I am getting a little frustrated with my swimming. I have never been a "swimmer" or had any coaching, so when I started, I had to self teach. I am comfortable in the water and enjoy swimming. There are plenty resources online to help, but I am not sure what my issue is. I am averaging 2:14 per 100m over around 400m. For long distances I settle into a 2:28 per 100m in the pool. Since Feb, I have managed to shave off around 20 seconds off my long distance pace, but that is due to increasing fitness and fixing form issues. Now I have just hit a wall and feels like no amount of drills or time in the pool will make me faster at this stage. FWIW, I have 4 pool sessions a week: long swim, tempo swim, aerobic swim and a high intensity swim. I do drills with fins, paddles and a kickboard. Garmin Connect says my stroke rate is 20 per minute. I take it that this is actually the stroke rate for one arm? So that would put me on the low end at 40 spm. Before I go spend a lot of money on swim masters or swim analysis, I would like to try fix this myself (want to save up for a TT bike). So I suspect it's my stroke rate that's causing my lack of progress. Anyone have any insights?
