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.
Without having seen your stroke, my best guess is that you may be rotating your head too far while breathing? Try rotating just far enough to breathe out of one side of your mouth, and this might help speed up the breath exchange. Another thing to try is swimming with a snorkel... this removes the head-rotation element and you may not have the same issues raising SR.
One other thought about the breathing: are you holding your breath? Or put another way, is it possible that as you increase stroke rate, you are not getting enough air out before the next breath?
As you increase stroke rate, you are also increasing the number of opportunities for a breath per length. Just as an example, I breathe every stroke. At 13 strokes per length, that means I'm getting 7 breaths a length more or less. If I increase my rate to 15 spl, I'm now getting 8. Now add into that the speed that comes with the increased stroke rate. For me, I am faster at 15 spl than I am at 13. That means that not only am I taking more breaths per length, they are coming a lot closer together in time. Thus, if I did that 13 spl 25 yards in 20 seconds, I'd be taking a breath every 2.85 or so seconds. If I did the 15 spl 25 yards in 17 seconds, that goes down to 2.1 seconds.
Ok, I know that's not exact because of walls, etc. But the point is that if you are holding your breath at all, or if you are accustomed to slowly exhaling (in keeping with the rhythm of the slower stroke rate) you may not be getting enough air out in time to take a good next breath.
Not sure if that helps you, but thought I'd mention it as a possibility.
Without having seen your stroke, my best guess is that you may be rotating your head too far while breathing? Try rotating just far enough to breathe out of one side of your mouth, and this might help speed up the breath exchange. Another thing to try is swimming with a snorkel... this removes the head-rotation element and you may not have the same issues raising SR.
One other thought about the breathing: are you holding your breath? Or put another way, is it possible that as you increase stroke rate, you are not getting enough air out before the next breath?
As you increase stroke rate, you are also increasing the number of opportunities for a breath per length. Just as an example, I breathe every stroke. At 13 strokes per length, that means I'm getting 7 breaths a length more or less. If I increase my rate to 15 spl, I'm now getting 8. Now add into that the speed that comes with the increased stroke rate. For me, I am faster at 15 spl than I am at 13. That means that not only am I taking more breaths per length, they are coming a lot closer together in time. Thus, if I did that 13 spl 25 yards in 20 seconds, I'd be taking a breath every 2.85 or so seconds. If I did the 15 spl 25 yards in 17 seconds, that goes down to 2.1 seconds.
Ok, I know that's not exact because of walls, etc. But the point is that if you are holding your breath at all, or if you are accustomed to slowly exhaling (in keeping with the rhythm of the slower stroke rate) you may not be getting enough air out in time to take a good next breath.
Not sure if that helps you, but thought I'd mention it as a possibility.
