After recognizing that my stroke is much longer than most OWS, I decided to poke around and see if stroke was different for OW as opposed to swimming in a pool. I found this (There is a part 2 if you click on the channel and scroll down the right side):
YouTube - Swim Smooth: What Is An Efficient Freestyle Stroke? Part 1
I would love to get reactions. I know that when I quicken my stroke rate and shorten my stroke I seem to fatigue much more quickly. However, this could be due to not pursuing this long enough to re-establish breathing patterns. (When I concentrate on my stroke, I tend to hold my breath without realizing it).
I do know that while my per 100 pace is slowly improving with more speed work in my work outs, it has dropped now where near what it used to be 20 years ago.
OK. So I just adjusted my workout today to focus on seeing if I could hold a shorter stroke with a faster turnover. My workout was mostly sets of 100's and 200's.
I found that if I swam 100's on a 1:30 interval targeting 1:20, I could sustain this type of set much longer with a shorter stroke and faster turnover. Unfortunatley, I also found out that I could NOT finish a 300 with shorter stroke and faster turnover. I had lactic burning in my arms (I almost never feel that unless I'm doing a lot of sprinting). I couldn't seem to find a forever pace.
Maybe it's just so foreign to my usual much longer stroke that it is still screwing with my breathing rhythm. So at a distance of 100 yards, I don't quite feel the fatigue and the 10 seconds rest allows me to catch up.
I'm still wondering if I should continue this experiment.
OK. So I just adjusted my workout today to focus on seeing if I could hold a shorter stroke with a faster turnover. My workout was mostly sets of 100's and 200's.
I found that if I swam 100's on a 1:30 interval targeting 1:20, I could sustain this type of set much longer with a shorter stroke and faster turnover. Unfortunatley, I also found out that I could NOT finish a 300 with shorter stroke and faster turnover. I had lactic burning in my arms (I almost never feel that unless I'm doing a lot of sprinting). I couldn't seem to find a forever pace.
Maybe it's just so foreign to my usual much longer stroke that it is still screwing with my breathing rhythm. So at a distance of 100 yards, I don't quite feel the fatigue and the 10 seconds rest allows me to catch up.
I'm still wondering if I should continue this experiment.
