In workouts I'm breathing every stroke and into and out of every flipturn. Even worse, once I am really gasping for air (in the middle of a hard set or on the 3rd turn of a 100) I am almost coming to a stop off the turn to catch my breath. I've been swimming 2000-3000 yards 3x/week for the last 18 months dropping intervals and increasing speed but I guess I am still just not in good enough cardiovascular shape?
Of course, it can't help that I have been constantly reinforcing bad habits. But can I just keep plugging away and eventually the fatigue from swimming the length will at least equal the fatigue from the turns?
The alternative I imagine is some kind of hypoxic training that is going to make me miserable. But I'm willing to do what I've gotta do at this point.
Parents
Former Member
Bingo.
I had the same issue when I started back swimming 18 months ago. I do some, not a TON, hypoxic stuff. Things like 4-3-2-1-0 (or just down to 1) breathes for 50's on an moderate interval. No breather 25's....moderate, fast, underwater, kick underwater with fins, etc. Another good one is Tennessee Tumblers.....go underwater at the flags, flip turn underwater, come back up at flags. Do 200-500's like that at a moderate or faster pace. I also do some pulling where I breathe every 3,5,7, or 9 for certain distances. All this should help.
I have been doing some 25 dolphin kicks underwater. And in 25s and 50s I seem to be fine with limited breaths. But I am giving myself a lot of rest between these sprints. Hopefully this stuff is helping me a little. Anything longer and I would have trouble but maybe starting with just a 200 breathing every 3rd stroke. Or maybe just even trying not to breath out of the turn - although that would be frustrating because I could probably make 5 100s in this manner instead of 20.
As for the other questions on my health. Yeah, if you saw me you might notice I have a little bit of a weight problem. The cumulative effect of flipturns is probably directly related to the cumulative effect that years of partying has done to my body. But I feel like I am in decent shape. I'm trying to turn my life around but still drink too much beer and don't have a great diet. I did a couple triathlons (not very well) that led me to masters as I realized swimming was my true love. Like one poster eloquently put "its like recapturing a part of myself that I had forgot about". I'm completely at home in the water (outside of those couple of seconds coming off each wall).
Bingo.
I had the same issue when I started back swimming 18 months ago. I do some, not a TON, hypoxic stuff. Things like 4-3-2-1-0 (or just down to 1) breathes for 50's on an moderate interval. No breather 25's....moderate, fast, underwater, kick underwater with fins, etc. Another good one is Tennessee Tumblers.....go underwater at the flags, flip turn underwater, come back up at flags. Do 200-500's like that at a moderate or faster pace. I also do some pulling where I breathe every 3,5,7, or 9 for certain distances. All this should help.
I have been doing some 25 dolphin kicks underwater. And in 25s and 50s I seem to be fine with limited breaths. But I am giving myself a lot of rest between these sprints. Hopefully this stuff is helping me a little. Anything longer and I would have trouble but maybe starting with just a 200 breathing every 3rd stroke. Or maybe just even trying not to breath out of the turn - although that would be frustrating because I could probably make 5 100s in this manner instead of 20.
As for the other questions on my health. Yeah, if you saw me you might notice I have a little bit of a weight problem. The cumulative effect of flipturns is probably directly related to the cumulative effect that years of partying has done to my body. But I feel like I am in decent shape. I'm trying to turn my life around but still drink too much beer and don't have a great diet. I did a couple triathlons (not very well) that led me to masters as I realized swimming was my true love. Like one poster eloquently put "its like recapturing a part of myself that I had forgot about". I'm completely at home in the water (outside of those couple of seconds coming off each wall).
