Why is swimming so hard?  Laura Cherchuck,  sent me a few questions after the last article about swimming asking why it's so tough.  After all, Laura has won Rachel Carson and many other Ultra Marathons. Last year she finished the Philly Marathon in a 3:16 and was one of the top women to finish the race.  She's incredibly fast and has amazing endurance, but when she gets in the pool, she's exhausted after swimming 50 yards.  She's frustrated by the entire experience.  How can she run for so long and she can't swim up and back in a pool without felling like she may die or drown?

From  Laura...

I recently started attempting to incorporate swimming into my training but it's very frustrating! Ask me to run for an hour plus and I have no problem, but ask me to swim and I'm exhausted after only 50 yards! I think that's the hardest part. I pride myself on being an endurance athlete but take me out of my element and put me in a pool and it definitely puts me in my place! I definitely respect all you triathletes! Unlike how you described growing up in a pool, I never had access to one. So here are some swimming questions from a very beginner swimmer:

Why can I only swim 25yds before I start freaking out about my breathing?

Why am I so exhausted after swimming only 50 yds? I know I'm not going hard. It's probably equivalent to running 10 min/mi pace!

Will things start clicking once I do it more or am I a helpless case and should just stick to the road?

To answer your questions, breathing is the toughest part for any new swimmer.  In swimming, you use every muscle in the body.  Everything is moving at the same time. Add water and having to put your face in the water and it's a recipe for disaster for most runners.  The first thing you must get comfortable with is breathing  all your air out under the water.  Breathing out allows you to get fresh, clean air in when you do turn your head to breathe. If you don't release all the air under the water, when you come up to breathe, you have to breathe out and in before you can put your face back in the water.

Why is exhaling such an important swimming technique?

Exhaling correctly will make freestyle feel much easier, get you balanced in the water and most importantly, allow you to be more relaxed when swimming. Teaching my beginner swimmers and especially kids how to breathe out under the water isn't easy at all.  It takes a ton of practice and a lot of hard work and a ton of frustration until one day when it just clicks and you can breathe.  Remember, it won't happen over night.  You need to remember to make bubbles in the water and you need to start making those bubbles when your face enters the water.

Here is how to practice

As soon as your face hits the water, start to exhale smoothly and constantly.  When you are swimming you should always be exhaling except when you turn your head to inhale.  Start by using a kick board. Try taking a kick board and a pair of flippers.  Use the flippers to make it easier so you aren't kicking so hard. Hold the kick board out in front of you and put your face in the water.  Kick to the other side of the pool, blowing all the air out under water and turning your head to the side to take a breath after you breathe out. This is a great way to practice breathing.  When you get used to it, lose the kickboard and leave the fins on and practice adding your stroke in and continue to breathe.  Once you're comfortable with the fins on, take the fins off and continue to practice.  It will get easier, but you need to practice, a lot.  It's all about getting
comfortable in the water.  The biggest thing is to not give up.

You can exhale through your mouth or through your nose or through both, it doesn't matter. But when your face is in the water you should be exhaling all the time in one constant stream of bubbles.  Do you do this? You're probably thinking 'yes I do'. But are you really?  This is the key to breathing efficiently and effectively in the pool.

After inhaling and returning their face to the water, most people hold that breath for at least one stroke, if not two. Shortly before their next inhalation they exhale very late into the water, often finishing that exhalation into the air when they've turned to breathe in.  Most people feel as if they are exhaling into the water because they do a little before inhalation, but that is too little too late.  You need to fully exhale into the water before turning your head to breathe.  If you do this, you will immediately feel more relaxed from an improved exhalation technique.

This is why you need to exhale properly.

1) The most important reason is that when you hold your breath you tense up. When you breathe out you release that tension. Imagine you're having a stressful day and someone tells you to take a deep breath - it's not when you take the breath in that you feel better, it's when you let it go. Holding your breath tenses you up and that is bad for your swimming technique.

2) When you are holding your breath you can feel that you need to breathe. The sensation you are feeling is not the lack of oxygen, it's the uild up of CO2. By holding your breath you are keeping the CO2 in your blood stream and lungs - this makes you feel desperate for air. We tell the kids to blow those bubbles into the water.  Breathing out constantly while you swim feels much nicer - you get rid of the CO2 and no longer feel so desperate for air.

3) Having lungs full of air is bad for your body position - your chest is too buoyant. Since your body acts like a see saw around your center, this causes your legs to sink in the water, creating extra drag.

4) Most swimmers try to exhale just before they turn their head to breathe - or even worse, try and exhale and inhale in the short window when their mouth is above the waterline! This is a really hard thing to do, each breath feels snatched and panicky. If you breathe late like this, the tendency is to lift your head to breathe to give yourself a bit more time. Lifting your head is bad swimming technique, it causes your legs to sink - adding lots of drag.

Conclusion: exhaling constantly and continuously is a fundamental of a good freestyle stroke technique. Tension is bad for your swimming. We want to develop a smooth, relaxed, rhythmical stroke and tension stops us from doing that. Tension makes us want to lift our head and that ruins our body position. Tension makes it hard to trust and feel the water. Perhaps worst of all, tension stops us from enjoying our swimming.  Holding your breath keeps excess CO2 in your lungs and blood stream. This hurts you aerobically as CO2 builds up in your system (like a sprint activity). For the same swimming speed and effort, holding your breath will make things much harder. Next time you're running or doing something aerobic in the gym try holding your breath for 3 seconds and then suddenly inhale and exhale before holding it again - how much harder does this make it? Much harder! Without exhaling properly you're going to find bilateral breathing, (breathing to both sides) very hard. The build up of CO2 in your system from holding your breath makes the gap between 3 strokes feel very long. In this situation most swimmers revert to breathing to one side - their favored side.  The problem with single sided breathing is that your stroke technique tends to become lopsided and crabby. Your body roll tends to become poor on your non-breathing side and that leads to problems with the recovering arm winging low over the water. Other problems with your technique start to appear such as scissor kicks and hands crossing the center line. (sound familiar?)  All of this because you're not exhaling!  The key to creating a balanced symmetrical swimming technique is breathing to both sides - and the key to that is constant exhalation whenever your face is in the water.

Practice blowing those bubbles and see how your stroke changes.