technique over power in distance events?

I have one more comment and that is: not everyone is a distance swimmer, nor is everyone a sprinter. You have to figure out which distances best suit you. In my very competitive swimming days, I was ONLY a 50,100,200 backstroke person with an occasional 400 IM. I never swam any freestyle except on a relay. Now, I am a distance freestyle swimmer only and to me, anything over 6 miles is distance. I do enjoy the occasional 1500m swim in a triathlon, but that's almost too short of a distance now. And for me, the 500 and 1000 would be like a sprint. But I do believe that if a swimmer has a relatively quick 50 time, they can work toward endurance/stamina by doing interval sets and then swim some pretty darn fast 200s, 500s, 1000s. Nothing any more rewarding than lowering your times!! Hofman's reply made some good points about all of this, too. Cheers, Donna

I have one more comment and that is: not everyone is a distance swimmer, nor is everyone a sprinter. You have to figure out which distances best suit you. In my very competitive swimming days, I was ONLY a 50,100,200 backstroke person with an occasional 400 IM. I never swam any freestyle except on a relay. Now, I am a distance freestyle swimmer only and to me, anything over 6 miles is distance. I do enjoy the occasional 1500m swim in a triathlon, but that's almost too short of a distance now. And for me, the 500 and 1000 would be like a sprint. But I do believe that if a swimmer has a relatively quick 50 time, they can work toward endurance/stamina by doing interval sets and then swim some pretty darn fast 200s, 500s, 1000s. Nothing any more rewarding than lowering your times!! Hofman's reply made some good points about all of this, too. Cheers, Donna You are absolutely correct - everyone here probably has a natural distance that is their sweet spot. And it may be a different distance or stroke as a Masters swimmer than when they were in high school. I NEVER raced breaststroke in my younger days. Now for some reason I'm a pretty good breaststroker. I was a 100-200 guy. Now I'm a 50-100 guy. I can't do distance now because my 25 years off cost me too much fitness and I'm not willing to put in the work to get good at it! Two things are the same - I still swim IM and fly. BTW - I was in Roatan recently for a day on a cruise. Way beautiful place!

At the time when my 200y free best time was same as yours, these were my other times. I was about 36 years old and a couple of years into Masters after a long layoff and backslide. 50-:32.5 100-1:10 200-2:30 500-6:37 So your times do seem to show a disconnect; mine show that I have no ability to sprint. I did a lot of short-rest training such as 10x100 free on 1:30 and I would hold 1:21-1:25. They are slow times but I sure wish I could do that now; that's another topic.

Technique and conditioning obviously will have a pivotal role in improving your times for the longer distances, but pacing will be the skill that you should learn to make a big breakthrough. It is a definite handicap not being coached or swimming with a group 'cause ordinarily you should absorb some through example and prodding. However, that said, I made most of my transition from outright sprinter towards middle distance (freestyle) by myself and it was this funny little paceclock that fastened on the outside of my goggles (by suction) facing in (in corner of lens) that finally allowed me to really know what pace I was keeping for a set, and fine tune it up and down. By the time the battery died (it is a sealed unit) I had the skill down, didn't need it anymore and it reflected racewise. I did look pretty much look like a goof with this thing barnacled to my goggles, but hey, whatever it takes...

I am in the same predicament. I did a workout early last week: long warm-up and workout then a timed 500m (8:50) a 4 minute rest and a timed 500m (8:36), then a warm in the combined time of the 500s and swam 950 in in 17:26! I have found in my sprints that my poor form creates more problems than strength--according to my coach technique not strength or endurance is my problem. Longer swims I can remind myself to use "good" form and stay within my swim ability so I an more efficient and relaxed. To me this all makes sense. I need to know how it fix it so my fast efforts don't fall apart which should make my times longed swims even better (relatively).

rtodd - I think the dropoff issue is best measured by the 100 splits. If I can swim a 55 100, then my 200 splits would average 1:03. I think i can hold 1:10 for a 500 but don't know for sure. I swim with a friend who is a better distance guy and he goes 5:45 in the 500, 2:04 in the 200, and 56 in the 100. On your workouts - I think you should try to reduce the rest in your repeats. Instead of 10x100 on 2:00, try 1:50. You may not be able to hold 1:30 any more but that's OK. By the way - the sets you are doing are good lactate threshold sets. These sets have more rest but you swim faster. Example aerobic threshold sets for you: 10 x 100 @ 1:50 (target 1:35) 5 x 200 @ 3:30 20 x 50 @ 1:00 or even :50 (no more than 10 secs rest) You might do aerobic threshold once or twice a week. Do some lactate threshold once a week. Follow a hard day with an easier day. If you can - once a week you might go "long" - up your distance to 3000 yds. But swim easier like 4 x 500 on 9:30 or a comfortable interval. These sets should be all about smooth stroke, good technique, and pacing.

rtodd-Hofffam is giving you really good advice here. If you want to swim a respectable 500, you must be able to hold 100s and 200s split wise closer together. The way to do this is the interval work he is talking about. Your 50 and 100 times are pretty darn good; you just need to work toward finding that "race pace" to back them all up. And interval work with little rest is crucial to achieving this. Yes, it can be quite the price to pay when actually doing it, but the results can be magnificent. One thing I always did when I found the 200 free to be my favorite after my backstroke career ended was this: lots of 50 repeats with little rest and trying not to allow myself to drop off more than 2 seconds. When I did, I would rest 3 minutes and start the 50 sets again. And once I got my 50s all in a row so to speak, I would spend time feeling how they felt. Then I could apply these to the 200. The same applied for my training for the 800m free at USMS Long Course Natls in 1995 in Oregon. I did piles of 400 repeats trying to keep them close together. And lots of 50s at race pace. And magical things can happen such as negative-splitting. I got to experience this and it was a power swim. One that has stayed in my memories ever since. I won't bore you anymore, I just sometimes get over-excited in my descriptions when I try to offer advice. And Hofffman, small world your actually being on Roatan for the day via cruise ship. Did you come to West End or did you go to West Bay? The best to you rtodd, donna

I am in the same predicament. I did a workout early last week: long warm-up and workout then a timed 500m (8:50) a 4 minute rest and a timed 500m (8:36), then a warm in the combined time of the 500s and swam 950 in in 17:26! I have found in my sprints that my poor form creates more problems than strength--according to my coach technique not strength or endurance is my problem. Longer swims I can remind myself to use "good" form and stay within my swim ability so I an more efficient and relaxed. To me this all makes sense. I need to know how it fix it so my fast efforts don't fall apart which should make my times longed swims even better (relatively). Bill, controlled fast swimming is the objective here. Find out by swimming a lot of repeat 25s and repeat 50s and even repeat 100s when your stroke starts to fall apart. Once that is figured out, you will know where in the stamina portion of swimming that happens and it will help you to determine how lacking or not you are in the conditioning aspect. And it also helps you to get used to controlled sprinting and what it feels like. And let's say for example's sake your swimming on a fast hundred starts getting a bit sloppy at the 75. At that time on the next one you will know it is coming up and you will pay more attention to trying to swim with more technique at that 75 until the finish. When I start getting fatigued, I have to remind myself to maintain technique above all else. I don't really slow down my effort, I am just aware I need to better control it. donna

And Hofffman, small world your actually being on Roatan for the day via cruise ship. Did you come to West End or did you go to West Bay? I was part of a large family group. We split up into two groups - I was part of the deep sea fishing group and the rest went to a beach to snorkel and hang out all day. I believe we were at West End. No matter where we were - it was beautiful.

I have read that a good piece of data to have is your aerobic/anaerobic threshold pace, i.e. the pace that you can swim continuously (aerobically). This can be determined with a T20 or T30 swim. To be accurate you should avoid factoring in any end of swim sprints. Your distance swims will basically be at your threshold pace with some time taken off for a faster pace at the start and end. To improve your distance time you want to work on improving your aerobic capacity and, through technique improvements, the pace that you can swim at a given aerobic capacity. Trying to swim above your threshold pace, by definition will eventually result in deterioration of either technique or speed. This is good advice. A fairly recent post here provides good info on the T30 test and how to use it. forums.usms.org/showthread.php I believe Maglischo says in his book that there is really very little difference between a T20 and and a T30. Some even suggest a T10 is enough. I think rtodd's 1000 swim might good enough. He swam a 1000 in 18:10. If it was a best effort that is a 1:49 interval for the 100. That suggests to improve his aerobic threshold he should swim repeat 100s in practice on a 1:50 interval. In six months he might be able to drop that five seconds, etc.