Swimming rhythms

Well, to be honest I am a bit disappointed with my swim time at Lake Placid. I had expected better. Although I was able to swim almost the entire distance freestyle, my time is stubbornly pegged at 1:22 plus or minus a few minutes. At LP it was 1:21:16. That, despite the fact that I know I can swim faster than a few years ago. And yet, my "best" time dates from 2005 in Florida at 1:20:23.

I went to the pool several times this week and it is clear I cannot get my breathing to where it needs to be. According to a friend I should be able to breathe at least every other stroke -he actually said every third stroke should work-. That way I should swim faster because I keep my forward momentum if I can keep my head still. While that is true I always run out of air after a lap or so. Even when I swim "easy" I run out of air. It is obvious that the timing is the issue. I can't seem to get it right.

I also fail miserably at breathing on the left. Not only does it mess up my stroke, I always run out of air in a few laps. Even when I breathe on every stroke. Left-breathing just doesn't work for me.

I want to keep trying on both counts for a while longer but it is getting to be quite frustrating. It appears the every-other stroke breathing may eventually work, because when I don't think about it, I am fine. It is just when I concentrate or focus on it that I run out of air because I screw up the timing. The left-breathing however, is more in doubt.

I noticed another thing. For the last two sessions there was a man in the pool who swims quite a bit faster than I do. I tried to stay with him but failed. Then I watched him and it occurred to me that he stroked faster than I did. I memorized his rhythm and tried it.

When I followed his rhythm the next time around I was able to keep up with him, without working too hard. It is just -you guessed it- that I ran out of breath, and this time clearly because I did not have enough time to breathe in between strokes. Or so it felt.

I know what you will say: one needs to exhale underwater so one only has to inhale when one's head is up. That way one has enough time to get all the air needed. I think I read that somewhere. In any case, when I try to follow this recipe, I always fail. I can't get it coordinated, and the more I think about it, the worse it gets. Either I forget to exhale on one stroke, or exhale too late or too long, or something else happens that messes everything up.

I guess you could say I am hopeless when it comes to swimming.

Breathing

Last weekend in Mariposa I went on a ride with a varsity distance swimmer, whose kid was in the same bike race Alistair was in. Inevitably we discussed triathlon and my poor swim results. I braced myself for another onslaught of the swim technique and body position speech, but to my surprise he did not go there. Rather he said, swimming is all about breathing.

It is something I have remarked on before and I immediately sensed that this guy might have some useful hints. He was also prepared to listen and he started out by asking how often I took a breath and whether or not I was breathing bilaterally. Then he asked if I kicked and how much I kicked. He recommended I kick slowly and only enough to keep my legs up. That is something someone told me years ago when I asked about freestyle (and before I knew how to swim freestyle).

He told me buoyancy was key and I needed to control my buoyancy with my lung volume and with a slow and steady kick. He recommended that I breathe only every third stroke and told me if I could not keep that up I was working too hard. He also said I should be able to swim a pool length (25m) without breathing. Ironically enough I can do that and I always start out my swims that way. I also noticed that this first lap is really my fastest lap of the day.

He advised me to learn to breathe bilaterally so I would develop equal amounts of strength in both arms, and so I would go straight naturally instead of doing so by making subtle corrections with my one arm (and wasting energy in the process). He also said breathing slows you down and when you breathe out completely you sink, which is not good.

Since that day I have gone to the pool twice and tried to follow his recommendations. It is not easy. I can't seem to get into a good rhythm and I never get enough air. So far, I totally fail at breathing on the left side and I run out of air quickly, plus it appears my legs sink deeply every time I try to breathe on that side. I realize this will take time, but so far the experience has been a dismal failure.

Monday, a one hour swim, mostly focused on "technique," i.e. breathing on the left and swimming while breathing every third stroke. Not a great success.

Tuesday, a 10.5 mi hilly run.

Wednesday, a 30 mi bike ride to the top of Redwood Rd.

Today (Thu), another hour of thrashing around in the pool trying to breathe on both sides and/or to breathe every other stroke (I decided to take it one step at a time and even that is not going so well).