How do I make friends with this race? It always hurts. I have tried to go out slowly, but then I just slow down. I know I should pay attention to my pace, but this flies out the brain when I race. I am not a seasoned racer. At practice I pay attention to pace looking at clock but do not "feel" it. Should I just accept 1000 hurts, and swim it as fast as I can? This is my best event, but I am not loving it as I swim it.
if you can swim it during a coffee break....it is a sprint.
and at 5 dollars per event (in most meets), its also one of the better values in competitive swimming. .5 cents per yard
Oh great. My son was just looking over my shoulder and read this comment. He said you have "mad mind skills."
It might be .5 cents per yard at a meet, but it is $5,000 in the surgeon's office.
First of all, congratulations! The 1000 is one of the best events in masters swimming.
The pace work advice from the other submissions is right on point in my view. You should start with a set of 10 - 12 100s holding a pace that you can hold for the entire set. Do an interval that gets you between 5 and 10 seconds rest per interval. As these get easier, pick up your pace and the interval.
However, you can't do this kind of training every day without losing your mind. I would say do a set of 100s once a week or so and mix in one or two other sets (depending upon how many times a week you are swimming) of 150s or 200s going your pace.
On the other days, IM work is very good for distance swimming (and your mind). I would start with sets of 100 IMs and then build to a set of 125s rotating the strokes on the extra 25. For example, go 50 fly, 25 back, 25 ***, 25 free on the first one. Then 25 fly, 50 back, 25 ***, 25 free. Go thru once or twice for either 4 or 8. You will find that changing strokes thru the IM builds your endurance without pounding 100s freestyle every workout.
I would also mix in some long swimming on some days - sets of descending 500s or 1000s.
For background, I was a fair distance freestyler in college and used the routine above to do some fair swimming at the masters level after about a 15 year break. I've taken two years off and am currently working on another comeback. :drink:
Let me know if you want more specifics on workouts. Good luck!
the 1,000 free is EVIL
it will never be your friend
stick with sprints
learn to pace it correctly,
it's all about the effort you exert
it's wise to even split it.
Ande
How do I make friends with this race? It always hurts. I have tried to go out slowly, but then I just slow down. I know I should pay attention to my pace, but this flies out the brain when I race. I am not a seasoned racer. At practice I pay attention to pace looking at clock but do not "feel" it. Should I just accept 1000 hurts, and swim it as fast as I can? This is my best event, but I am not loving it as I swim it.
No, it's those sprints that are evil. Especially if you don't have fast twitch muscles.
I'll swim the 1000 or 1650 over a 50 or 100 any day of the week. Even the 500 is better than those real sprints :laugh2:
