why am i so sloooooooooow? i've been swimming since i was 21, i'm now 30. When i was 21 i basically taught myself to swim and with a few tips here and there from lifeguards, i was able to swim 3 miles in the pool at approximately 35 minutes a mile.
fast forward a few years, i would consider myself a much better swimmer now, i've gotten a few lessons with coaches and i've been told my technique has gotten better. but my speed has BARELY improved!!! i'm talking major changes in technique and training, and it still takes me 34 minutes to do a mile! that's a 1 minute improvement over the time when i had taught myself to swim! it's ridiculous. and i swim so much...i swim in open water and have been doing master's for 7 months now.
is it possible that i was just born slow, or do you think i need further refinement to my technique? none of it adds up--i work very hard in the pool, my technique sounds like it's decent, and i am physically in very good shape. i can swim 9 miles in open water, but i just cannot bring up my speed! it's ridiculous. i don't want to be fast, i just want to be somewhere near 30 minutes per mile!
I think there's a way that lots of swimmers can relate to your problem: breaststroke.
Bear with me. Obviously, if you are a breaststroker, this does not apply. But for lots and lots of us non-breaststrokers, we can achieve competence in back, fly, and free, and still swim breaststroke as if the devil himself is chasing us in a dream. Even the most furious and frenetic of efforts don't seem to translate into the slightest increase in velocity.
I was thinking about your plight, surfergirl, during a meet yesterday. In the 100 i.m., I was a half body length in front of this guy at the back to *** turn. I knew he'd catch up. I didn't, however, imagine that when I finally reached the final turn, after a seeming eternity of breaststroke for 25 yards, that I would see him charging back with furious freestyle before I even reached the wall.
Highly dispiriting; extremely frustrating. Little surfer girl (well, maybe not so little, at 5' 7" and 145 lb. of solid muscle), with strains of Beach Boy music playing in the background here, please know that I feel your pain!
I think there's a way that lots of swimmers can relate to your problem: breaststroke.
Bear with me. Obviously, if you are a breaststroker, this does not apply. But for lots and lots of us non-breaststrokers, we can achieve competence in back, fly, and free, and still swim breaststroke as if the devil himself is chasing us in a dream. Even the most furious and frenetic of efforts don't seem to translate into the slightest increase in velocity.
I was thinking about your plight, surfergirl, during a meet yesterday. In the 100 i.m., I was a half body length in front of this guy at the back to *** turn. I knew he'd catch up. I didn't, however, imagine that when I finally reached the final turn, after a seeming eternity of breaststroke for 25 yards, that I would see him charging back with furious freestyle before I even reached the wall.
Highly dispiriting; extremely frustrating. Little surfer girl (well, maybe not so little, at 5' 7" and 145 lb. of solid muscle), with strains of Beach Boy music playing in the background here, please know that I feel your pain!
