Swimming Breathing: the Quest for Air Continues

Monday I had to get an insurance physical and blood work done. So I did that and wasn't really done with all of it until about 10:45. The pool lanes open back up at 11, so I headed to the Community Center to swim then, after ravenously devouring a breakfast bar and stopping for a coffee. I'm not a good faster.

I have been swimming in the earlier mornings and was reminded why this is a good decision. The pool just kinda had an overall funk to it – a mix of perfume and sweatiness topped with odd country western music blaring over the speakers. It was so crowded. Most of the people that go at this time aren't very good at sharing the lanes, unfortunately. I did my best, hugging the lane divider and sighting often (sighting practice!). And then it wasn't too long before I had my own lane which was nice.

It was an easy swim (it's a recovery week):  250 warmup, 6 x 25 pull drills, 5 x 100 base interval set, and 250 cool down for 1150 yards total. For the main set, I tried something new. Breathing is definitely my weakness. This has proven true for all the sports. But I've noticed it getting better since I've been swimming, which is awesome! I think that the swim intervals are helping, forcing me to breathe in a way that I never have. I decided to really really focus on my form for this swim and not worry so much about my pace. To do that, I really wanted to not have to breathe every other stroke, which means breathing on the same side. I wanted to practice reaching and rotating, and breathing on one side makes you kinda lopsided. In the past I've been going down the lane breathing on one side, then coming back breathing on the other to work on that whole one side is dominant thing. But I wanted to swim like I can with the pull buoy between my legs, breathing every third stroke and feeling myself in the water better.

To do this, I tried to slow down, but eventually got too out of breath again. But then I tried a different breathing pattern that I think worked out. I basically fit the every three strokes breathing in there when I could. So, it looked like this:

stroke - breath right,
stroke - breathe right,
stroke - stroke - breathe left,
stroke - breathe left,
stroke - stroke - breathe right,
stroke - breathe right....
....and repeat.

(And yes, I just air swimmed to make sure I had that right)

When I knew I was going to have to take two strokes before breathing again, I exhaled a little differently, and consequently, feel I controlled it better. But the quicker breaths allowed me to keep getting enough air.

Voila! Maybe on to something here, to increasing my VO2 max, lung capacity or something.

In the evening, I ran 4 miles and it felt very easy. I haven't had any more achilles tendon soreness, so maybe I'm getting used to my shoes.