Wednesday, February 6, 2013

My 1st Love/Hate Relationship of 2013

I should say this is the 1st of many love/hate relationships I will have with my training in 2013! It just happens. I think we all go through some point where we have a love/hate relationship with our training. It will be the run, or the bike soon, but for me right now it's Master's Swim Class!

I have been trying to hit a Master's Class  a week now for about a month. For me, it is usually a good chance to get in a lot of speed work and it actually pushes me knowing that here is a coach on deck giving instructions and timing us. The coach also would give me some tips to help my swim stroke. It was always a great swim workout that I remembered in the past.

However, there is a new Master's class coach.

This new coach is not a bad Master's class coach at all, so I am not complaining about the level of coach or anything, but...

We are doing things in there that I am not sure I want to do. For example, we usually start off the class with some 100's on 2 minutes. I am usually the second to finish in the class and have plenty of time to prepare for the next set. Then we move on to kick sets, which is not my strong point, but I try.  Last class, we then went into a backstroke drill called the L drill, where I almost drowned! Again, let me say, I do not backstroke. I train swimming freestyle because that's what I swim when I  race. I understand that learning different strokes will help me be a better swimmer, but we all know a race is not won in the swim right? In the video below, the L drill is demonstrated at the 1:12 mark or so. The only difference is we did not switch hands, we went the length of the pool with the same hand pointing to the sky and then went back with the other hand pointed up! Two things I learned, 1. I hate this drill and 2. When I did get close to doing it right, I can not swim it in a straight line!



It was hard. I thought I was going to drowned, but I tried my best. It was tiring, so I took a break at one point when the coach came over and said she "noticed I only breathed on my left side". I also breath every stroke, it works for me. Well she said she is going to get me breathing bilaterally!

I DO NOT WANT TO LEARN TO BREATH BILATERALLY!

So our next drill, it was a bilateral breathing drill! DOH!! We were suppose to do a 3 count breath for a  length and a 5 count breath back for 400 yards using the pull buoy and paddles. Remember, I breath to my left every stroke, so I knew it was going to be tough, but I also know that this will be good for the lungs somehow (not exactly sure how?) so I tried. For me to go from breathing every stroke (or every time my right hand goes into the water) to a 3 or 5 stroke slowed me way down. It really made me feel awkward in  the pool and yeah,  I did manage to get some breaths on my non breathing side, but I was also took in a lot of water. I basically was holding my breath until I could get to breath on my left like normal.

I guess what I really want is to go back to the days where we swam 3000 yards fast, furious and freestyle. I heard that the others in the class complained that freestyle was boring and that they wanted to learn other strokes. Which is cool, I mean it is a free class for members.  I love the workout I can get, but I hate the other strokes, so I must decide what to do. I am only swimming twice a week because I am good with my boring unilateral breathing freestyle swimming. I guess my options are to dump the Masters class and do my own drills one day and endurance swims the other or to learn these other strokes.


11 comments:

  1. Enjoying reading these! Keep pushing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. HAAA!!! As much as I encourage an "in case of emergency stroke" for swimming, it sure does sucks having to train for it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HAAAA!!!!!! Check out the newest article on Triathlete

      http://triathlon.competitor.com/2013/02/training/why-you-should-learn-the-backstroke_51696

      Now all triathletes will beg to learn backstroke in masters now

      Delete
    2. Great! Now I am sure we will be doing A LOT more of these drills. The coach mentioned something about learning butterfly also! NOOOOOO

      Delete
  3. I too have a new masters coach who really stresses bilateral breathing. I too choose to breathe only to one side. Apparently there are 2 advantages that we can keep in mind. First breath control (which we practice with the 5 and 7 stroke sets) is helpful in growing our lungs nice and big and strong and mentally conditioning us in case we miss a breath for whatever reason. As for the bilateral breathing he just said to me flat out it was my choice but if I could do it my stroke rhythm will be better for the long swim. Okay fine I'll work on it I say. It turns out that I personally wasn't rotating really at all to that side. Which is why I had so much trouble breathing that way. I have been doing endless 6-3-6 drills and the coach stresses breathe on both sides. I can do it for about 25 yrds but feel very stressed the whole time. Today in the worlds worst swim set for me I actually felt the rotation and was able to breathe easily to my wrong side for a little bit :-) As for the backstroke ... I got nothing for ya there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I actually was able to get a breath on the wrong side as long as I was using a swim buoy! But I'd rather go faster and breath on one side than slower and breath on both!

      Delete
  4. Dude...we've talked about this already, so I'll leave it here, then leave it alone....

    If it wasn't for my *cough* superior *cough* ability to bilateral breathe....I would have not been able to complete my swim for my HIM due to the waves crashing on my right side.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See, I breath on my left side, so I would have been just fine! :)

      Delete
  5. I'm just happy to make it through any swim workout - whatever gets me from one end of the pool to the other.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Don't knock the bilateral breathing. It comes in handy if you have bright sun or waves hitting you from one side and you want to switch to the other.

    I'm with you on the back stroke. I don't do breast stroke either. When my fitness instructor had us do breast stroke, I told him it hurt my shoulders and that I would do extra freestyle to make up for it.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave me a comment on my blog and let me know what you think, good or bad, I can take it, and thanks for stopping by! Sorry for the word verification, but the spammers be spamming...