Sunday, December 5, 2010

Swimming - introducing bilateral breathing

The past few sessions, I've decided to bite the bullet and get on the road to bilateral breathing. In the past, I had always fallen off the wagon because it really changes my breathing cycle/pattern, and always felt uncomfortable. Since it is the offseason, and I have adequate time to make an adjustment and get used to it, I figured that now is better than any other time. Plus, I found that with only breathing to the right side, I was slipping into an uneven body rotation when comparing left arm to right arm stroke. Introducing bilateral breathing should help even that out.

I also decided that I wouldn't be concerned about time - if I had to go slower, so be it.

The other thing I decided I need to do is to extend the distance slowly every so often. I still haven't settled into anything permanent, but I'm thinking that once a week, I'll tack on another 100-200 yds in distance. This way, come the end of the winter season, I should be around 1.5 - 1.6 miles on long sessions, which should carry over nicely to the training season and make the 1.2 miles seem that much easier.

11/30
38 laps - 34:09
36 laps - 33:17
bilateral breathing

12/5
19 laps - 17:16 (after yoga - even with a short recovery period, my body was pretty spent)

12/7
36 laps - 33:44 (bilateral)
43 laps - 39:17

12/11
36 laps - 33:20 (bilateral)

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