original pattern. Sure kept me from dying too early.
