Since I started swimming again two weeks ago, I've noticed a few things. First of all, breast stroke is still incredibly easy, and I can do it pretty much all day. Second, freestyle is a bit harder than I remember. I feel like I've gotten my form down after watching some youtube videos, but my arms/shoulders are getting tired after 100m. Third, apparently breast stroke is tough on your knees. On Tuesday I noticed that there was a little bit of discomfort in my left MCL. I assumed this had to do with the running/biking I had done the day before, since I did some interval training in the middle of my normal workouts. Because of this I decided to skip my Thursday run and just go swimming. My freestyle endurance still isn't great, so I did 1600m, alternating between 50m free and 150m breast with no rest in between. There was only a little bit of knee discomfort at the beginning of the swim, and it quickly went away, so I didn't think anything of it. However, today the MCL on both knees are more sore, probably a 2 on the pain scale.
Some quick internet browsing shows that knee issues are common from using the frog kick, which forces the knee to twist in an unnatural motion. The recommendation is to do strength exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee... which I already do! I guess I'll have to cut back on the breaststroke and force myself to do more freestyle. I'm hoping my knees feel good by Sunday, and if so I'll try to do 50m-50m alternations instead.
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