I am doing the 200 fly for the first time. RUH OH!!!

200 Fly: Take it out relaxed, I'd say approx. 3-4 seconds slower than your 100 time, just to be conservative. From the start of the race, pick a breathing pattern and stick with it. This is one way I keep myself from thinking about other things (like ouchy). I try to maintain a 2 up, 1 down breathing cycle throughout the race. I find that if I go to breathing every stroke, my body position starts to get more and more vertical as the race goes on. That stroke with head down helps to maintain my hips up at the surface. Do as James says, not as he does ;) Yes, take it easy - you can always push it harder on the second 100 if you feel like it. I also find that I need to breathe every 2 or 2 up 1 down to prevent vertical fly. Good Luck! I too will be racing my very 1st SCY 200 fly on April 1. I did complete one in LCM last summer, very slowly :cane:

Thanks for all the advice so far! My 200 fly is going to be my second event on April Fools' Day, with just the 100 free before it. I'm training through this meet, no taper. What I'm taking away from it all: -NO breathing off the wall. Just don't. That shouldn't be too tough, I don't do that on the 100 fly. -take it out at about 85%, on that first 50 -establish breathing pattern, perhaps at least one up and one down to prevent verticality -correct splitting is crucial -ez speed SDKs off walls, don't take too many. This one might be hard for me to resist doing. I am notorious for staying underwater a long time off every wall in the 100 fly, though I've been working on surfacing earlier. Allen Stark, I look forward to seeing you there! Good luck!

First day of the meet tomorrow! Well, for me, at least. Technically, today was the first day. I'll be swimming the 200 ***, 100 IM, and 200 back. 200 fly is on Sunday! I'm a little worried about the weather forecast...

First day of the meet tomorrow! Well, for me, at least. Technically, today was the first day. I'll be swimming the 200 ***, 100 IM, and 200 back. 200 fly is on Sunday!

Hello! Hey, Philoswimmer, what are you swimming at the meet? The rain was annoying for the first few hours, but then it went away just in time for my last race of the day, the 200 back. :) I managed to find a dry spot underneath the covered area in front of where the ribbons and results were posted. Today, I did the 200 ***, 100 IM, and 200 back, in that order. I got to the pool early and did a 2550 yard warm-up. I got out, waited around in the wet and cold for a while, then with my heat approaching, I got back in the warm-up pool and swam a quick 450 yards. So, my goal in the 200 yard breaststroke, an event that I've only done twice in the last two years, was to go under 3:00 for the first time. The first time I swam this event was almost two years ago for a taper meet, where my coach put me in it to snag an extra point or two in a consolation final. Back then, I went 3:09. I swam it a second time, mid-season, in January of last year. That was a really painful swim, where I went 3:17. I'm happy to report that the third time is the charm... today, I went 2:52.26! My splits: 38.91 1:22.65 (43.74) 2:07.94 (45.29) 2:52.26 (44.32) I could probably iron out these splits a little more even. Second event was 100 IM, which I've never before done in SCY. I did it in SCM last year, in 1:22.46. I was really out of shape for that swim. My time today was 1:07.75. Splits: 31.63, 36.12. My 200 back clocked in at 2:37.83, which is about 5.5 seconds off my taper time last July. Splits: 36.81 1:16.8 (39.99) 1:57.19 (40.39) 2:37.83 (40.64) Tomorrow, I do the big one! 200 fly! Good job!:applaud::applaud: Sorry I didn't see you,but I found a small dry spot and only ventured out to swim my race and then hustled back to the hotel for a long hot bath.Maybe tomorrow ,if it gets warm enough for me to stick my head out(the forecast isn't promising since it estimates the 9 AM temp to be 45-feels like 39 ,ouch!)

Good luck to all of you! :cheerleader:

I did 200 ***, 100 IM, 50 fly, plus the 400 free relay. I got PBs in 200Br and 100 IM; 50 fly was :afraid:. (I used to be a flyer, but I've been recreating myself as a breaststroker since I seem to have much more success at that). I'm nowhere near as good as you guys, but here goes: 3:17.26 for 200 Br (in 2011 I was 3:19.2 and in 2010 I was 3:18.82, so while I still think I could do much better, I'm happy with the improvement). Splits were: 45.14 51.18 51.81 49.13. So, not too great for splitting, right? I think I should have picked it up in the 3rd 50 a bit more. Tomorrow I am supposed to swim 50 *** and 100 ***, so that should give me some more benchmarks to judge the 200 by. 100 IM beat my time from two years ago (didn't swim it last year) by about 1.4 secs, so again, I am happy. 50 fly: just no gas left in the tank after freezing all day plus doing the other events. And I think my timing is off. Every now and then it feels good in practice, but not today. I was probably too high out of the water, too. So, tomorrow, in addition to 50 br and 100 br, I am supposed to do 1000 free (don't ask me why) and two relays. There will undoubtedly be some scratching! (Particularly hoping for a scratch in the 400 MR -- I don't think I want to do *that* much breaststroke, and of course it comes right after the 100 br). Good luck to both of you!!! :cheerleader:

Hello! Hey, Philoswimmer, what are you swimming at the meet? The rain was annoying for the first few hours, but then it went away just in time for my last race of the day, the 200 back. :) I managed to find a dry spot underneath the covered area in front of where the ribbons and results were posted. Today, I did the 200 ***, 100 IM, and 200 back, in that order. I got to the pool early and did a 2550 yard warm-up. I got out, waited around in the wet and cold for a while, then with my heat approaching, I got back in the warm-up pool and swam a quick 450 yards. So, my goal in the 200 yard breaststroke, an event that I've only done twice in the last two years, was to go under 3:00 for the first time. The first time I swam this event was almost two years ago for a taper meet, where my coach put me in it to snag an extra point or two in a consolation final. Back then, I went 3:09. I swam it a second time, mid-season, in January of last year. That was a really painful swim, where I went 3:17. I'm happy to report that the third time is the charm... today, I went 2:52.26! My splits: 38.91 1:22.65 (43.74) 2:07.94 (45.29) 2:52.26 (44.32) I could probably iron out these splits a little more even. Second event was 100 IM, which I've never before done in SCY. I did it in SCM last year, in 1:22.46. I was really out of shape for that swim. My time today was 1:07.75. Splits: 31.63, 36.12. My 200 back clocked in at 2:37.83, which is about 5.5 seconds off my taper time last July. Splits: 36.81 1:16.8 (39.99) 1:57.19 (40.39) 2:37.83 (40.64) Tomorrow, I do the big one! 200 fly!

Swim it all! If you want, find a guy wearing a blue swim parka sitting or standing near the results and I'll cheer you on your breaststroke.

Congratulations! It sounds like you had a terrific meet! :applaud: