I have only raced the 100 free twice and have some questions on how to distribute my energy in the race.
I don't do fully rested time trials often in my workouts. I also swim in a 100 ft pool which make splits tough (no coach timing them either). So it is difficult for me to quantify how to race the 100 in practice. I thought it would be a good idea to hear from the strong sprinters.
Do you go all out right off the blocks and then hang on or take just a little off the first 50?
If not all out from the start and you open up and relax a little, do you relax both the flutter kick and upper body arm strokes equally, or just one?
Should I stretch out my underwater or breakout early? I'm not sure, but I think I am faster on the surface when all out, but maybe longer underwaters would delay upper body fatigue?
Also I breathe on every stroke right from the start even though I don't have to. I am thinking it may help in finishing the race by improving the aerobic component and delaying or reducing lactic acid buildup. Does this help, or should I breathe every other stroke until my body says to do it every stroke?
Alot of questions, but racing is new to me. Thanks for the advice!!!
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Former Member
I try to hold back a bit from my 50 pace until the last 25 of a 100 SCY race. Then I give it all I have...sometimes I have more to give and sometimes the full throttle does nothing! I would say that I relax my strokes a bit more than my kicks but that might be in my head.
I breathe every other stroke for the first 75 and then try to limit it to 2 breaths on the way home. In a 50 I try to limit my breathing to 2 strokes in each direction. Increased stamina will allow you to trim those things down but that would require more time than I have to spare.
Oh yeah, your breakouts. You have to know when you are slowing to a pace that is slower than your surface swimming speed. Once I feel I am nearly to that point I will begin to surface and hopefully extract all the time underwater that I could have. All of these nuances take a lot of time and effort to perfect but they can have a substantial effect on time reduction.
I try to hold back a bit from my 50 pace until the last 25 of a 100 SCY race. Then I give it all I have...sometimes I have more to give and sometimes the full throttle does nothing! I would say that I relax my strokes a bit more than my kicks but that might be in my head.
I breathe every other stroke for the first 75 and then try to limit it to 2 breaths on the way home. In a 50 I try to limit my breathing to 2 strokes in each direction. Increased stamina will allow you to trim those things down but that would require more time than I have to spare.
Oh yeah, your breakouts. You have to know when you are slowing to a pace that is slower than your surface swimming speed. Once I feel I am nearly to that point I will begin to surface and hopefully extract all the time underwater that I could have. All of these nuances take a lot of time and effort to perfect but they can have a substantial effect on time reduction.
