I'm not much of a stroke swimmer...that is to say my workouts are generally pretty much just various sets of crawl stroke...at which I'm very strong...for longer open water swims. Now and then I'd throw in a set of other strokes just to break up the monotony. I can swim the other strokes good enough...endurance-wise...except for BF. It was, and is, always difficult for me to make it just 50m BF. I'd have to rest at each wall. And it seemed that I couldn't just "slow down" to pace myself. It was like I'd have to swim the BF all-out or drown. But a year or so ago, for some reason, I began ending all my workouts with a 400 IM (scm). Slowly but surely my BF got better. I started to notice that I could actually slow down some. Still, I'd usually have to rest on one wall, or go into the modified BF with a breaststroke kick in the last 50. But finally...yesterday I did the whole 100 using the correct BF kick without resting at the wall, and was able to swim the entire 400 IM without stopping. We won't discuss time.
Dan
The quickest road to pain and a bad 400 IM is to blast the fly.
my name is on that road.
LA83 meet. this was the international meet at the brand new USC Olympic pool a year before the 1984 Olympics.
since i cannot swim the 3rd leg of an IM to save my life i have always done the "take it out hard and die like a man" approach.
and i did. and the nice big score board was lit up with me ahead of my team mates Ricardo Prado's WR at the 100. and i managed to stay ahead of that WR split at the 200 as well. i could hear the announcer and in my head i was going "shut up man there is breaststroke next". by the 225 i was in 2nd place....by the 250 i was in 3rd...275 4th and a "most impressive" 6th at the 300 turn.
the 100 free didnt matter...i was done. cooked. bonked. you name it the road paver went over me.
i forget what day it was, but i watched the russian distance god Vladimir Salnikiov drink a real Coke and eat a Snickers bar and 20mins later break his own WR in the 800m.
The quickest road to pain and a bad 400 IM is to blast the fly.
my name is on that road.
LA83 meet. this was the international meet at the brand new USC Olympic pool a year before the 1984 Olympics.
since i cannot swim the 3rd leg of an IM to save my life i have always done the "take it out hard and die like a man" approach.
and i did. and the nice big score board was lit up with me ahead of my team mates Ricardo Prado's WR at the 100. and i managed to stay ahead of that WR split at the 200 as well. i could hear the announcer and in my head i was going "shut up man there is breaststroke next". by the 225 i was in 2nd place....by the 250 i was in 3rd...275 4th and a "most impressive" 6th at the 300 turn.
the 100 free didnt matter...i was done. cooked. bonked. you name it the road paver went over me.
i forget what day it was, but i watched the russian distance god Vladimir Salnikiov drink a real Coke and eat a Snickers bar and 20mins later break his own WR in the 800m.
