I think just getting in and doing the motions is all that's needed. At least while training short to moderate distances, for us newbies.

. I swear water kept rushing into my noise unless I was constantly exhaling.

Im not sure id say 99%.
All the good tri guys I know spent some time in a proper swim program. And I dont mean a few weeks.
Though i guess that number could be up there for weekend warrior/masters types.

you should be exhaling between breaths....

Body composition

I wonder if art could go sub 50 seconds in a 50, guessing no

Actually....more body fat is helpful to swimming efficiently and quickly. What dat float do?

I'm pretty sure my swim times slowed down as I lost most of my excess body fat....on the same amount of training. I had to up my time in the pool to get that speed back.

You realize I just said "body composition" to be a dick because stickaz is fat, right?

Yeah I was looking at some tri workouts they go like this

Warmup
Swim 1000
Warmdown
Get out

The garmin 310XT didn't work in the pool as well as I had hoped. However, I bike to the pool and back home, so the multi sport mode works out really well.

awesome lol, I was considering doing that [GPS watch in the pool] some seem to use a pre-determined pool-lap size and detect a flip-turn or something/rapid acceleration and simply counting laps. Pretty darn accurate they say. Perhaps if you blow a flip-turn and barely touch it won't count the lap tho [dont do that then, duh]

thats totally a solid pace [2:00 100m], good job!

I'm working on my technique and particularly the freestyle kick at this point including underwater streamline/butterfly kick from the walls.Trying to improve my age-group 50 and 100m sprint speed
theres a new guy in my masters class thats a faster sprinter than me [in workouts, not sure about block start but probably] and it is annoying me greatly


I like the feeling of speed/sprint work mainly

I try to get in (2) masters swim classes/week and at least 1 if not 2 days surfing in/week. Not sure how much those last 2 contribute to anything though lol

How were you wearing the 310XT, on your wrist? Some people have reported drastically improved accuracy if you place it under your swim cap (assuming you're wearing one during training) than on your wrist.

the swim workout that broke me @ masters class in the Y last night

critical component #1: the asian college swimmer from Santa Clara showed up[no, not female, but a dude faster than me]
critical component #2: bike commuted that day, and was tired
critical component #3: decided to push it

200/200/200/200/200 warmup: free, kick, pull, IM, free. as always, warmed up too fast

main set: ladder
50/50, 100/100, 150/150, 200/200, 150/150, 100/100, 50/50
intervals on 1:30 100y pace, aimed for coming in around 1:10 pace

Right at somewhere between the first and second 150 I mentally checked out, couldnt hang, and had to start adding time. Settled around 1:40 and was coming in around 1:25 pace each time. I had hit the wall.

My form was all manners of shit by the 2nd 200 even at the reduced pace. I toughed it out. Felt like a bitch. Workout sucked. the end. The 56 year old in the slow lane [also does tris, hates swimming] was beating my ass something serious after I hit the wall. It wasnt helping that he was laughing about it

I think this is what caused my insta-burnout

Depth of Catch
The hands should have a catch depth of 10–16 inches and, in a move similar to rowing, “square their blade” as soon as possible. This is the freestyle equivalent of the Early Vertical Forearm and is of primary importance in effecting backward facing palms and forearms. At entry, swimmers should rotate the hand so that palm faces out, allowing the little finger to enter the water first. The hands must create a leverage point to push against the water, while keeping submerged bubbles to a minimum prior to the pull phase. Following the catch, current trends in backstroke point towards a shallower palm path than in previous years. By maintaining the thumb vertically and the fingertips horizontally for longer durations within a cycle, swimmers maximize propulsive forces opposite their direction of travel.

An overall perspective from a side view gives the hand path the appearance of a shallow square root sign. It begins with a downward entry, followed by a quick upward change of direction, leading to a semi-shallow, straight backward direction. Once submerged, the pitch of the hand remains oriented backward throughout the path of the pull/push motion. Too many novice backstrokers pull with the thumb leading and the little finger trailing too early in the stroke. Care should be given to ensure a vertical palm throughout the propulsive phases of the motion. Throughout the pull and push phases, the elbow should point towards the bottom.

Correction point for elbow leading the pull: “Imagine pushing a stack of books.”

Steve West’s splits
100 breast:
30.34, 33.47

200 breast
31.75, 34.99, 35.42, 36.41