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?
I agree with Moflyer as we age we can't hold it as well. Me, I sprinted the 50 meter breastroke at 44.94 at 45 years old recently. But my 100 meter I tried to even pace it and still died in the race some more, at 1:53.10. In comparsion, there were swimmers in my age group that I had swam faster this past summer at the 50 meter breastroke but they beat my time in the 100 meter from about 10 to 6 seconds. I would like to learn how to pace it like when I was 18 years old when I swam the 100 meter at 1:30. But I was a faster swimmer doing the 50 yard at 36 and really doing the 50 meter at 41 or 42 and I could hold my two 50's together much better.
I agree with Moflyer as we age we can't hold it as well. Me, I sprinted the 50 meter breastroke at 44.94 at 45 years old recently. But my 100 meter I tried to even pace it and still died in the race some more, at 1:53.10. In comparsion, there were swimmers in my age group that I had swam faster this past summer at the 50 meter breastroke but they beat my time in the 100 meter from about 10 to 6 seconds. I would like to learn how to pace it like when I was 18 years old when I swam the 100 meter at 1:30. But I was a faster swimmer doing the 50 yard at 36 and really doing the 50 meter at 41 or 42 and I could hold my two 50's together much better.
