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.
The 200 is such an incredibly different "animal" relative to all the other distances, the fly version seems to demonstrate this more than any other stroke. If you look at the best 200 flyers they are usually not as strong in the 100, rather they are exceptional in the 400IM, 500 free, etc. (like Tom Dolan). Training for this event requires a substanial amount of fly time in practice and a different/more efficient stroke.
Wayne, your onto something when you talk about the under water kick. Some of the elite 200 flyers in the world will hit 9-11 kicks underwater in this event and will "build" throughout the whole race. Us guys/gals who are stronger in the 100 typically can't find the rhythm/pace in this event and in my case avoid it . One other observation, it seems that quite a few successful swimmers breath every stroke or use a 2/1 pattern (two breathes/1 down).
The 200 is such an incredibly different "animal" relative to all the other distances, the fly version seems to demonstrate this more than any other stroke. If you look at the best 200 flyers they are usually not as strong in the 100, rather they are exceptional in the 400IM, 500 free, etc. (like Tom Dolan). Training for this event requires a substanial amount of fly time in practice and a different/more efficient stroke.
Wayne, your onto something when you talk about the under water kick. Some of the elite 200 flyers in the world will hit 9-11 kicks underwater in this event and will "build" throughout the whole race. Us guys/gals who are stronger in the 100 typically can't find the rhythm/pace in this event and in my case avoid it . One other observation, it seems that quite a few successful swimmers breath every stroke or use a 2/1 pattern (two breathes/1 down).
