How many here are sprinters and how many long distance swimmers?

I've been a sprinter all my life, not only a sprinter, but a drop-dead sprinter. I would always be hanging on for dear life at the end of a 100. I've always done way better in meets than in practice. In workouts there is very little recovery time, often only 5 or 10 seconds, and there's no way that I can sprint for 45 minutes straight. Trying to repeat 200's or 400's in workout is a major chore and I feel as if every muscle group is shutting down. I'm not really getting out of breath because I can't move my arms fast enough. Now that I am in the 50-54 age group (and going up a group in September) I seem to have lost my raw speed. The only solution is to take it out a little slower which is against all my instincts. But it does seem to be working. Now it looks like my best chances are in the 200. There are still a lot of big guys who can blast out a 50 or a 100. I'll just have to swim smarter than them in the 200. When I was in college I could swim a hundred in 51, but the best I did in a 200 was 2:02. Pretty embarrasing. This year I have swum two 200's in competition. One was split 28.5, 34.5, 34.5, 33.5 and one was 32, 33, 33, 33. The second one was a lot easier than the other. I'm going to try to go out in 30 at nationals and see if I can keep the rest at 33, maybe even get the last one under 33. Wish me luck.

I've been a sprinter all my life, not only a sprinter, but a drop-dead sprinter. I would always be hanging on for dear life at the end of a 100. I've always done way better in meets than in practice. In workouts there is very little recovery time, often only 5 or 10 seconds, and there's no way that I can sprint for 45 minutes straight. Trying to repeat 200's or 400's in workout is a major chore and I feel as if every muscle group is shutting down. I'm not really getting out of breath because I can't move my arms fast enough. Now that I am in the 50-54 age group (and going up a group in September) I seem to have lost my raw speed. The only solution is to take it out a little slower which is against all my instincts. But it does seem to be working. Now it looks like my best chances are in the 200. There are still a lot of big guys who can blast out a 50 or a 100. I'll just have to swim smarter than them in the 200. When I was in college I could swim a hundred in 51, but the best I did in a 200 was 2:02. Pretty embarrasing. This year I have swum two 200's in competition. One was split 28.5, 34.5, 34.5, 33.5 and one was 32, 33, 33, 33. The second one was a lot easier than the other. I'm going to try to go out in 30 at nationals and see if I can keep the rest at 33, maybe even get the last one under 33. Wish me luck.