02/25/03 - Adding breaststroke to a regular practice

I decided this morning to start adding some breaststroke to the practice that was given. It kept it a little more challenging, as well as starting to acquire a feel for the water again in breaststroke.1,000 warm-up5 x 100 @ 1:30This was the initiation and in a way, a little research into how much of the set I'd be able to do breaststroke. It's kinda long set, so I didn't plan on doing the entire thing breaststroke. I felt nice on this, basically holding 4-5 strokes per lap and holding around 1:20's4 x 150 @ 2:00OK... well... that was about it for full stroke breaststroke. I'm not quite ready to throw the standard 1:20 interval in quite yet. I put on the paddles and pull-buoy, and alternated 25 breast and 25 free pull. I had to work the free harder to make sure I was making the interval. I was holding the strokes well, and not really struggling, but still only getting a few seconds rest. I didn't want to work it too hard, so basically, even though I was only getting a couple seconds rest, it was pretty much a cruise speed the whole way.3 x 200 on 3:00This was back to breaststroke, and I was pretty consistant in the 2:40 pace again. Just keeping it smooth, and thinking about using rhythm, and staying higher in the water, or closer to the surface would be a better explanation. 4 x 300 on 4:00Well... back the 1:20 again. Back to alternating again. The longer distance made it a little tougher, as I was pulling again. I did pick up the pace a bit on this which allowed me to really get into the rhythm during the breaststroke pull, but it also used a lot more energy. Pull breaststroke with large paddles really works the upper body, so it's very important that you really feel your body getting involved.1 x 400I just stayed with freestyle on this, and kept a rhythmic, smooth stroke to finish it up. After that was a 200 kick, in which I used a new kick board that I'm evaluating and determining if it's something I want to offer. It's a much thinner board, and smaller, which allows me to hold it underwater while I kick. This gives me a better body position, or at least more natural, and also allows me to practice an underwater push off. It's going to take a little more practice to see how much I like this board though. First impression, it's nice, but I also want to try some hard kicking with it.