Drop-off in speed as distance increases

If you compare your best times for the various events of a stroke, where does the biggest drop-off occure? Is this different for a sprinter compared to a swimmer of a distance persuasion? How would you analyze this? I would think that my 200 is sub standard (biggest drop-off), and so is my 800 (no faster than 1500). For the shorter swims, the drop-off is more substancial than for the longer swims. Freestyle with all its events was the most interesting subject, but of course I checked the other strokes too. Not all to my surprise there was a discrepancy between butterfly and backstroke drop-offs, from 100 to 200 my speed dropped by 2.6 % (backstroke :)) and 18.0 % (butterfly :afraid:). Here is the analysis for me: % speed drop freestyle A --> B meet practice 25 --> 50 na 3.4 50 --> 100 6.1 9.3 100 --> 200 12.8* 8.6 200 --> 500 na 5.7 500 --> 1650 na 2.8 % speed drop backstroke A --> B meet practice 25 --> 50 na 1.9 50 --> 100 5.9 5.9 100 --> 200 7.1 6.8 200 --> 500 na na 500 --> 1650 na na I've included results for meet swims and best practice swims in separate columns. "na" means I don't have the needed data. * The 200 meet swim was a poor one. I would expect that 100 --> 200 drop to be about 10% if I had a more error-free swim. The biggest drop is in the 100-200 range. Interestingly, my fade isn't as bad in backstroke as in freestyle. I guess that makes sense. The 100 is probably my best free event, wereas the 200 is probably my best backstroke event.

Someone said it so beautifully here on the forums some years back: ADD/ADHD/OCD/PMS/FUBAR/Whiney/Nervous = sprinter Mensa/Beautiful or Very handsome/Popular = distance :bolt: Hmmm, I believe it would be in my best interest to leave that alone. :worms: ;)

I'll see your number crunching and raise you a chart! 3797 Ledecky's is a mix of LCM (200, 400, 800) and SCY (1650). I used some of Kirk's numbers as well for Ledecky and Yang. Y-axis is time/100m (had to convert Kirk's and mine). Hope nobody minds the comparison. :applaud:

Someone said it so beautifully here on the forums some years back: ADD/ADHD/OCD/PMS/FUBAR/Whiney/Nervous = sprinter Mensa/Beautiful or Very handsome/Popular = distance :bolt: Oh,come on.Let's face it,everybody would be a sprinter if they could.If I was a 6'6" muscular ball of fast twitch fibers I'd be a freestyle sprinter.

Eelbilly, do you have a recent timed 25 from the block? If so let me guess just to see how close - 12.7

My dropoffs are a lot more significant than yours. 10-11% between 50, 100 and 200m freestyle, 13-18% between 50, 100 and 200m fly. I'm not sure if this is because I'm a sprinter (which is debatable) as much as because my conditioning is poor and my training is inconsistent (which is a fact). Looking at some national record holders, I see fades of 6-9-12% across 50, 100, 200 and 400m for a "sprinter" and 1-2% across 400, 800, and 1500m for a "distance" swimmer.

Cool, I'll use any excuse to crunch some numbers. Here are my stats: Freestyle, SCY 50 23.77 (47.54) --- 100 50.72 (50.72) 6.7% 200 1:49.31 (54.66) 7.8% 500 4:53.45 (58.69) 7.4% 1000 10:13.00 (61.30) 4.4% 1650 17:07.82 (62.29) 1.6% Additionally, my 1650 pace is 22.8% slower than my 100 pace. I checked Sun Yang's times and see last year he went a 49.50 in the LC 100 and 14:31.02 in the 1500. Now I'm sure he can go faster than 49.5, but if you use that his dropoff is only 17.3% between his 100 and 1500. Katie Ledecky this year has been 50.26 in the 100 and 15:28.36 (56.26 pace) for the 1650. That's a drop off of only 11.9%!! I have no idea what these numbers means without more data points. Of course we'll never get to see a sprinters numbers because they refuse to swim anything longer than a 200! :)

It took awhile for me to own that new "distance swimmer" label, but I am determined to own it. There's no going back now! :ohyeah: Someone said it so beautifully here on the forums some years back: ADD/ADHD/OCD/PMS/FUBAR/Whiney/Nervous = sprinter Mensa/Beautiful or Very handsome/Popular = distance :bolt:

Don't you mean a 100? Exactly right. 200s are mid-D. Since I do 25s every year in the Battle of the Drop Dead Sprinters, I could measure my 25/50/100 times. Big drop off expected were I to do so.

Have you reviewed the 2012 SCM results for 45-49? You would rank about 4th -5th for 200, 400, 800, and 1500, about 11th for the 100 and 26th for 50 I haven't, but that sounds great :bliss:! But my swims are not registered with USMS, as I swim in Norway. I look at the rankings from time to time, and I think that my times rank this high because you don't swim SCM that much in the US. You have incredible depth, especially in the freestyle events, it seems. My LCM times probably wouldn't rank that high, and I'm impressed when I covert the TT SCY times and compare them with my results. We swim SCM all year, and LCM for worlds and the European Championship.