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.
i think its important to have a range of SR's and breathing patterns at ones disposal to be able to establish peace with adverse conditions. sometimes i slow it down, sometimes i speed it up.
I think this is the conclusion I'm coming to. I originally began exploring this to see if there was anything I could do to speed up my long distance pace for 3K to 5K swims. For the last two years, I've stagnated at a 1:27 to 1:30 (depending on my conditioning) per 100 yard pace at 15 SPL.
I came across the video at the top of the thread and noted that it wasn't only OWS that have the shorter, choppier stroke. Some well known distance pool swimmers (Janet Evans) have the same stroke. So I decided to try to see if I could adapt my stroke.
I tried the golf exercise this past weekend. It took a lot of effort for me to fit in more than 17 SPL. While my physical effort felt very similar at both 15 SPL and 17 SPL, the 17 SPL 50's were much faster. However, I found I can't sustain 17 SPL at higher stroke rate for longer than 200 yards. I believe much of the reason for this is my failure to find a new breathing rhythm at 17 SPL.
I have decided to table my experiment until I can get in a 50m pool so I'm not having to factor in newly awkward turns as well. 25y may be too short a distance for me to experiment. I can't find a stroke or breathing rhythm before it's time for a turn.
I do think I will continue to work on a "second" stroke for use in some OWS. There is 2.4 miler I've done that involves 1.2 miles of up river swimming. My usual 15 SPL didn't seem very effective up river on that one. Maybe a shorter stroke will help me maintain forward momentum.
As for speeding up my distance pace, I may have to keep looking for other ideas.
i think its important to have a range of SR's and breathing patterns at ones disposal to be able to establish peace with adverse conditions. sometimes i slow it down, sometimes i speed it up.
I think this is the conclusion I'm coming to. I originally began exploring this to see if there was anything I could do to speed up my long distance pace for 3K to 5K swims. For the last two years, I've stagnated at a 1:27 to 1:30 (depending on my conditioning) per 100 yard pace at 15 SPL.
I came across the video at the top of the thread and noted that it wasn't only OWS that have the shorter, choppier stroke. Some well known distance pool swimmers (Janet Evans) have the same stroke. So I decided to try to see if I could adapt my stroke.
I tried the golf exercise this past weekend. It took a lot of effort for me to fit in more than 17 SPL. While my physical effort felt very similar at both 15 SPL and 17 SPL, the 17 SPL 50's were much faster. However, I found I can't sustain 17 SPL at higher stroke rate for longer than 200 yards. I believe much of the reason for this is my failure to find a new breathing rhythm at 17 SPL.
I have decided to table my experiment until I can get in a 50m pool so I'm not having to factor in newly awkward turns as well. 25y may be too short a distance for me to experiment. I can't find a stroke or breathing rhythm before it's time for a turn.
I do think I will continue to work on a "second" stroke for use in some OWS. There is 2.4 miler I've done that involves 1.2 miles of up river swimming. My usual 15 SPL didn't seem very effective up river on that one. Maybe a shorter stroke will help me maintain forward momentum.
As for speeding up my distance pace, I may have to keep looking for other ideas.
