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?
Ok, here's another question. How do you train, so as to hit the ideal splits?
I have been doing 5x100 on 1:20, or 1:25, which gives me 10-15 sec rest per interval. I can swim a set like that at close to race pace. In races, my 250 split differences are in the range 2-6 sec, so it seems to work pretty well for me.
But doing that one set over & over gets tiresome! Any more ideas?
How about 6 x 125 @ 1:40/45?
Also, a very fun mix is to do 4 x 150's on the 2:00 (or close to it) but the middle 50 - you only get to kick it!!
I always try to race 600+ in practices, because I want to have enough gas in the tank for that last 100 - My coach has us do lots and LOTS of 100's on the 1:20 (yards) - like every single Wednesday. When we're swimming LCM, we do 12, when it's SCY we do 15 - and no resting after 6 or anything foolish like that. I think tightening up your interval so you get less rest will approximate your 500 better as well - at least if you're looking to drop time.
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.
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.
One thing cyclist have an opportunity to do during climb attacks is drop a gear or two to get out of saddle and engage different, more vast and powerful muscle groups
But I had no trouble hitting the targets on a :45 interval. Perhaps I'll try :40
Well that's interesting. I find it pretty challenging and I try to hold :29s on a :45 sendoff, so about a 2/1 swim to rest ratio.
"Real distance swimmers are very uncomfortable with changing speeds while sprinters are quite accustomed to it."
This struck me. What do other D-folks think about this?
This struck me. What do other D-folks think about this?
I agree. It's tough for me. When I get into a pace I'm not going to change it quickly.
On Wednesdays at practice we usually do a main set involving a very long swim at a moderate pace (say 500 pace +10 seconds per 100), then a ten second rest followed by a series of short swims at pace (typically 5x50 with :10 rest between). We'll repeat this whole sequence three or four times. I'm getting better, but I have a hard time holding 500 pace on these short swims and it's more to do with my inability to change speeds quickly than fatigue.
