Looks like it is to gain 20 minutes of rest before doing the 400 IM.
What do you folks think? Fair play or not?
I say anyone attempting the 1650 and 400 IM back to back deserves some slack.
I remember doing this exact thing in college once. I was the swimmer in the 1000 Free/200 Free back to back. My coach knew I could easily win the 1000, but I was instructed to swim just fast enough to beat all the opposing team's swimmers (about a 10:20), then I had to step up to the 200 Free to race my former H.S. teammate in the 200 Free and beat him. We both went under 1:45s then if I remember right.
That was back when our college meets used hardwritten cards for our lane assignments. After the 1000, my h.s. buddy congratulated me on a "lazy swim", and I just laughed it off with him. Then my coach came up to the end of my lane with my card for the 200 Free. "Wait...he's doing the 200 Free also?!?!??" was his response. The look on his face changed dramatically too. :)
We had a swimmer on my college team that fairly regularly doubled the 1000 and 200 frees. She had to race to win some of those 1000's, though, so our coach would put someone else in the 1000 to swim it fairly slow and give her some recovery time in between. Was never an issue with other coaches or swimmers as far as I remember.
I remember doing this exact thing in college once. I was the swimmer in the 1000 Free/200 Free back to back. My coach knew I could easily win the 1000, but I was instructed to swim just fast enough to beat all the opposing team's swimmers (about a 10:20), then I had to step up to the 200 Free to race my former H.S. teammate in the 200 Free and beat him. We both went under 1:45s then if I remember right.
That was back when our college meets used hardwritten cards for our lane assignments. After the 1000, my h.s. buddy congratulated me on a "lazy swim", and I just laughed it off with him. Then my coach came up to the end of my lane with my card for the 200 Free. "Wait...he's doing the 200 Free also?!?!??" was his response. The look on his face changed dramatically too. :)
We had a swimmer on my college team that fairly regularly doubled the 1000 and 200 frees. She had to race to win some of those 1000's, though, so our coach would put someone else in the 1000 to swim it fairly slow and give her some recovery time in between. Was never an issue with other coaches or swimmers as far as I remember.
