I had a sub par swim in a sprint this past Sunday - in the initial scrum, I got my hands kicked down several times by a hyper pair of feet I couldn't seem to get around, and I lost my cool...started a high turnover stroke, which for me is utter crap. I need a long and steady stroke to settle in, around 55 strokes per minute. I KNOW this, but for some reason I have a tendency lately to forget it completely in a race. I trigger the tempo by getting Bon Iver's "Perth" in my head, which is both calming (it's a very nice song) and impossible to sing too fast.
I went out for a lunch swim today and swam the first quarter mile...heart rate soared, anxiety set in. I was swimming like crap. Fortunately, this was exactly what happened on Sunday. I stopped and settled down.
I started swimming again, slower stroke rate. Bang, there it was. It was a completely different stroke. Like having two swimmers in my body, one that sucks and one that doesn't. Frustrating. This is the effect of not enough time in the pool.
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