Hey swimmers....

[kelownagirl]

Knot - you are the reason I decided to make triathlon my goal.

[KnottedYet]

I always tell my patients that I'm the example of what not to do.

I sucked at the tri, but I had a great fun time! I kicked serious heinie on the bike leg, so at least I know where my strength is!

Wanna do the same course again. (I've heard they shortened the swim leg, which is FINE with me) Wanna do it on my road bike and walk/jog the run leg and see if my time picks up.

Tri is the most crazy fun I've had in years. Doing a women's only tri is an absolute blast!

If anyone has ever considered it, or just thought it might be a distant goal, GO FOR IT! It doesn't matter how well you do, everyone cheers for you! And you end up cheering for everyone!

It's cosmic love and harmony and "us vs. the course" rather than "me vs. you."

(and Sally Edwards does every Danskin, and she is one HOT "older" babe! She always is the last person to cross the finish line. If you are second to last, she and a few other elites go with you every step of the way -until the line, where you go first- and you get a huge cheer from the crowd and a basket of goodies)

[teigyr]

I did 700 meters on the Subaru tri and did it in like 30 min. It was bad...all the bikes were out of transition before me. At least the ones in my wave, at least.

And womens tri's are the best I did the Subaru (womens, with the escort finish at the end) and the Kirkland one which was mixed. The Kirkland one, even with a shorter swim segment, wasn't as good as the womens only.

To go way way way off-topic, the half-marathon I signed up for is womens only. It's a different atmosphere entirely and I prefer it.

So back to swimming. I'm trying bi-lateral and am doing poorly. I guess it's practice but I am so used to trying harder instead of practicing technique. It's highly frustrating.

happy new year!!!

[horsemom]

I am with KSH, I breath every two strokes on the right. I will throw in a left side once in a while to see where I am. I came up through the ranks of AAU, YMCA, High School, and then college as a distance swimmer. I have done two ultra open water swims (the length of a local lake at 18 miles, and Cape Cod to Martha's Vineyard) and now do tris. I have just done sprint and xterra, and the longer the swim the better I do. I am heavy on the swimming, but just can't get comfortable bilateral breathing.

Laura

[froglegs]

I have read that breathing only on one side can injure the opposite shoulder. My sister believes this as well, she used to swim competitively and was a left-side breather, and her right shoulder is pretty messed up now. When I started swimming again in Oct, I did too much too quickly and had to back off for a few weeks. My right shoulder was the one that hurt, and I was breathing only on the left side. So at that point I decided I was going to learn how to breathe on my right side as well.... although in a race I'll probably just revert to left-side breathing, since I seem to get more air and less water that way.

[wemoon]

I feel much more comfortable just breathing on my right and breath every 2 strokes. I can breathe on my left and I practice it a little, but I think I am going to up the amount of practice I do on the left. I'm not sure if I care to learn to bilateral breathe. I just think as far as preventing injury and being able to change my breathing for the conditions of the course, it would be beneficial to feel comfortable breathing whichever way I need to.

[bikerHen]

I just added a swimming routine to my life. It's been way more years than I like to think about since I've done any swimming. And was surprised I didn't sink to the bottom on my first swim. I was even more surprised that I really enjoyed my time in the pool.

I am assuming that bilateral breathing is turning your head to the left and then the right? I actually tried that on Thursday, cause I had a sore neck from turning to just the right side. I thought it worked rather well. Since it seems I'm not doing anything to stupid, I guess I'll keep on doing it. Now all I have to do is decide when to breath.

I do have issues with getting water in my ears. Ear plugs don't seem to work for me, I tried a cap and it helped some. I saw something on line that was a type of head band thing that keeps the water out of ears. Anyone have or heard of this? Also any tips on shower products to help with the chlorine smell? bikerHen

[KSH]

I have read that breathing only on one side can injure the opposite shoulder. My sister believes this as well, she used to swim competitively and was a left-side breather, and her right shoulder is pretty messed up now. When I started swimming again in Oct, I did too much too quickly and had to back off for a few weeks. My right shoulder was the one that hurt, and I was breathing only on the left side. So at that point I decided I was going to learn how to breathe on my right side as well.... although in a race I'll probably just revert to left-side breathing, since I seem to get more air and less water that way.

I guess it can if you are swimming 5-7 days a week for 1-2 hours at a time... is that exact? No. My point is this... I think you can injure the opposite shoulder if you swimming A LOT... our workouts... well, my workouts... 3,000-8,000 yards a week for 1-2.5 hours... it's doubtful. I'm not swimming that much.

I have been swimming with only right side breathing for YEARS (22 years)... and my left shoulder isn't injured.

But hey, all bodies are different... right?

[kat_h]

I'm so glad I found this thread. It never even occurred to me to breath on the other side. I'll have to wait a couple of days until I can get to the pool and try it out.

[Bron]

I did 700 meters on the Subaru tri and did it in like 30 min. It was bad...all the bikes were out of transition before me. At least the ones in my wave, at least.

The way I look at it is at least you don't lose time running round like a headless chicken trying to find your bike.......

I breathe on both sides - every three strokes - our teacher at school drummed into us that that was how we were to swim.