Been swimming for about 3 months (always 'swam' but never any real extended period for fitness until now). Started bilateral breathing about 2 months ago, basically natural to me now. Also began lessons about 1.5 months ago (instructor is WSI and nationally ranked member of local college team).
At beginning, 25m of crawl was killing me. Took close to 2 months to get comfortable with 50m. Can now almost do 75m comfortably (in all cases, a break of about 15-20 seconds is all I need to continue).
Based upon instructor's comments:
- definitely exhaling in water
- stroke is OK, but head position is too high out of water (not tucked down enough)
- kick is lousy-- too fast and shallow, also tend to shift to a scissor kick as I get tired
This morning during a lesson, he asked me to freestyle 6 laps and after 4 I was blown-- took a 10 second breather before starting 5th lap and all semblance of technique was gone-- same for 6th lap.
While I am making some progress, it seems that each additional (continuous) lap is taking a month-- is this normal? I am probably spending a bit too much time recovering at the wall during my workouts, but not all THAT long.
What seems to happen is I begin to have trouble breathing-- at beginning I'm nice and relaxed, nice shallow relaxed breath, slow exhale in water (was exhaling through mouth, instructor told me to switch to nose, and am doing so now). At about 50m, breathing becomes deeper and less relaxed; by 67m, am sucking in air and beginning to gasp; when I put my head back into the water, I feel like I'm holding my breath and have no air (must be what drowning feels like). At that point it's just a matter of time before I'm done-- can barely get to 100m.
Your responses will probably be to post video, and I probably will, but in the meantime, here's what's REALLY puzzling me: I've been searching the forum for similar tales of woe, and I'll often find something along the lines of: "I was unable to swim more than 50/100/?? meters; then I found out I wasn't exhaling. Once I began to exhale in the water, my continuous distance went from 100m to 1800m in one day."
Is this kind of scenario realistic? I walk 3 miles a day, and upon occasion will simply continue and do 7 or 8 miles-- there's little extra effort in going further. Is is the same here?-- should you in theory be able to just continue? I was speaking to a relative who says he swims 32 lengths per day, and could go further except for the boredom factor-- that's the way it is with walking/hiking for me, but I don't see that happening with swimming my crawl.
Thanks,
Gerald
Parents
Former Member
Pardon if this is a bit lengthy-- I'm trying to update on my progress and ask a follow-up question.
Been swimming 5-6 days/week and did start seeing a difference-- could do (single) 50's easy, then 75's, and then 100's. However, been reading Whitten's and Hine's books as well as several others, and don't recall which one, but one of them basically said that the average person should be able to swim 1 mile continuously after 12 weeks of working out. It's been more like 20 weeks and I'm not even close to 400m non-stop.
Discussed the slow endurance progress with my instructor, as well as HIS coach-- both basically said it's mainly a matter of building up swim endurance and suggested sets of 50's with 0:20R between 50's. I can do 6 or 7 of those before having to increase the rest interval (which is weird because I'm now able to-- just barely-- do a 200 free which is just slightly less)
Got myself a center-mount snorkel and a pull buoy (the former to test what role breathing was playing with my endurance, and the latter to see how much the kick was knocking me out). The differences were immediate. As an example, let me list a workout I did about two weeks after getting these items (workout was provided by my instructor-- he suggested the buoy-- the snorkel was my idea):
Warmup: 200 free / 100 back
500m free snorkel/fins
200m back fins
200m free buoy
50 back
150 free
and basically had no problem (though my form was lousy for the last 50 of the 200 free warmup; also, the 200 pull was much easier then the 200 free)
So it seems that with a snorkel I can keep going (subject to arm/leg fatigue). Similarly if I don't kick, I can go much further. (When using the snorkel, I maintain a 3-stroke breathing rhythm -- which is what I normally use w/o the snorkel-- without any trouble; of course my inhalation is probably longer)
I know I have trouble pacing myself when jogging and believe its true swimming as well, and was thinking that might be the issue. When jogging you can always start panting-- it's sort of difficult to pant when your face is mainly in the water :)-- and that's the sensation I think I'm getting-- I take a breath and as soon as my face turns back into the water, I feel like I'm out of breath.
Here's my question-- when I began these lessons (again, prior to this I knew how to swim from typical summer camp Red Cross lessons), I was exhaling through my mouth-- and was told to instead exhale through my nose. I have been doing that for the last several months, but find that my cheeks still puff up and am wondering if my breathing is off. When I use the snorkel, my mouth is relaxed; similarly for the first couple of laps w/o my cheeks are empty of air, but as soon as I start getting out of breath, my cheeks begin to puff up again. (If I consciously expel the air out of them it gives me a bit more wind; also, if I do several laps immediately after using the snorkel, I can 'remember' how to keep my mouth empty of air and it seems to make a big difference.
Thanks,
-- Gerald
Pardon if this is a bit lengthy-- I'm trying to update on my progress and ask a follow-up question.
Been swimming 5-6 days/week and did start seeing a difference-- could do (single) 50's easy, then 75's, and then 100's. However, been reading Whitten's and Hine's books as well as several others, and don't recall which one, but one of them basically said that the average person should be able to swim 1 mile continuously after 12 weeks of working out. It's been more like 20 weeks and I'm not even close to 400m non-stop.
Discussed the slow endurance progress with my instructor, as well as HIS coach-- both basically said it's mainly a matter of building up swim endurance and suggested sets of 50's with 0:20R between 50's. I can do 6 or 7 of those before having to increase the rest interval (which is weird because I'm now able to-- just barely-- do a 200 free which is just slightly less)
Got myself a center-mount snorkel and a pull buoy (the former to test what role breathing was playing with my endurance, and the latter to see how much the kick was knocking me out). The differences were immediate. As an example, let me list a workout I did about two weeks after getting these items (workout was provided by my instructor-- he suggested the buoy-- the snorkel was my idea):
Warmup: 200 free / 100 back
500m free snorkel/fins
200m back fins
200m free buoy
50 back
150 free
and basically had no problem (though my form was lousy for the last 50 of the 200 free warmup; also, the 200 pull was much easier then the 200 free)
So it seems that with a snorkel I can keep going (subject to arm/leg fatigue). Similarly if I don't kick, I can go much further. (When using the snorkel, I maintain a 3-stroke breathing rhythm -- which is what I normally use w/o the snorkel-- without any trouble; of course my inhalation is probably longer)
I know I have trouble pacing myself when jogging and believe its true swimming as well, and was thinking that might be the issue. When jogging you can always start panting-- it's sort of difficult to pant when your face is mainly in the water :)-- and that's the sensation I think I'm getting-- I take a breath and as soon as my face turns back into the water, I feel like I'm out of breath.
Here's my question-- when I began these lessons (again, prior to this I knew how to swim from typical summer camp Red Cross lessons), I was exhaling through my mouth-- and was told to instead exhale through my nose. I have been doing that for the last several months, but find that my cheeks still puff up and am wondering if my breathing is off. When I use the snorkel, my mouth is relaxed; similarly for the first couple of laps w/o my cheeks are empty of air, but as soon as I start getting out of breath, my cheeks begin to puff up again. (If I consciously expel the air out of them it gives me a bit more wind; also, if I do several laps immediately after using the snorkel, I can 'remember' how to keep my mouth empty of air and it seems to make a big difference.
Thanks,
-- Gerald
