Has anyone heard of saving their kick for the second half of the two hundred to draw lactic acid towards the leg muscles? I recall reading somewhere that this would allow the arms to remain relatively free of acid build up so they don't tighten up so much on the final laps.
In sprint races, the fifty and hundred are over before you know it. The two hundred however has always posed a challenge because if you go out too fast, there's a price to pay towards the 150 mark. I am working on getting the first hundred paced fast but easy, and then saving some steam for the last seventy five. (Almost like an attempt to even split the 200.)
Any thoughts on race pace strategies would be appreciated.
this is a topic i have frequently pondered.
if you look at the extremes, there are two basic strategies:
1) go out very fast and try to hang on (advantage: you don't have to worry about creating a time deficit on the first 100 that you can't make up no matter how fast your final kick; disadvantage: premature death on the final 50.)
2) go out smooth and try to burn through at the end (advantage: not as much chance of dying at the end; disadvantage: you may not be able to compensate at the end for too leisurely an early pace.)
my teammate bill swears by the first strategy. he recently went out in a 53 and came back in a 1:01 for a decent overall time.
i find i do much better with the second strategy. my best 200 in the last year, i went out in a 57 and came back in a 58 for a pr at age 50.
perhaps the difference is that bill is more of a sprinter, and I am more of a distance swimmer--he knows his best chance for an optimal time is to make his speed work for him. i, on the other hand, know that my "sprinting" pace isn't all that fast anyhow, and so knocking myself out early won't give me much of an early advantage.
i guess for me the answer is to listen to my body. swim as fast as i can from the get go without getting to that point where i feel lactic acid starting to flow. if i can make it through the first 100 feeling okay, then i start to up the effort on the 3rd 50, then pretty much all out sprint the final 50. in terms of kicking, i haven't paid too much attention to this aspect of the swim, but suspect i keep this moderate till the second half of the race, and really kick hard the final 50.
this is a topic i have frequently pondered.
if you look at the extremes, there are two basic strategies:
1) go out very fast and try to hang on (advantage: you don't have to worry about creating a time deficit on the first 100 that you can't make up no matter how fast your final kick; disadvantage: premature death on the final 50.)
2) go out smooth and try to burn through at the end (advantage: not as much chance of dying at the end; disadvantage: you may not be able to compensate at the end for too leisurely an early pace.)
my teammate bill swears by the first strategy. he recently went out in a 53 and came back in a 1:01 for a decent overall time.
i find i do much better with the second strategy. my best 200 in the last year, i went out in a 57 and came back in a 58 for a pr at age 50.
perhaps the difference is that bill is more of a sprinter, and I am more of a distance swimmer--he knows his best chance for an optimal time is to make his speed work for him. i, on the other hand, know that my "sprinting" pace isn't all that fast anyhow, and so knocking myself out early won't give me much of an early advantage.
i guess for me the answer is to listen to my body. swim as fast as i can from the get go without getting to that point where i feel lactic acid starting to flow. if i can make it through the first 100 feeling okay, then i start to up the effort on the 3rd 50, then pretty much all out sprint the final 50. in terms of kicking, i haven't paid too much attention to this aspect of the swim, but suspect i keep this moderate till the second half of the race, and really kick hard the final 50.
