Swim Practice

I finally went to an actual Masters swim practice yesterday. Owie. It was a good workout with some longer distance sets. I hate longer distance sets in the pool, but I know it's good for me since 2.4 miles in open water is not a short distance. Swimming with other people is also a huge benefit for me. When I swim by myself I tend to get pretty lazy, but with others in the lane I guess my competitiveness runs wild. Well not really, but it is motivating.

One thing I have noticed while swimming is the difference in my stroke rate when I breathe to different sides. Let me explain. Per 25 yards(after warmup) if I breathe only to the right my stroke count is 19-20; if I breathe only to the left my stroke count is only 17-18. That's a pretty big difference! The right side is my natural breathing side, and I really don't like to breathe to the left unless it's an easy or short set. Unfortunately I am much more efficient when I breathe to the left. What could cause this descrepency? Any ideas? The best thing for me would probably be to use an alternate breathing pattern, but that's going to take some time to get used to. It would be interesting to have a video analysis of both breathing sides.