Training for the 1500/1650: Suggestions?

Every third, switching to every other for the last few hundred. I am curious about the bilateral breathing. Do you do this because you can detect actual improvement in your swimming performance, or do you do it based on the theoretical belief that it balances your stroke in some way? I don't mean to sound flip here, it's just that there are a number of swimming technique aspects that sound good on paper, and make intuitive sense, but don't necessarily work well for every individual. I had the chance to interview Dara Torres a few years back, and I asked her about breath restriction and SDKs on her 50 and 100. She told me she tried both these things but then, with her coach's backing, abandoned them because they weren't helping her swim faster. She said she breathes every stroke on the 50, which I don't think is technically true, but I know she breathes much more often than the sprinting orthodoxy recommends. Anyhow, I have never found bilateral breathing to be at all helpful for me at any distance. During practice, maybe, it can be a useful exercise and distraction on occasion. It's not just that I run out of air because of having to wait the extra arm stroke. It's more that I can't breathe as efficiently on my non-normal breathing side. It's actually easier for me to breathe every two complete cycles (4 individual arm pulls) than to bilateral breathe (i.e., every 3 arm pulls.) Ditto for sneaking a breath after surfacing off the walls. I do try to take the first pull with the arm on my non-breathing side, which delays the pop up slightly. But trying to go much further off the walls without air, especially on 200s and higher, seems to hurt me more than help. Bottom line: maybe the next time you do a 1650 in practice, try swimming without any bilateral breathing and see if this slows you down, speeds you up, or leaves things unchanged. If either of the latter two prove the case, I say abandon the strategy unless it makes you feel more comfortable during a race.

Every third, switching to every other for the last few hundred. I am curious about the bilateral breathing. Do you do this because you can detect actual improvement in your swimming performance, or do you do it based on the theoretical belief that it balances your stroke in some way? I don't mean to sound flip here, it's just that there are a number of swimming technique aspects that sound good on paper, and make intuitive sense, but don't necessarily work well for every individual. I had the chance to interview Dara Torres a few years back, and I asked her about breath restriction and SDKs on her 50 and 100. She told me she tried both these things but then, with her coach's backing, abandoned them because they weren't helping her swim faster. She said she breathes every stroke on the 50, which I don't think is technically true, but I know she breathes much more often than the sprinting orthodoxy recommends. Anyhow, I have never found bilateral breathing to be at all helpful for me at any distance. During practice, maybe, it can be a useful exercise and distraction on occasion. It's not just that I run out of air because of having to wait the extra arm stroke. It's more that I can't breathe as efficiently on my non-normal breathing side. It's actually easier for me to breathe every two complete cycles (4 individual arm pulls) than to bilateral breathe (i.e., every 3 arm pulls.) Ditto for sneaking a breath after surfacing off the walls. I do try to take the first pull with the arm on my non-breathing side, which delays the pop up slightly. But trying to go much further off the walls without air, especially on 200s and higher, seems to hurt me more than help. Bottom line: maybe the next time you do a 1650 in practice, try swimming without any bilateral breathing and see if this slows you down, speeds you up, or leaves things unchanged. If either of the latter two prove the case, I say abandon the strategy unless it makes you feel more comfortable during a race.