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.
There's only one way to swim the 200 fly....very carefully. To reply to Phil, you take it out strong.... but controlled. If you have trained correctly, you should know how to pace those 4 or 8 lengths. The first part of the race should feel light, airy, "floating" on top of the water. Float like a butterfly. You should be relaxed, getting a good rhythm and good timing. I have set many world and national records in all three fly distances and have used a different timing for each one. The 200 is totally different from the 100, it is mostly arms and body movement, useing your legs more on the last 50. I always double breathed, something I can't do anymore at my age. The 100 is also double breathing with a faster turnover, more body movement and kick. Working the dive, turns and streamline are extremely important.
I have a theory for the 50. You can't turn over any faster than you can kick twice, so I use one kick in the 50, turning over faster with one breath on the first 25, one at the turn and one coming back. This worked for me....my 50 flyworld record stood for 16 years.
As for training for the 200, 3 months out do 3xbroken 200s once or twice a week to get the feel of descending, 2 months out 2x200 broken and one month out 1x200. This one broken 200 should be perfect and focused on decending the pace by 1 second. You only get one chance in the meet so you should learn to do it once, perfect, in practice. Also, you will need to do this on your own as you will not be able to do this in a masters workout. Hope this helps.....
There's only one way to swim the 200 fly....very carefully. To reply to Phil, you take it out strong.... but controlled. If you have trained correctly, you should know how to pace those 4 or 8 lengths. The first part of the race should feel light, airy, "floating" on top of the water. Float like a butterfly. You should be relaxed, getting a good rhythm and good timing. I have set many world and national records in all three fly distances and have used a different timing for each one. The 200 is totally different from the 100, it is mostly arms and body movement, useing your legs more on the last 50. I always double breathed, something I can't do anymore at my age. The 100 is also double breathing with a faster turnover, more body movement and kick. Working the dive, turns and streamline are extremely important.
I have a theory for the 50. You can't turn over any faster than you can kick twice, so I use one kick in the 50, turning over faster with one breath on the first 25, one at the turn and one coming back. This worked for me....my 50 flyworld record stood for 16 years.
As for training for the 200, 3 months out do 3xbroken 200s once or twice a week to get the feel of descending, 2 months out 2x200 broken and one month out 1x200. This one broken 200 should be perfect and focused on decending the pace by 1 second. You only get one chance in the meet so you should learn to do it once, perfect, in practice. Also, you will need to do this on your own as you will not be able to do this in a masters workout. Hope this helps.....
