Swimming

New to this thread...

been swimming more since I packed in the commuting due to length of journey - distance was not the problem, just boredom at the dreadful route and amount of time it took. (17 miles eachway)

anyway.....

cracked my front crawl last week - did 1km in a 25m pool without stopping. Had previously only managed 250m max before switching to breast stroke.

now to the questions:

I can breathe on both sides, but prefer to breath to the left and do so on every 6th or 4th stroke. should I adapt to a shorter cycle and use both sides? or just stick to what works?

what is the general opionion of nose clips?

General opinion on nose clips ?

If you need to use it, then so be it.

I should use one as i get affected after every swim by the chlorine, but i dont like them so i put up with a blocked nose.

As for the breathing; I breathe bi-laterally. I used to breathe just to the right, but started to get neck pain and lots of migraines after swimming so i changed to bi. I dont know whether it helped the migraines but it did help my neck.
Bi-lateral is a good thing to have, to be able to do, if you can do it then i would stick to it. You are less likely to get a imbalance when swimming.

Also if you decide at some point you want to do some open water swimming or a triathlon, you will already have the bi lateral breathing up your sleeve, which is great when waves, or chop or some fool splashing to you right continuously.... ha ha then you can breath to the other side no problem, cos you are a pro at bi lateral breathing ! :)

Also in open water swimming you should be able to swim in a straighter line, by being able to see what is to the right/left of you, plus sighting obviously= (lifting head forward to see in front).

So i vote Bi lateral.

You say you breathe every 4/6 . Which is it mostly ?

You could switch to bi every 3, or i find every 5 pretty easy.