swbkrun with us!!! - Closed (Page 72)

I got in another swim today, and even though I feel pretty good about it, I just always feel out of breath when I swim.  It's like I always think I'm going to drown.  The long set was only 100 tonight, and by the end, my lungs are screaming for oxygen.  Is this crazy?  Can I even work up to 2112 yards by July? 

OH, and no hair dryers at the gym, so my hair froze on the walk back to school.  Awesome.

Not sure if this will help, but one thing to think about is whether you are exhaling fully before you go to take a breath?  Literally blow it all out before your mouth breaks the plane so you have all that time to inhale.   That's all I've got, I'll let the real swimmers chime in! 

Not having seen you swim, of course, this is hard to judge. But how much do you kick? The biggest mistake that I see new swimmers make is kicking like crazy, which just sucks up your oxygen and does make you way out of breath. There is a fine balance between keeping your legs afloat and using them as propellers -- the speed in the swim does NOT come from the kick. Also, usually people just need to learn to slow down overall. It's easy to coast on the bike and know when you are taking it easy. Less easy to feel that on a run. I think even harder to feel in the water for many...

That's all I got.

Edited by kkcbelle 2011-01-20 5:14 PM

I was about to respond with the exact same thing.  When I very first tried to swim, my legs were used for balance.  I was gassed within 12y!  I agree with Kim too....there are just so many reasons why this might be happening.  I would say until I learned balance in the water things did not improve much for me.   Drills are key.  For me, a big one was "pressing the T" so that might chest was pressing down into the water which served to bring my legs up.  Once I had that I was less fatigued.  Also important to slow down.....I could go on, but swimmers far better than me should probably weigh in....

PS. Get a lesson and have someone look at you swimming. Priceless.  My coach gave me so much input after that first lesson.

35 Foreignheit (as my wife calls it) and rain and I break out my North Face goretex jacket and pants.  I keep it light underneath because, as others have said, you will heat up fast.  I use the hood on the jacket and a running cap underneath (if no rain, I wear a fleece hat at 35).   I've had that gear for at least 10 years now.  

When I get back from running, I always end up telling my wife that nobody else was out running in the rain and she always says "nobody else is crazy". 

Uh, I think we are all crazy in this Mentor Group.  Some of us have been out in some "wild" weather, myself included : )

Linda

I got a lot of help from swimsmooth.com.   They have a lot to good training articels.

Ditto to what Kim and Suzy said, especially the kicking - it will wear you out.  

I find that the first 100-150 yards are always the toughest for me.  I feel out of breath and sluggish trying to get started, then once I get into a rhythm the next 1000 yards just fly by.  I have heard or read something about the body moving from anaerobic to aerobic; but whatever it is, it's fairly consistent with my swims.  Also, adding distance was a lot easier once I got past the first few hundred yards.  So yes, you can work up to 2112 by July, just keep at it.



Edited by tdl1972 2011-01-20 7:23 PM

I second this.  I also have watched some terrific videos from goswim!

Saw sport medicine doc today.  He's sending me for an MRI of my ankle.  As someone here mentioned (!)  It's my posterior tibial tendon.  Hopefully 'itis', need to rule out a tear.

Not super impressed with doc, but we'll see.  Annoyed with insurance.....for the first ime EVER, they told me I needed pre-approval, so the MRI may not happen in the morning.  Argh.

good luck on all accounts.  damn.

Sorry Linda, hopefully it is "itis"

Aarrgh, hopefully it will be covered at any rate...

so I had my first Masters Swim session for year today.  got my butt kicked and my coach pointed out two areas for improvement: 1) keep my head level & still will little movement while taking a breath. 2) dropping my left shoulder during the catch

I mainly breath on my right side, so I naturally drop my left arm as I take a breath on my right side.  My coach suggested trying to point my left thumb down when I enter my left arm for the catch.  It seems to work, but I feel like it's straining my left shoulder a lot.. Any thoughts on how to correct this?  I'm sure bilateral breathing would help, but I'm still a WIP on this and that's a different story..

Don't ya love all the swim feedback?   I too am taking a Master's and have issues dropping my right arm when breathing on my left.  Practice is what it takes.  One of the things we started doing is sculling.  Kyla or Linda can probably explain this better than me, but the front scull helps you think about how your hand should enter the water.  It is thumbs down, but your hand is more at a relaxed angle.  If you practice sculling you get the correct feel for the position.  GOSWIM.TV has some great videos on it.  I haven't mastered it, but I will keep working at it.

Well my foot is slowly getting better. I spent a lot of time on my feet yesterday at work which was good. Foot was sore by the end of day but still much better. I think my workouts are about to slide from 400 mins a week to 0 doesn't really fit my plan. But we had to terminate two people in management yesterday, As well as I forced 2 to quite about a month ago, for the better of the company in the long run. But I know it will be a couple months before we replace them and another couple before the new people are up to speed.

As such I am now working 12 hour shifts, throw in my 50-60 min drive and I am gone 14 hours a day, then doing some work from home as well. I attempted to go downstairs last night and spin at 9:30pm. By 9:31 I wanted to pick my bike up and throw it. Between work, winter and a sore foot I have had enough this week. And knowing full well I will have to be gone 14-15 hours days now.

My $.02.......The best drill for shoulder dropping, arm entry, or pull balance issues is the catch up drill. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Si6VeAfluQ

It can be a tough drill to master but I find that if I feel any stroke issues with shoulder drop or arm entry, a couple of sets of catch up drill followed immediately with some pull buoy work to ingrain the stroke muscle memory works for me......

Keeping your head level....that is a different story.  I would suggest doing a couple of sets with a kick board or pull buoy depending on what is easier for you....using your normal breath rhythm while really focusing on keeping your head level and breathing out of your arm-pit (the visual I use in my head for proper head position during your breath)  

Agree on catch up.

Also one thing when doing drills, if you find you spend more time struggling to not sink while doing drills, put on some fins.  They'll provide you more than enough propulsion to stay afloat so you can focus on the drills.

This guy, a somewhat controversial wannabe triathlete,  also has a problem with his left shoulder dropping while breathing on the right.  Since I too have the same problem I was interested in seeing the video.  I haven't watched the entire 23 minute video yet, but I did make it about half way through.  

?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-pgQ-gpmNk&hd=1

My swimming instructor also suggested I look into sculling and I've just started to play around a little with it.  She gave me 8-10 pages worth of material all in Japanese.   I found an equivalent set of material on this site - check out the 6 articles under "Get a (better) Grip!, by Coach Emmett Hines".    These articles refer to the GoSwim videos Suzy mentioned.

Last comment: one of the first bad habits my instructor corrected (and it took quite a few lessons) was my left hand entering thumb down (palm facing the wall).  I will have to do some digging, but my memory says that it will cause problems with your shoulder. 


edit: I wish I could swim as fast as the wannabe triathlete mentioned above.

Edited by dcon 2011-01-21 8:25 AM

Lots of good swimming help here.  Thanks everyone!  It's funny because I actually used to be a swimmer, but I only ever did short distances.  I could do sets of 50, 75, even 100 all day long with a break in between them.  Ask me to swim more than that, and I'm toast.  I have a really hard time pacing myself over those long sets.  I will work on it though.  Next swim is Monday, so we will see!

P.S. - I just wanted to let you guys know that you totally rock!  I love this MG already!

No excuses, play like a champion!  I promise that even with all that craziness, you will feel a ton better if you just wake up early and get a spin in.  I, too, have an hour long commute each way.  Plus work and class.  There are plenty of days where I'm gone from 7am-9:30pm, like yesterday!  Though this semester will be a little less hectic, I was on that schedule pretty much all last semester, every day.  The early morning workouts can be tough at first, but now, I love my 5am bike rides.  You'll be much happier if you get these in.  Promise!  Stick with it!