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.
Parents
Former Member
I wonder how common an occurance it is for someone to die at Master's meets. I hadn't heard of Mr. Margolis, but I was in Nashville at Nationals in 1991 when 76? year old Fredrick Wiggins died during a 200 IM. The early heats were going so slow that I went outside to browse among the venders booths while waiting for my heat. While outside, Mr. Wiggins arrested during his IM, rescusitation efforts ensued and EMT's took him to the hospital where he later died. All of this took place in my absence and when I strolled back into the pool area where the meet had been restarted from where it halted, I remarked to some lady "is this all the farther they are?" She certainly must have thought I was the most insensitive SOB she'd ever come across.
Anyway, earlier this year a friend of mine nearly died at the Chicago Marathon and because of this I recently had all of my labwork and EKG checked for the first time in 25 years.
USMS recommends we all be checked out before engaging in strenuous activity and I at least have the peace of mind that my cholesterol, HDL's, LDL's triglycerides and EKG are as good as can be expected.
If something should happen to me, it won't be because I was too stubborn and stupid to find out if there was an obvious problem first. So get checked out people. I like master's swimmers, but I don't want to do mouth to mouth on any of you. Especially after a 200 butterfly!
I wonder how common an occurance it is for someone to die at Master's meets. I hadn't heard of Mr. Margolis, but I was in Nashville at Nationals in 1991 when 76? year old Fredrick Wiggins died during a 200 IM. The early heats were going so slow that I went outside to browse among the venders booths while waiting for my heat. While outside, Mr. Wiggins arrested during his IM, rescusitation efforts ensued and EMT's took him to the hospital where he later died. All of this took place in my absence and when I strolled back into the pool area where the meet had been restarted from where it halted, I remarked to some lady "is this all the farther they are?" She certainly must have thought I was the most insensitive SOB she'd ever come across.
Anyway, earlier this year a friend of mine nearly died at the Chicago Marathon and because of this I recently had all of my labwork and EKG checked for the first time in 25 years.
USMS recommends we all be checked out before engaging in strenuous activity and I at least have the peace of mind that my cholesterol, HDL's, LDL's triglycerides and EKG are as good as can be expected.
If something should happen to me, it won't be because I was too stubborn and stupid to find out if there was an obvious problem first. So get checked out people. I like master's swimmers, but I don't want to do mouth to mouth on any of you. Especially after a 200 butterfly!
