200m Individual Medley times

IM is the great equalizer! We all are good in some strokes BUT, there are those others ones that make us mere mortals!

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. My instructor says that i am more of a distance swimmer. Here are the splits (~) : fly:33, back:43, ***:47, free:38. This way is more clear. My start is bad. I lose like 3 sec because of it. Left side of the body is much lazier than the right one. Working on that too. If your start is bad, but your fly is still 5 seconds faster than your free, you are probably taking your fly out a little bit fast relatively. Even for a butterflier, the differential should be more like 3 seconds I would think. So I would guess your first step would be to pull back a bit on the fly and build into the back/*** more.

That’s a good time especially for being new. I am not an IMer /mid-D, but what were the 2:41 splits? transitions? Do you think fly conditioning would help? I have found fly conditioning doesn't do THAT much. The fly part of the I.M. is like the swim portion of a triathlon. You can be really poor at it and still be really good at the race as a whole. Certainly for the 400, having a better fly is going to be more beneficial, but again, having a weak backstroke or breaststroke is far more detrimental. When I train I.M., I try to write workouts (main sets specifically) that focus on long and smooth butterfly, with limited fatigue, while hammering the backstroke and breaststroke (often times at race pace), and then some sort of race component on the freestyle (like negative splitting or descending 100s). One coach I had as a post grad was big on the over-training the freestyle to work on that mental toughness...helped me get past coming off the breaststroke and just feeling like my arms were made of rubber and just flailing through the freestyle! Everyone has their own style though. If your fly is really weak, then obviously it needs SOME work. But definitely focusing on the "meat" of the I.M. race will be very beneficial.

If your start is bad, but your fly is still 5 seconds faster than your free, you are probably taking your fly out a little bit fast relatively. Even for a butterflier, the differential should be more like 3 seconds I would think. So I would guess your first step would be to pull back a bit on the fly and build into the back/*** more. LCM - 28.94/38.58/40.40/33.53 (2:21.45) 200 I.M. my strategy is always to take the fly out fast...but that is because my backstroke sucks! Also that time is from 2012, before I REALLY worked on my backstroke, and I haven't swam the 200 LCM since then!

LCM - 28.94/38.58/40.40/33.53 (2:21.45) 200 I.M. my strategy is always to take the fly out fast...but that is because my backstroke sucks! Also that time is from 2012, before I REALLY worked on my backstroke, and I haven't swam the 200 LCM since then! In my experience, long course is a bit different animal than short course because of the extra turns. And maybe I'm a little skewed because my best IMs were as a backstroker. If I'm remembering right, my best IM splits were something like: SCY - 24.1/27.3/32.9/26.6 LCM - 28.5/32.0/39.5/30.8

Welcome to the forum! Great to hear that not only have you become devoted to improving in swimming, but that you're also interested in the IM! The 200 IM is an event where you have many chances to improve because there are so many areas you can work on and refine. One of the ways you can get a faster rate of improvement is to work with a coach who specializes in stroke technique. The coach will be able to identify areas of weakness and help you design workouts that will target those areas, which will result in much greater improvement overall over time. Beyond working with a coach, I would advise that you try to focus more on your weaker strokes. Based on your splits alone, it seems like backstroke and freestyle might need the most work - but the best way to determine this would be to see videos of your stroke. In workouts, you can work on sets that combine two strokes, and/or do drills that combine several strokes (for example, breaststroke pull dolphin kick) to get the most out of your training. The distances you swim can also play a role in improvement - for example, if you train in a 50m pool or a 25yd pool, you can adjust your yardage and workouts to work on developing endurance and conditioning. You can also feel free to post short video clips of your strokes here on the forum for additional advice from this great group! Good luck!

There are as many ways to swim IM well as their are good IMers. It would be useful to know more about your swimming - your stroke strengths and weaknesses, whether you are more of a sprinter or a distance swimmer, how your underwater work is (since underwater dolphin kick is the one constant through three different strokes). In a general sense, the key to IMs is the transitions - you have to make sure you get into a good rhythm within the first couple stroke cycles or else you will just be spinning your wheels.

They always told me because I was a good butterflier and a great breaststroker, that I could have a really good I.M. What they didn't tell me was that since I sucked at backstroke, my I.M. would never be that great. Wasn't until I was a post-grad that I clued into this. Worked a lot on my backstroke. It still sucks, but I saw marked improvement in both I.M.s (200/400...100 doesn't matter as much having a weak stroke). Best advice I can give you is to identify your weakest stroke, and spend some (or all) of a practice one a week or every two weeks working on it. Also everything Jeff said is spot on, and I would take advice from him, seeing as he was a really good 400 I.M.er in a past life.

AND what Calvin said.... Breastroke has always been my downfall, but it's getting better since I worked on my transition from back, and my pullouts.

That’s a good time especially for being new. I am not an IMer /mid-D, but what were the 2:41 splits? transitions? Do you think fly conditioning would help?