This morning at masters swimming we did breathing drills. Breathe every four strokes, every six, etc. Then we played the phone number game. We did 7 x 100m with each of the 100s being a digit of your phone number for the strokes you must take before you can breathe. We quickly figured out who had the phone number with the lowest numbers in it (so we could breathe more). For example, if someone's phone number has 9 in it - for that 100 you can only breathe every 9th stroke. (Ummmm, not going to happen!)
Our highest number was six. And I thought I might drowned.
After the phone number game we swam 5 x 200m breathing every fifth stroke. This worked well until I started to fall off the feet in front of me. Then I kicked harder, which takes more oxygen and I was sure I was going to sink to the bottom and die.
Part way through the workout though I realized I was actually gliding. Breathing less forced me to slow down, which in turn allowed me to glide! This works better than my typical arms flailing wildly to try to keep from getting dropped tactics.
