Getting your share of O2 - Triathlon Week

sfricks · 08-24-2006, 01:13 PM

I had the pleasure of speaking with a friend who happens to be an Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer about the biomechanics of breathing while swimming. There are some interesting factors that drive your feeling of whether or not you’re getting sufficient oxygen during your swim. These factors are exaggerated in new swimmers. This post primarily refers to the stroke that most triathletes do: the front crawl.

Most beginning swimmers and some that have experience but lack confidence, often struggle to fight panic or at least anxiety at not getting enough air. Of course this is a catch 22 because once you begin to hyper-ventilate and your HR goes up, you need even more O2 which you’re already struggling to get in the first place. This process starts a downward spiral that at best leads to inefficient swimming and at worst could lead to out right panic if not drowning.

Another medley that befalls new swimmers is not being able to find a “rhythm”. All crawl stroke swimmers MUST find a rhythm to swim more than a few hundred meters at a time. Rhythm is a swimmers ability to breathe at a rate that matches their exertion level, stroke count and arm turn over (cadence). If your cadence is low and your exertion is high, you may not get your mouth to the surface to sufficiently oxygenate. If your cadence is too high and your exertion too low, you may hyper-ventilate. If your stoke is inefficient and you struggle to maintain forward motion, you may… I could go on.

So… how do we “Find our rhythm”? My friend advises: 1) spend time in the water building confidence. Anything that makes you feel more comfortable in the water helps. REMEMBER; YOU WILL NOT DROWN! No mater how many people swim over you or how tired you get, you will always be able to continue. It may be uncomfortable, it may be annoying, you may swallow water and it may be scary but you’ll float back to the surface and you’ll keep going. It’s only temporary and it’s not going to kill you so relax and revel in your confidence. 2) spend time in the water getting a “feel” for the water and searching for your rhythm. Once it clicks, BAM! That’s it. You’ll never loose it. Spend time swimming slowly and focusing on the mechanics of your stroke. When you’re swimming remember “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”.

We also discussed "VO2 Max" or volumetric oxygen efficiency but I'm not bright enough to relay all I was told on that subject. Perhaps I'll try later.

So... Unfortunately, we were not born fish so it does take time to find your rhythm. Keep swimming and it’ll come.