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
Figured I would update the thread. Having acquired a snorkel, fins and buouy, I began experimenting and here were the results:
Fins simply made me move faster. I could thus do more laps (about double the number I could do without fins), but eventually began struggling again.
The snorkel made a BIG difference-- first time on (and with fins) I did 500m without any problem (other than some fatigue in arms and legs, which is exactly what I was shooting for)-- no breathing issues.
The pull buouy also made a big difference-- again, I was able to do 200m w/o any problem.
I therefore figured the main culprit was my breathing, with the kicking (using the largest muscles) exacerbating things.
I'd been doing strict 3-stroke bilateral breathing, and on a whim, switched to 2-stroke breaths-- switching sides on each length. Voila-- end of problem-- I guess I was just not getting enough oxygen. The first workout I did 300m without a problem, next workout 400m and then 500m-- and in each case, I could have easily gone further, heart rate was reasonable and when finished was barely breathing heavily. Since then, I feel as if I am moving in the water, rather than fighting it. I am relaxed during the laps, my breathing is relaxed as well, and the sense of well-being I've been looking for during the laps has finally arrived.
I occasionally revert to 3-stroke breathing and have been finding that, there as well, my endurance is increasing. I am now able to do 100m with strict 3-stroke breaths w/o any problem, and am just waiting until I can switch over completely.
One of my initial short term goals was 1/4 mile non-stop, and I've achieved that. My next goals are getting a below 20 stroke count per 25m (I'm somewhere between 22 and 25), and reducing my time. I'm currently doing 50m in just about 1:00 and know that there's a long way to go. I still find it amazing that my stroke is SOOO inefficient that an average Masters swimmer is about half my time.
Thanks for all the advice.
-- Gerald
Figured I would update the thread. Having acquired a snorkel, fins and buouy, I began experimenting and here were the results:
Fins simply made me move faster. I could thus do more laps (about double the number I could do without fins), but eventually began struggling again.
The snorkel made a BIG difference-- first time on (and with fins) I did 500m without any problem (other than some fatigue in arms and legs, which is exactly what I was shooting for)-- no breathing issues.
The pull buouy also made a big difference-- again, I was able to do 200m w/o any problem.
I therefore figured the main culprit was my breathing, with the kicking (using the largest muscles) exacerbating things.
I'd been doing strict 3-stroke bilateral breathing, and on a whim, switched to 2-stroke breaths-- switching sides on each length. Voila-- end of problem-- I guess I was just not getting enough oxygen. The first workout I did 300m without a problem, next workout 400m and then 500m-- and in each case, I could have easily gone further, heart rate was reasonable and when finished was barely breathing heavily. Since then, I feel as if I am moving in the water, rather than fighting it. I am relaxed during the laps, my breathing is relaxed as well, and the sense of well-being I've been looking for during the laps has finally arrived.
I occasionally revert to 3-stroke breathing and have been finding that, there as well, my endurance is increasing. I am now able to do 100m with strict 3-stroke breaths w/o any problem, and am just waiting until I can switch over completely.
One of my initial short term goals was 1/4 mile non-stop, and I've achieved that. My next goals are getting a below 20 stroke count per 25m (I'm somewhere between 22 and 25), and reducing my time. I'm currently doing 50m in just about 1:00 and know that there's a long way to go. I still find it amazing that my stroke is SOOO inefficient that an average Masters swimmer is about half my time.
Thanks for all the advice.
-- Gerald
