increasing number of lengths in lane swimming

Rej

Hi,

I learned how to swim last April, since then I have completed an improvers set of lessons. I go swimming fairly regularly (approx 3 nights a week), generally I do one length crawl, followed by one length breast stroke. Depends on tiredness, at the beginning of the session I can manage 2 lengths of the crawl back to back, but towards the end of my session I find this very difficult.

My problem is that I can only do 100mtrs before I need a breather (4 lengths), and struggle to do more than 30 lengths in total during a session.

Thanks in advance for your advice

hunnymonster

When you say your limit is 4x25 or 30 in total, what do you think is the limit, sore arms, laboured breathing,.... something else? What is your fitness like for other sports?

Rej

Laboured breathing, i suppose more than anything else.. I breathe every 3rd stroke. My overall fitness is ok, but swimming would be my main exercise

911sc

Sorry to stating the obvious, but have you tried to breathe every stroke & see how long you can keep going?

AngryHippie

Sounds like a stroke efficiency issue tbh, count the number of strokes it takes you to do 25m front crawl, if its over 20, then you are working far too hard, to increase the distance you are swimming, initially, you may need to slow down your stroke rate, and work on LME, (Local muscular endurance) Easiest way to do that is with a little bit of overload, look up sculling, get a pair of fins, and get that stroke count down in the 15-20 range.
The other possibility is that it is an overall fitness issue, easy way to check that is to do a 5-6 minute swim, any stroke you like, check your pulse (just to one side of your neck, with 2 fingertips, count it for 6 seconds, add a zero to the end of it, thats your pulse per minute) If it is a fitness issue, your pulse will rocket up into the 160 or over range after a 25, and may take 2 minutes to drop back down to the 100-120 range. While you will still get some benefit from swimming flat out, and smashing yourself over 30 lengths, there are merits to training smarter, keeping the pulse between 100-140 during your set will maintain aerobic excercise, without the drawbacks of anaerobic (cramps and muscle burn) or Catabolic (cramps and stiffness the next day and lactic build up in the muscles)
Try putting in some sculling, some fin & leg work, and glide more with your stroke. After doing some sculling you will find that you can pull on the water in your power phase much harder, and glide along while your recovering arm makes a smooth entry and catch. Stick to the 3 stroke breaths, except when you are absolutely gunning for a fast length, then drop it back to every 2nd stroke on your favoured side.
towards the end of your sets, do a few slow lengths, where you breathe on every 5th or 7th stroke, It'll be tough the first few days you do it, but it will definitely help in the long run, just don't push it to the point where you get dizzy or light-headed as that can take all the good out of it, and may even put you at risk. Play around with the techniques mentioned above, there are videos and demonstrations of all of them online, not sure where, but they are further down on the swimming forum in other posts.
Hope its a help to ya.
Enjoy!

Sconsey

Two simple things I changed which made a big difference for me, increasing the number of lengths I could swim:

- Make sure you are breathing correctly, exhale smoothly while head is under water, maybe ask a good swimmer to check how you are breathing.

- Don't use your legs so much, this will slow your speed down but increase your endurance, I used to belt off on my lengths and kick hard all the time...was exhausted in no time. Try just using your legs for balance, see if it helps.

Rej

Thanks for the advice.
I went swimming last night, and noticed a big improvement.towards the end of the session I did 12 lengths non stop starting with 3 crawls, and then cycled through 1 breast stroke+2 crawls.

Altogether I did 40 lengths, reckon I could have done some more, but session was up so had to get out of the pool.

I did a stroke count and am doing about 24 strokes per length. So there is defnintely room for improvement there.. perhaps im not kicking enough, so am going slower down the lengths??
Will ask some of the more advanced swimmers next time im down in the pool to see if they can pick out what im doing wrong.

AngryHippie

Like running, stretch your stroke (stride) as far as you can without changing your balance, a little bit of catch up drill, the others can show you that.

markyboy

Rej wrote: »

My problem is that I can only do 100mtrs before I need a breather (4 lengths), and struggle to do more than 30 lengths in total during a session.

I was stuck at 100m for ages as well (started last year). Became a mental thing. Thought I'd never go further than 100m no matter what I did! One night I just slowed everything down as slow as possible and did 250m.

chillout

Yea i agree, slow the stroke down and the laps will happen. I was also stuck on a mental thought of sure i can't do more that ten without a break. Well i slowed my kick down and lenghted the stroke and was amazed at the distance i then covered. So 25lengts later i'm think wow this is mad. Looking forward to the next session.

slinky2000

Switch to breathing every 2 strokes and it should help, I find every stoke is overkill. You sound like you need to improve your technique and stroke to glide through the water. Once you have this the lengths will start flying in.. for example, I done 80 lengths last night and I only went in for a quick dip :P