Hi, everyone!
I'm going to be focusing on middle-distance for at least the rest of the year. Splitting is one of the first areas I'm looking at to improve. During my first attempt at writing out some ideal splits for a 500, I realized I don't know exactly how much a time an average dive subtracts. Is it 2 seconds? 3? More? Less?
These are 50 splits from my 500 freestyle PB, a 5:24.50:
29.11
31.33
32.37
32.49
32.95
33.03
33.74
33.50
33.59
32.39
To me, it appears there are three important time additions: 1.) at the 100, adding 1 second per 50, 2.) at the 200, adding half a second per 50, and 3.) at the 300, adding 3/4 of a second per 50. From this, I have two big questions:
1.) should I have gone easier on the first 100?
2.) should those four 33.xx splits in the back half switch places with the 31 and 32.xx splits from the first half, opening the possibility that a completed 500 in this alternate timeline might have more 31.xx splits in the back half, and thus, a faster time?
What does everyone think? I apologize if my second question was needlessly complex. I suppose I meant to ask: should I have gone easier on the first half?
I agree. It's tough for me. When I get into a pace I'm not going to change it quickly.
Yep. My experience with both running and swimming distances is that smooth and subtle pace changes are essential. Since most distance swimming (and running for that matter) is at your aerobic threshold a sudden change in speed usually takes you into anaerobic zones, which means the pain is not too far behind... with lactic acid accumulating, you'll be forced to slow well below threshold to clear it out... or continue gutting through the pain until your large muscle groups seize up completely... That's why you never see elite marathoners sprinkling in speed bursts at their 5k pace during a 40-k race... they might get a couple of hundred yards ahead of the pack in relatively short order, but the trade-off is costly... pack slowly increases its pace, while the renegade runner has to slow pretty dramatically before too long... and may not have recovered fully when the pack catches up and leaves him in the dust because they increased effort slowly to avoid crossing that threshold and are now running at a pace they feel comfortable sustaining.
Distance athletes can change speed rapidly if they want to (this happens in those attacks on the mountains in the Tour de France), but it is uncomfortable, and the results can be pretty disastrous.
I agree. It's tough for me. When I get into a pace I'm not going to change it quickly.
Yep. My experience with both running and swimming distances is that smooth and subtle pace changes are essential. Since most distance swimming (and running for that matter) is at your aerobic threshold a sudden change in speed usually takes you into anaerobic zones, which means the pain is not too far behind... with lactic acid accumulating, you'll be forced to slow well below threshold to clear it out... or continue gutting through the pain until your large muscle groups seize up completely... That's why you never see elite marathoners sprinkling in speed bursts at their 5k pace during a 40-k race... they might get a couple of hundred yards ahead of the pack in relatively short order, but the trade-off is costly... pack slowly increases its pace, while the renegade runner has to slow pretty dramatically before too long... and may not have recovered fully when the pack catches up and leaves him in the dust because they increased effort slowly to avoid crossing that threshold and are now running at a pace they feel comfortable sustaining.
Distance athletes can change speed rapidly if they want to (this happens in those attacks on the mountains in the Tour de France), but it is uncomfortable, and the results can be pretty disastrous.
