I'm a breastroker at heart, but I always get hooked on distance events after all the OW swimming over the summer and until this year didn't race anything over 200m until march.
in march 2011 i swam a 1500SCM 20:00:36
last week i swam a 1500 LCM 19:38.84 (my 800 split was 30s faster than my worlds time in 2010 which would have been about 7 places better :)
but now OW season is over and there is just over 5 months until my next big meet where I am thinking of attempting to go for 18:45 SCM (1:15/100m) but I don't like giving up my chances for a :32 / 1:12 for the 50 and 100 ***.
is it possible to build on my current endurance by only swimming one middle distance workout and one distance workout each week with 2 sprint workouts in the middle?
My event line up can look like this:
Friday night
200 IM
1500 Free
Saturday
100 ***
100 Fly
4x50 mixed free relay
200 ***
200 Fly (? only if I don't make one of the relays)
4x50m free relay
Sunday
400 free
50 ***
100 back (? only if I don't make one of the relays)
4x50 medley relay
an update. I went all in this past weekend swimming all 14 individual events. I've been training 12-15hrs a week so I figured I was physically fit enough to survive, but I wanted to test myself mentally.
friday night was the 200 IM and 1500.
the 200 was a warm up event. The only goal was under 2:30 and I did that, 2:29.78
the 1500 was my main event of the weekend and I managed to cut 43s from my oct LCM time. Sub 19 now :) 18:55.82. My splits were
1:08.55 (1:12.15) (1:13.79) (1:17.25) 4:51.74 (400m)
(1:14.96) (1:15.95) (1:16.75) (1:17.29) 9:56.69 (800m) - My best time in this event is 9:54.12 so I can't wait until i can swim the 800 again!!
(1:16.95) (1:17.75) ( 1:16.92) (1:17.50) 15:05.81 (1200m)
(1:17.11) (1:17.70) (1:15.20) --> 18:55.82
I've even decided that I liked it so much that I'm shooting for 18:40 next time, 1s/100m. around 325m I decided to take the 1-2s to fix my goggles mid stroke. it was not effecting my swimming, but mentally it was killing me not to be able to see to my right. Other than that I felt pretty stable.
Sat morning
50 fr 28.40 - I've never been a sprinter
100 br 1:16.81 - after 50m I was assured silver, and with 11 more races I just made sure to finsih before those after me
50 back - no real rest but 34,94
100 fly - 1:11.18 I tried to open slower to have something at the end, I was fresh, but no power 33.01/ 38.17
sat afternoon
100 fr - 1:03.05 felt better, but as a 7th event it was ok for me
200 br - before the start I knew 2:56 was the time to beat so I took it easy 2:50.65
100 IM - I was hoping for a time under 1:10, but 1:11.10 was good enough
and my biggest challange of the weekend the 200 fly. I finished without being DSQ. 2:49.43 ;)
35.55, 42.1, 46.77, 45.01. This is not my event, but I think with more fly training I could manage to match my *** time 2:41.....
sunday
400 fr 4:43.09 - died, usually I have something left for the last 100, but not this time only 2 sec over pb.
1:06.44, 1:10.99, 1:12.40, 1:13.26. if I could have come home in 1:10 it would have been a PB by 1 sec. Oh well next time.
50 br 33.95 under 34 was my goal, 33.37 i my pb so all things considered it was a good time. and if I had skipped the 400 just minutes before I am certain I would have swam faster.
100 back - swam through 1:14.08
50 fly felt good, but no power 31.46
and as a bonus 50 back in the relay which after 14 events was only 0.02s slower than sat race 34.96
The important thing was that I helped my team to a 3rd place amoung the 73 teams that competed.
an update. I went all in this past weekend swimming all 14 individual events. I've been training 12-15hrs a week so I figured I was physically fit enough to survive, but I wanted to test myself mentally.
friday night was the 200 IM and 1500.
the 200 was a warm up event. The only goal was under 2:30 and I did that, 2:29.78
the 1500 was my main event of the weekend and I managed to cut 43s from my oct LCM time. Sub 19 now :) 18:55.82. My splits were
1:08.55 (1:12.15) (1:13.79) (1:17.25) 4:51.74 (400m)
(1:14.96) (1:15.95) (1:16.75) (1:17.29) 9:56.69 (800m) - My best time in this event is 9:54.12 so I can't wait until i can swim the 800 again!!
(1:16.95) (1:17.75) ( 1:16.92) (1:17.50) 15:05.81 (1200m)
(1:17.11) (1:17.70) (1:15.20) --> 18:55.82
I've even decided that I liked it so much that I'm shooting for 18:40 next time, 1s/100m. around 325m I decided to take the 1-2s to fix my goggles mid stroke. it was not effecting my swimming, but mentally it was killing me not to be able to see to my right. Other than that I felt pretty stable.
Sat morning
50 fr 28.40 - I've never been a sprinter
100 br 1:16.81 - after 50m I was assured silver, and with 11 more races I just made sure to finsih before those after me
50 back - no real rest but 34,94
100 fly - 1:11.18 I tried to open slower to have something at the end, I was fresh, but no power 33.01/ 38.17
sat afternoon
100 fr - 1:03.05 felt better, but as a 7th event it was ok for me
200 br - before the start I knew 2:56 was the time to beat so I took it easy 2:50.65
100 IM - I was hoping for a time under 1:10, but 1:11.10 was good enough
and my biggest challange of the weekend the 200 fly. I finished without being DSQ. 2:49.43 ;)
35.55, 42.1, 46.77, 45.01. This is not my event, but I think with more fly training I could manage to match my *** time 2:41.....
sunday
400 fr 4:43.09 - died, usually I have something left for the last 100, but not this time only 2 sec over pb.
1:06.44, 1:10.99, 1:12.40, 1:13.26. if I could have come home in 1:10 it would have been a PB by 1 sec. Oh well next time.
50 br 33.95 under 34 was my goal, 33.37 i my pb so all things considered it was a good time. and if I had skipped the 400 just minutes before I am certain I would have swam faster.
100 back - swam through 1:14.08
50 fly felt good, but no power 31.46
and as a bonus 50 back in the relay which after 14 events was only 0.02s slower than sat race 34.96
The important thing was that I helped my team to a 3rd place amoung the 73 teams that competed.
