technique over power in distance events?

Right now I am swimming 50 in 27 100 in 1:03 200 in 2:30 500 in 8:40 1000 in 18:10 To me it does not make sense. Am I that inefficient? I seem to fall off alot after the 200. My theory is I am mostly anaerobic and my aerobic capacity is not what it should be. As I approach the end of a 200 I feel myself falling apart and my form suffers. I think I need to control my intensity better and distribute the power more efficiently. What should the % time differentials be for a well conditioned skillful swimmer? I am really humbled by how difficult swimming is. It's like anything, until you try, you really have no idea. I am doing over 10,000 per week of 80% freestyle 10% *** and 10% kick. I thought I would be alot faster by now. I told myself it will take 3 years to put this together. Maybe I was wrong.

...Is techinque rewarded that much over power in distance events? I believe technique wins over power in any distance. The greater the distance, the greater the drain on your energy poor technique becomes.

Right now I am swimming 50 in 27 100 in 1:03 200 in 2:30 500 in 8:40 1000 in 18:10 To me it does not make sense. Am I that inefficient? I seem to fall off alot after the 200. My theory is I am mostly anaerobic and my aerobic capacity is not what it should be. As I approach the end of a 200 I feel myself falling apart and my form suffers. I think I need to control my intensity better and distribute the power more efficiently. What should the % time differentials be for a well conditioned skillful swimmer? I am really humbled by how difficult swimming is. It's like anything, until you try, you really have no idea. I am doing over 10,000 per week of 80% freestyle 10% *** and 10% kick. I thought I would be alot faster by now. I told myself it will take 3 years to put this together. Maybe I was wrong. Thank you for posting these times; it helps a lot. I see a big discrepancy between the 200 and 500 times. I think this speaks of lack of swimming endurance and just because you may be swimming 10,000 yds a week,(about 6 miles) that will not necessarily fix this. The reason is HOW are you spending those 10,000 yds. I don't think it will be a 3 year journey. There are lots of ways to increase your speed for lower distances and then take that speed to longer distances. I know you said 80% free, 10% ***, 10% kick but you probably need to do repeat distances, like 50s and 100, with both rest and little rest and keep track on a pool clock or wristwatch. You need to be able to swim, say, 10x100s at say 80% intensity with little rest and eventually keep those hundreds pretty close together in time. The same goes for repeat 50s. The stamina received from doing either sprints or race-pace sets will certainly improve your 500 and 1000 time. Slow swimming will only create slow times; energy needs to be expended over sets. And you also need to be swimming some repeat 200s with little rest and lots of rest (mix and match) so you can back-up those 200s close in time. This will make the 500 faster and feel a lot better. This does take time for the body to become accustomed, but it DOES come; patience is key.

Hmm? It seems to me that you had made some rather noteworthy progress in your 50 and 100 Free races. Is that correct? If so, I suspect you have more of a conditioning issue than a real technique issue.

I agree technique (which produces efficiency) is more important than power for distance events. But I think you should also think about what most swimmers mean when they say "power." They usually mean muscular strength, not aerobic fitness. So I think your question is not really about power but aerobic fitness instead. My guess is that your technique was not much different in your two 500s or your 1000. Your fitness level didn't change over that period either. What you experienced was the progressively higher effort required to go faster. Most swimmers can swim all day at 80% of best speed. It costs a lot of energy to reach 100%. I don't swim distance events but I can swim repeat 100s at 1:30 for a long time. But change that interval to 1:20 and I probably can do only 10 before I absolutely croak. My heart rate on 100s at 1:30 might be 150+, but at 1:20 it would quickly reach my maximum of 175-ish. If you try to go 8:00 instead of 8:40 you would need to go 8 secs faster per 100. You might be able to do that today but it will hurt so much more.

Technique first, power/conditioning/stamina/endurance second. And your increased intensity swim for that 500 needs to be looked at such as what happens technique-wise when you ramp things up? It may feel intense, but does your technique hold together pretty well? Controlling intensity, I think, is key. Also, it would be interesting if we knew your 200 yd time, as well as those lesser distances. You know, to see the fall-off rates. The thousand is a wonderful swim, yes? donna

Donna thanx!!! That's what I'm looking for. My problem started when I started swimming (a year ago December) with a coach. She would say "100%" or "max effort." Which to me is everything I had regardless of the distance. So if she said "repeat 200m max effort", I'd go out as if it were a 25m sprint, hold it for 75m, have total breakdown, and end up flopping in to the wall completely spent and with no form at all. It wasn't until after I moved and she was coaching by e-mail that I found out that she meant "max = max Training Heart rate". We have redefined EZ, pace, and max in terms of Training Heart Rate; but, I've lost the skilled eyes and critique of a USMS Coach. It isn't her fault. Its mine. I should have asked. She has so many different skill levels and I was in my military mind-set of the coach said "go max" than "max" is what she gets. After we started talking HR, I had to tell that almost every workout I was at or above 220 beat/min.

hoffman, I noticed you don't have a significant fall off going from 100 to 200 and 200-500 like I do, yet you are a sprinter. So maybe technique is helping you out more than me. I am 42. These would be some of my typical main sets in a 100 ft pool. 1 length 5 sec rest 2 length 10 sec rest 3 length 15 sec rest 4 length 20 sec rest 5 length 25 sec rest 6 length 30 sec rest 5 length 25 sec rest .....back down to 1. 30x 2 lengths on 1:30. try to hold all at 1:00. 10x200yds try to hold 3:30 pace with 1 min rest. 4x500 Then I also do some speed, ***, kick, zoomers, etc.... I just break it up different ways to get around 2000 yds. I don't have a team or coach, so I don't have a big bag of tricks here. The fly hurts my back so I stay away from that. I see myself as a sprinter, but I feel that the distance will force me to develop an efficiency that translates back to short distance. Ultimately I would like to really drop my 100 into the low 50's and don't think I can just muscle it. I was able to hold 10x100 at a 1:30 pace on 2 minutes. This was a major accomplishment for me. I guess I can try cutting it down to 1:55 and see what happens. I also did a few tri relays last summer and really enjoyed it. I have a killer team and I am the weak link, so I would like to improve or they might go swimmer shopping on me!

Right now I am swimming 50 in 27 100 in 1:03 200 in 2:30 500 in 8:40 1000 in 18:10 To me it does not make sense. Am I that inefficient? I seem to fall off alot after the 200. My theory is I am mostly anaerobic and my aerobic capacity is not what it should be. As I approach the end of a 200 I feel myself falling apart and my form suffers. I think I need to control my intensity better and distribute the power more efficiently. What should the % time differentials be for a well conditioned skillful swimmer? I am really humbled by how difficult swimming is. It's like anything, until you try, you really have no idea. I am doing over 10,000 per week of 80% freestyle 10% *** and 10% kick. I thought I would be alot faster by now. I told myself it will take 3 years to put this together. Maybe I was wrong. Rtodd - what age group are you in? What is a typical workout for you? Your 50 time is very respectable. Your 100 time is pretty good. Your 200 time is OK, but not as competitive. Your 500 shows a big drop off. For comparison - my times (45-49): 50 free - 24.6 100 free - 55 200 free - estimate 2:05 500 free - estimate 5:50 (1:10 split) but may never swim it 1000 free - will never swim it! I am not a good distance swimmer and have no desire to get any better. Based on your times I'd say you're a pretty good sprinter. That 50 time shows good power and your 100 time is just about where it should be. If I were your coach (I have no credentials whatsoever) I'd recommend focusing on races 200 or shorter. To get your 500 free where it could be (maybe 7:00-7:30?) will take some serious focus on fitness. Your otherwise good technique breaks down when your body is trashed. You need to train to push that breakdown point higher. I'm unwilling to do that kind of training so I'm happy with my focus on 200s or shorter. If you do want to work on this you should do more aerobic threshold types of sets. These are sets like: 15 x 100 swum fairly hard; interval that gives you 10-15 secs rest 8 x 200 similar profile 5 x 400 etc. These kinds of sets also force you to pace smart. Your heart rate will be high. If you can repeat 100s in practice at 1:30 (swim time, not interval time) you have a good chance to swim a 500 at 5 times that (7:30). You might want to buy the book Swimming Fastest by Maglischo. He explains all of this and you can design sets to do just about anything you want.

I wear a watch, but can never get myself to break stride to look at it. I am trying to find the time to drop in on an orgainzed team just to get some feedback. When I started running I used to think that the 100m sprint was all I wanted to do, but I gravitated toward the 200m and then the 400m. I became biased and now feel that the 400 is the gold standard for running. Short enough to be exiting but long enough to reward hard training. So for swimming, I have a strong interest in the 200 free since it is probably the equivalent to the 400m in running. I think to do the 200 well, you will probably end up very competent in the 100 free and 400 free. I don't have any speed endurance as evident by my 500 time.