Swimming

My issue is that I go stroke/stroke/stroke/breath successfully for half a length, then one fails, then I'm in oxygen debt and eventually gasp in some water when I try breathing in too long.

And then breast stroke.

Breath more often? Every two rather than every four.

I know what that's like! Every fucker in Oz does endless lengths and I took ages to work up to being constant. Feel strangely compelled to just say keep trying, the lengths without getting knackered will come.

Breath more often? Every two rather than every four.

I breath every three so that I alternate left and right.

yeah, it just takes practice one length at a time, breathe on the left, pull one two three breathe on the right and repeat
You'll get there. Swim slowly too, it is about technique before you can put the real effort in.

^ This.

If my breathing goes (doing breathing drills, for example) everything else goes - My body position goes, my legs drop, I start fishtailing etc... It's a mess.

My issue is that I go stroke/stroke/stroke/breath successfully for half a length, then one fails, then I'm in oxygen debt and eventually gasp in some water when I try breathing in too long.

And then breast stroke.

My best advice to combatting this in training is "slow down".

Let comfortable breathing dictate the pace at which you swim rather than the other way round. Technique wins over effort everytime. Once you're able to maintain a comfortable pace without worry about going into the red then can you start to really work on your stroke and only then start to ramp up the intensity.

I say this from a theoretical standpoint although to be honest I suffer from exactly the same thing relating to turns. I'm fine when swimming at up to about 75% pace but as soon as I start pushing hard that extra second or two without being able to breathe pushes me into the red and I panic and have to slow or breathe more after the turn to compensate. I try to remind myself to take an extra breath on the way in to the turn but I don't always remember. *weak

As you are already breathing bi-laterally already a nice breathing exercise to try is 8x25s breathing every 2 though to 9 strokes. You'll probably find that if you are giving yourself enough time to fully recover between 25s by 8 and 9 you'll be breathing once at the start and reaching the end before breathing again.

But, yeah as a general rule of thumb. SLOW DOWN!

I try to remind myself to take an extra breath on the way in to the turn but I don't always remember. *weak
Sun Yang breaths every stroke / both sides going into and coming out of each turn. It means that you can have a strong & long kick off the wall, and not have to sacrifice your first stroke just to catch a breath.

That's great - to be able to get in the sea daily is amazing. Firstly, get the wetsuit off - the sea's still pretty warm - if you're feeling the cold now, you won't feel the benefit of it in December.

If you are being sucked parallel to the shore, it'll mainly just be the tides - you'll go faster one way, slower the other, shouldn't be anything to be afeared of - you get it on most of the south coast. Even so, ask for any local knowledge in case there's anything you should know.

It's safest to swim at low tide, as you come in with the tide. It shouldn't make a massive difference in Brighton. Also, get yourself one of these swimming whistles:

[Whistle]

I had a great weekend down in Folkestone - seem to have got a bit soft over the summer, could only manage about 80 mins without wetsuit, but swam Sat am, rode all pm, drank all eve and swam Sun am. Weather was great - you'd never have known it was October.

Ta for this.

All taken on board. Am away for a while but will put it to good use when I'm back.

In the meantime, to echo all the above weight put on technique, I'm seriously considering swimming lessons.

I've never had any formal swimming instruction but I think I'd really benefit from some.

A friend of mine is a swimming coach working at GLL pools and said something very basic the other day to me that I had neglected all these years. As a result, the speeds I'm now getting on a front crawl are about double what I used to.

You may be able to pick up some tips from swimsmooth.com, particularly on roll, position and catch.

And ignore what KL says about wetsuits. He's a wrong'un when it comes to temperature.

I started to learn swimming pretty much two months ago. The first four or five weeks I was barely able to swim three-four lengths at a time before running out of breath (front crawl). I started to suspect it's not 'my thing'.

Then one day I was again struggling with breathing and decided to try one of those boards that people put between their legs to do different drills. Voila! I was swimming like a boss from end to end without any breathing problems whatsoever. Turns out I had been kicking like mad, basically relying on my legs to propel me forward.

Once I learned to relax my legs everything fell into place. Yesterday, I was able to do 1.5K in the fast lane. Afterwards, one of the best post-exercise feelings ever.

A friend of mine is a swimming coach working at GLL pools and said something very basic the other day to me that I had neglected all these years. As a result, the speeds I'm now getting on a front crawl are about double what I used to.

Double? where you using both arms previously?

Had a few very pleasant swims off Brighton and Hove beaches this summer. It was positively balmy last time I was in... although that was late August to be fair. There a strong-ish current that runs East to West along that stretch. As mentioned, if you allow for it (maybe set off into the current and come back with) you'll be fine. Strangely enough I found that swimming into the current, while making comically negligable progress, actually feels smoother and less choppy than swimming with it.

I might try to get into my wetsuit again tonight, maybe a run up?

Report I just gave a mate on last night's less than triumphant return to competitive indoor swimming:

Yeah. It was a handicap race so you went in heats roughly equivalent to your speed and then they set you off at intervals within that. I went in heat three, which contained me, a muscly new guy and a tall lanky Israeli guy. We all went at the same time. Classic nine year old swim race story: Good dive and start felt strong. Then my goggles filled with water on turn one. Thought “okay no big deal” but then totally fluffed turn two. I basically swam into the wall because I couldn’t see, flailed and flapped and kicked off at 45 degrees with feet slipping and my arms spread. Disaster. Tried to sprint to catch up on the third leg and fluffed that turn too, nearly popped a lung from lack of breath before blindly panic-sprinting the last leg trying in vain to catch the just out of reach legs of the muscly new guy in the next lane. Third of three by quite some margin on 1:13. As I finished I said to the annoyingly macho lane one dude who was timing me, “I totally messed up that turn”. He pulled an unimpressed face and said “Yeah. You *really *did”

I might try to get into my wetsuit again tonight, maybe a run up?

baby oil.

Swimming starts again Monday. I'm nervous because the shoulder has been royally fucked recently.
I hate my shoulder.

Hour in the pool today, focusing purely on breathing- basically went as slowly as possible.

Ended up cracking it- which felt ace. I then choffed up and down for 45 minutes of crawl.

I had EPIC panda eyes from my goggles at the end of the hour.

Is it frowned upon to change lane to overtake people?

If you can still frown while wearing your goggles, go for it.

There was a chap doing doggy paddle in the fast lane today.

Did you 'accidentally' kick him in the face?

Heh, brilliant dammit.just gets better now.
Same smooth 40lengths of pleasure today, then sauna reward.simple life.

Two hour sessions planned for mid week, then a longer session on Sunday.

I'm completely unable to keep a count of how many lengths I've done- any hints or tips for keeping this in mind?

It takes me ~30 seconds to do one length, so I've been guestimating based on that so far.

Heh he. Counting is about being in the moment.
I would bloody say that.
So.
You're starting is always odd number, do 10 then start again?

I might gaffa tape an abacus to the diving board end.