Swimming - How do you pace yourself?

jaimebarth

I am training for a mini-triathlon later this summer which includes a long distance open swim. In HS I was a competitive swimmer and tend to swim freestyle too fast. Not that I am fast by any means. The result is that I wear myself out really quickly and have to take breathing breaks in between laps. Does anyone have a trick or a rhythm you keep in your head to keep from acting like it's a race? I haven't ever swam for distance before.

lindseyb317

im a distance swimmer.. have been for 12 years. how many yards/meters do you have to swim? i would say slow your kick down and focus on arm recovery out of the water and an effective underwater pull. focus on keeping your form efficient. how often do you breathe while swimming? i typically breathe every three strokes.. maybe breathing every 2-3 strokes will cut down on time youre spending taking a break.

lindseyb317

also i usually find myself singing songs in my head but its very helpful to find a constant rhythm that you can keep constant for the amount of distance you need to swim.

SERinDC

Hey, so I'm training for triathlons this summer and did two last year also. I usually do group instructed swim for an hour once a week and what we do is typically start with a 300m warm-up, do various drills that help you focus on technique instead of speed, then do longer sets like 3 sets of 300m and each one maybe every 100 meters you go from 40% effort to 50% effort to 60% effort. I'm not sure if that was helpful, but there are lots of free online "swim workouts" that you could find that are focused more on technique and adding the distance than going too fast. Also, in between sets tell yourself that you'll give yourself a 1 minute break or something like that and start up again to help discourage going to fast and needing longer breaks.

jaimebarth

Thank you ladies. Very sound advice! I breathe every two strokes (always on the right) but tonight I thought I would try every three. I will also try slowing my kicks too. I don't have a very good front float so when I lose my kick pattern I start to sink and lose my concentration.

jaimebarth

So I headed out yesterday for another swim and tried breathing every four strokes and it helped ALOT! I still got a bit winded, which is just the way it is since I am asthmatic and need another inhaler but I was able to do more than Tuesday. Tuesday was 11 laps in 30 minutes and yesterday I made it to 12. I am happy with that. I have lots of time to keep working at it and once I have an inhaler I know that will be breathing better. Plus I need to exercise my lungs and work on expanding them so that means more yoga for me!

gummibaehr

I like to swim for distance rather than speed. I breathe every four strokes when doing freestyle. I count each stroke in my head. 1... 2... 3... 4... Repeat. It works well for me to keep my pace steady. Good luck in the triathlon! :-)