How much are you swimming? If it's an hour per week, I think you should swim more. If it's more than 2 hours, find someone to look at what your're doing. If there is someone local, that would be ideal. Even a self shot video and posting a link to the video here might get you some constructive feedback.

Two things that come to mind to try out(but these are just a guess).
* How much are you breathing? Every stroke? Try every 3rd stroke and breathe bilaterally.
* How many strokes are you doing per pool length. 19-22? or more like 16-18. Try easing back a little bit and try to get more length out of each stroke by gliding just a tad more.

+1 on being videoed and critiqued by an expert. It's the most helpful way.

When was the last time you went for a run, or a bike and had to stop because your back/abs/chest where tired and sore?

These are all assumptions based on helping people that have the problems you outlined. Some may fit, some not.... so I'm just throwing thoughts out there for you to think about.

1. The biggest issue may be.... you aren't breathing out, enough. Sounds simple, and like duh... but a lot of us just don't do it very well. The more you can breathe out (and not a forceful push, just a "yoga" sigh out), the more you can breathe in. The less you breathe out, the more CO2 will build up in you, and cause fatigue.

2. You are swimming with your arms and legs. These are the muscles that will fatigue fast, so instead rely on the chest, back, hip and core to move you through the water. Grab water with your armpit, and pull it through by rotating.

3. Most likely, your body position is poor, legs are dropping. Swim with a tight bum, and hide your legs behind you. Sounds easy, but it isn't, since probably one of the reasons you have a poor body line/position is because you can't balance and hold a balanced body line on your side. The most efficient position is when you are on your side, so the quicker you get from side to side, without breaking out of a tight body line the better off you are. People break out of a tight body line, when they lose balance.

Lay face down on the floor, arms out in front of you. Take the right arm, and drop it to your side, so you are in a superman position. Now rotate to your left side....... pay attention to how you activated this motion, and how actually were able to rotate completely on your side. Now do it again, but this time you can't use your hand/elbow or knees..... good luck... if you do that well, your body balance in the water is great!!! You can't catch your balance with hands and knees in the water.

Give up on your arms/legs, and really concentrate and work on swimming with your body. What ever the body does, the arms/legs will follow.... they have no choice!!

"Total Immersion" swim DVD was very helpful for me. Available on Amazon.com Good luck to you!

kicking drills on your side
get balanced in the water fore/aft so that you're not struggling to stay on top of the water with your stroke & kick (they should just be your propulsion)

total immersion writes it up pretty well

Hi Rob,

I had the same issue - the best advice I got was to stop kicking my legs. Just kick them enough to stay afloat but use your arms instead for power and pace. It is so much easier to get into a breathing rythm this way and it saves your legs for the bike and run.

Niall

A good drill that will help is 12 kick, 3 stroke rotation. Kick on your side for 12 kicks, then take three strokes so you are then on your opposite side. Repeat this for the rest of the lap. It encourages you to lengthen out and relax.

Try focusing on your glide, I used to have the same issue. A swim instructor friend of mine mentioned when we were swimming I rushed my strokes, and didn't rotate enough. So I started really focusing on how long my glide, found by doing this my time improved and I was less fatigued coming out of the water. It's made a huge difference in my swim time and transition time as well. Hope this helps.