Jim--
Here's a poll idea for you to consider. During Nationals at Cleveland, I got a lot of conflicting "pacing" advice. I think everyone hopes to swim that flawless race--go out fast enough so as to not get behind and dig yourself an insurmountable hole; but save enough so you don't completely die on the way back.
The extremes of the philosophy boil down to those who:
1) like to save themselves for a strong finish
vs. those who:
2) like to blast off in the beginning and hope to hang on.
This might be a bit of a simple poll, but I'd be interested to see which of these two extremes my fellow swimmers are more likely to side with. In my own case, it's clearly #1 (I negative split the 400 m at Nationals--2:28 for the first 200; 2:20 for the second..)
Others, such as possibly the amazing Greg Shaw, went out during the 200 butterfly in around a 1:05.5, but swam 50 seconds (of agony, it seemed) on the final 50.
I decided to try the "go all out" approach on my last event of the meet--the 100 free. You know you're in trouble when you're dying before you hit the first wall! The last 20 meters reminded me of Xeno's Paradox. Anyhow, I've decided to stick with my original philosophy, i.e., #1 above in everything save 50s.
What do other people think? And does this change with age?
For my coaching experience...
which ever you subscribe to should match how you train.
Food for Thought: If you subscribe to #1 as you reach around 45 seconds into your race your lactate will start to build up in your muscles (like I really had to mention that). If you continue to hammer, your muscles will likely cramp up (again, we have all been there done that). What's the point??? Well, if you train a lot of race sprints (lactate swims) and depending on your own body composition the #1 choice will probably work for you because your body can handle the lactate buildup.
However, training lactate especially if you train by yourself is painful (6x100on 8:00 holding 95% of your best/goal time)especially as we get older. So a lot of people choose #2 which is easier to train (pace and negative splitting).
A 500 race strategy for our team that has had a lot of success across age groups, is going out strong on the first 100 then backing off the 2nd 100 smooth (this will help flush out lactate that has begun to build up) then descend 100's thereafter. Sample goal splits for someone who trains pace for 1:10 looks something like this; 1:05, (can go no lower than) 1:15, 1:11, 1:10, 1:09. Anyway, we have had many best times on our team with this formula although it might not be for everyone.
For my coaching experience...
which ever you subscribe to should match how you train.
Food for Thought: If you subscribe to #1 as you reach around 45 seconds into your race your lactate will start to build up in your muscles (like I really had to mention that). If you continue to hammer, your muscles will likely cramp up (again, we have all been there done that). What's the point??? Well, if you train a lot of race sprints (lactate swims) and depending on your own body composition the #1 choice will probably work for you because your body can handle the lactate buildup.
However, training lactate especially if you train by yourself is painful (6x100on 8:00 holding 95% of your best/goal time)especially as we get older. So a lot of people choose #2 which is easier to train (pace and negative splitting).
A 500 race strategy for our team that has had a lot of success across age groups, is going out strong on the first 100 then backing off the 2nd 100 smooth (this will help flush out lactate that has begun to build up) then descend 100's thereafter. Sample goal splits for someone who trains pace for 1:10 looks something like this; 1:05, (can go no lower than) 1:15, 1:11, 1:10, 1:09. Anyway, we have had many best times on our team with this formula although it might not be for everyone.
