Swim breathing frequency. (Page 3)

I just read through this whole thread and thought I'd offer my opinion (completely unscientific, based solely on my personal experience and observations).  

Personally, I think it's important to be *capable* of breathing on both sides in case the need arises due to circumstances/conditions however I also don't think you should hold your breath just for the sake of breathing on both sides.  If you need oxygen, take a breath.  

As for the debate of which is going to be faster, I don't think there is any way to answer that because it's going to be different for everyone.  There are too many other factors involved to come up with one answer.  How comfortable you are in the water, how efficient is your stroke, does taking a breath affect the motion of your opposing arm?  Various combinations of this could affect which will work best for you.  For me, when I'm swimming a distance that's not a sprint (swim sprint, not tri sprint) I typically breathe every 3 or 4 strokes because that's what I'm used to/comfortable doing.  I find when I get tired and start breathing every 2 on the right, the stroke of my left arm breaks down (I've seen it on video) and that slows me down.  If I relax and go back to 3, it balances things out for me and I can maintain my pace.  On the flip side, I've swum with lots of people who's stroke doesn't change when they take a breath, can breathe every 2 all day and it doesn't hurt them.

I think it's kind of like a debate over whether you should ride with a cadence of 80 or 100.  It's different for different people, find what's comfortable for you and which one allows you to get to the finish line the fastest.

I breath every 3 strokes because I need more oxygen. If I try for every 4th I am gasping for air. No matter how much I try to increase my lung capacity, I can't seem to do so. It is what it is. It sucks, basically.

I watch many people swim at the Y. I am one of the only people who breath every third stroke. Most people breath every other stroke. I can definitely swim faster if I breath every other stroke. My time in the pool is training, not racing. So I save my every other breathing for races.

The adrenaline starts pumping and I need as much O2 as possible. But!!! Learning how to breath on both sides of my body is very valuable in OWS for all the reasons mentioned previously.

So I'm getting something wrong here?  Were you suppsed to do descending 400's (1st easy, 2nd harder, 3rd hardest)?  If that was the case, then you should have gone down each interval.  Or are you saying you were supposed to be doing increased effort only?

Increased effort should mean decreased times.  Something seems off .......

One "solution" to this lack of air problem when breathing every 3, but still maintains bi-lateral stroke, is to breath 5/2.

It works like this:  2-stroke Left, 2-stroke Left, 3-stroke right, 2-stroke right, 3-stroke left, 2-stroke left, 3-stroke right........

This allows you several things:  1) Get more air than a pure 3-stroke pattern.  2) still work equally on both sides (bi-lateral).  and 3) gives experience repeating on the same side.

I find it much easier to maintain this pattern than a 3-stroke one. 

Yup, I was doing that, getting better now.    Personally, I am just trying different things, so I can stop thinking about it and worry about getting farther and faster.

Joe