I signed up for the 200 fly next Sunday and am wondering if anyone has some advice on how to swim this. My twin brother told me he swam it in college, and by the last length, he felt he was actually moving backwards. I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.
To get into shape for this, I've been doing a lot of 25's fly with 10-15 seconds rest. I started doing 8 at a time and have worked my way up to 40. Yesterday, I did 20 x 25s then 10 x 50 on a minute.
Questions:
Pacing--reason would say to go out slow so you have something left for the second hundred, but I wonder if this is right. After all, you get tired either way, so maybe going out reasonably fast means you will end up with a better time (albeit a greater feeling of misery on the last length or two.) I'm not talking a sprint pace, but a reasonably fast clip. Or is this a recipe for disaster?
Stroke mechanics--does the fly need to be modified for a 200--i.e., not pulling all the way through, gliding longer, hand entry a bit wider than usual, etc. I've read that some people can swim a continuous mile butterfly, and I wonder if they are swimming the same stroke I do. It's hard to imagine...
I have only swum the 200 fly once--last year--and got a 2:30 on it. My 100 fly has improved this year (a 59.59 , the first time I've broken a minute since high school 31 years ago), and I am in better overall shape this year, so I am hoping to lower the 2:30 to at least a 2:25 (which would give me the Y age group record in our league.) Any advice from 200 flier veterans would be truly appeciated.
Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.
Phil and everyone else who offered such great advice:
Interesting comment about the heat, Phil. I am still sweating. I drank 6 x 12 ounce bottles of water during the meet and my mouth is still dry. The meet's been over for 5 hours.
Anyhow, the old Y regional record for our 45-49 age group was 2:27.59, so I was hoping to go a 2:27.58. I went out in about 1:04 for the first hundred, feeling pretty good--loose, well oxygenated, etc. I told myself--only one more 100--like doing a butterfly sprint at the end of a hard practice. I thought this would prove pretty doable.
After 125, I could feel my stroke shortening a bit, but told myself to stay relaxed--I only had 75 left. After 150, I was definitely getting tired. I tried to keep as horizontal as possible, but ended up undulating higher than before just to get enough "freeboard" to suck in huge amounts of air. Still, I thought, only one more 50! Anyone can finish a 50 fly, right?
The last two lengths were increasingly brutal. With 25 yards to go, my teammates told me afterwards, they commented to themselves, "He only needs to break 30 on the last length to get the new record." But they watched as Xeno's Paradox began to take over. The last 12 1/2 yards, then the last 6 1/4 yards, then the last 3 1/8 yards--anyone who has attempted this race knows what I am talking about. I feared I was going to keep halving the distance in perpetuity, never reaching the wall.
It's somewhat debatable whether my final stroke was technically butterly--it was closer to a form of two-armed fingertip drill (only I was using my elbows instead of fingertips.) Anyhow, it's a good thing I wasn't racing the 201 yard butterfly, because I don' t think I could have made it.
My final time: a palindromic 2:21.22, which beat our old record by about 6 1/3 seconds. I have to say I am extremely happy about this--and don't plan to swim the 200 fly again until next year when I turn 50, then every five years from that point on, like clockwork.
Thanks very, very much for your advice, one and all. It really helped, even though--as my 13 year old son put it--my last few strokes weren't good enough to be called butterfly, they were more like lardfly.
Phil and everyone else who offered such great advice:
Interesting comment about the heat, Phil. I am still sweating. I drank 6 x 12 ounce bottles of water during the meet and my mouth is still dry. The meet's been over for 5 hours.
Anyhow, the old Y regional record for our 45-49 age group was 2:27.59, so I was hoping to go a 2:27.58. I went out in about 1:04 for the first hundred, feeling pretty good--loose, well oxygenated, etc. I told myself--only one more 100--like doing a butterfly sprint at the end of a hard practice. I thought this would prove pretty doable.
After 125, I could feel my stroke shortening a bit, but told myself to stay relaxed--I only had 75 left. After 150, I was definitely getting tired. I tried to keep as horizontal as possible, but ended up undulating higher than before just to get enough "freeboard" to suck in huge amounts of air. Still, I thought, only one more 50! Anyone can finish a 50 fly, right?
The last two lengths were increasingly brutal. With 25 yards to go, my teammates told me afterwards, they commented to themselves, "He only needs to break 30 on the last length to get the new record." But they watched as Xeno's Paradox began to take over. The last 12 1/2 yards, then the last 6 1/4 yards, then the last 3 1/8 yards--anyone who has attempted this race knows what I am talking about. I feared I was going to keep halving the distance in perpetuity, never reaching the wall.
It's somewhat debatable whether my final stroke was technically butterly--it was closer to a form of two-armed fingertip drill (only I was using my elbows instead of fingertips.) Anyhow, it's a good thing I wasn't racing the 201 yard butterfly, because I don' t think I could have made it.
My final time: a palindromic 2:21.22, which beat our old record by about 6 1/3 seconds. I have to say I am extremely happy about this--and don't plan to swim the 200 fly again until next year when I turn 50, then every five years from that point on, like clockwork.
Thanks very, very much for your advice, one and all. It really helped, even though--as my 13 year old son put it--my last few strokes weren't good enough to be called butterfly, they were more like lardfly.
