By freestyle I mean front crawl. At the pool I see many people swim only freestyle. Some regulars swim it continuously for more than an hour, nothing else, day after day. Unless they are preparing for some coming race, I wonder why they don't get bored? It's also easy to get injury if you swim only one style for long term. Does anyone here belong to this category? If so, I'm interested to know what's your mindset. :D
Former Member
Don't forget trail running, my personal favorite. I did a 90 minute amphibious trail run yesterday and it was pure enjoyment. 2700 feet of elevation gain, pouring rain, and not a human being in sight.
I'm a triathlete and I can't stand the monotony of freestyle-only swimming in practice. My challenge is trying to find the time to fit in all the different types of exercise that I enjoy. Between running, biking, weights, and the 4 swim strokes (well, 3.. I hate backstroke), I have plenty of variety to keep things interesting.
I can understand the sentiment of the original poster. Swimming nothing but freestyle in a pool would drive me nuts with boredom. Now open water is a different matter entirely. That never gets boring for me.
OK, in the history of Olympic athletics competition how many people have one gold medals in more than one of the following: running, hurdles, steeplechase, racewalking?
not sure of the source, but didn't Gail Devers win a silver in the 100 hurdles at the world games in 92 and later that summer win gold in the 100 dash.
Only to follow it up with the WR in the 100 hurdles later in 93 as well as the 100 dash.
as far as swimming different strokes there are swimmers with WR in multiple strokes.
The difference between swimming freestyle and running: when you run 5000m, you can see many scenaries, but in swimming freestyle you only see the bottom of the pool. If it's another style, say backstroke, it would seem to me less boring. I remember reading that when Ian Thorpe retired he said he's glad he no longer had to see only the black lines at the pool bottom. ;)
... but in swimming freestyle you only see the bottom of the pool...
You mean, you've never looked underwater at that girl in the next lane?
(Of course if you are a woman, then no.... or maybe? After all this is 2010).
If I tell my OW swimming buddy that I swam 5000 yards in a workout, he'll ask if it was all freestyle -with the implication that if it wasn't, then somehow I didn't really swim 5000 yards. Since he's much faster than me in a our annual 4000 yard race, nothing I say changes his attitude.
