Last meet I swam the 100 and 200 IM, the latter for the first time ever. My best strokes are free and fly. My backstroke is quite lame. My breaststroke is slowly getting better. I have no illusions that I will ever get anywhere near a top ten in anything, least of all an IM event. But I would like to improve, and it give me a sense of accomplishment to swim all four strokes in a race and not drown (though the 200 introduced doubt on that front!)
I went 1:16.80 in the 100 (out in 35.83; back in 40.97)
In the 200, I went 2:51.82
fly 34.65
back 46.81
*** (falling piano) 53.83
free 36.53
The 200 was really a mixed bag--it felt absolutely horrible in the middle (why, oh why did I enter this event??? I am thinking about 20 yards into the breaststroke leg) but exciting to complete.
Any suggestions about IM sets for workouts (I swim alone, for the most part) or ways to think about the 200 race? Split goals, etc?? I'm sort of plateaued elsewhere, so this seems like a good thing to work on for awhile. My zone meet is at the end of this month, and I'd like to get the 200 down around 2:45 if possible.
As I've gotten back in the water, I’ve noticed the irony in the phrase, “the sprint IM” – meaning the 200 as opposed to the 400 IM. In my memory, the IM is just another 200 ... but in the real life of 2008, I now wonder what else I have forgotten about this very challenging race. Here’s what I've learned in the last few months of trying to re-enter the 200 IM:
- The 200 IM is all about legs. If your legs go, then you're done. So, add more kicking to your workouts.
- This is a “sprint IM” for some people, but for the rest of us, it’s a race to pace. If the 200 IM is about legs, then you should swim the fly without killing your legs. The same goes for the back stroke - some people think that backstroke gets much of its power from the kick - a heavy kick in the second leg of the 200 IM will come back to haunt you when you take your first kick in the breaststroke pull out. The goal of many IM swimmers is to turn their fly and free legs in close to the same splits.
- The key to the IM is the breaststroke. Breaststroke is the barrier to entry into IM for a lot of fast flyers and freestylers, and *** stroke is where the all of the people like me, who lack a kick at the end of the race, begin to fade away. Plus, almost everyone spends more time on *** than any other leg of the IM, so: this is the leg that offers the greatest potential for improvement. But as you re-learn breaststroke (I, for one, am trying not to swim the breaststroke I learned 40 years ago), remember that having a killer 50-*** will be of little use in the third leg of this race: for the 200 IM, you need the breaststroke that you will swim in the second 50 of a 100 ***, or better still, the third 50 of a 200 ***.
I’ve only swum this race a handful of times since getting back in the water, and have come to understand that it’ll take me a while – maybe more than a single short-course yards season – to find the right pacing and strokes for this race. In other words, all this nice advice is, well, nice, but: it’s easier said than done. Good luck to us all ...
As I've gotten back in the water, I’ve noticed the irony in the phrase, “the sprint IM” – meaning the 200 as opposed to the 400 IM. In my memory, the IM is just another 200 ... but in the real life of 2008, I now wonder what else I have forgotten about this very challenging race. Here’s what I've learned in the last few months of trying to re-enter the 200 IM:
- The 200 IM is all about legs. If your legs go, then you're done. So, add more kicking to your workouts.
- This is a “sprint IM” for some people, but for the rest of us, it’s a race to pace. If the 200 IM is about legs, then you should swim the fly without killing your legs. The same goes for the back stroke - some people think that backstroke gets much of its power from the kick - a heavy kick in the second leg of the 200 IM will come back to haunt you when you take your first kick in the breaststroke pull out. The goal of many IM swimmers is to turn their fly and free legs in close to the same splits.
- The key to the IM is the breaststroke. Breaststroke is the barrier to entry into IM for a lot of fast flyers and freestylers, and *** stroke is where the all of the people like me, who lack a kick at the end of the race, begin to fade away. Plus, almost everyone spends more time on *** than any other leg of the IM, so: this is the leg that offers the greatest potential for improvement. But as you re-learn breaststroke (I, for one, am trying not to swim the breaststroke I learned 40 years ago), remember that having a killer 50-*** will be of little use in the third leg of this race: for the 200 IM, you need the breaststroke that you will swim in the second 50 of a 100 ***, or better still, the third 50 of a 200 ***.
I’ve only swum this race a handful of times since getting back in the water, and have come to understand that it’ll take me a while – maybe more than a single short-course yards season – to find the right pacing and strokes for this race. In other words, all this nice advice is, well, nice, but: it’s easier said than done. Good luck to us all ...
