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.
I think my backstroke is really terrible, and consumes too much energy. Time to work on that technique, I think.
I'm a beginning flyer, and my back is wretched. I negative split the first couple 100 IMs I tried. I also felt completely wrung out after the back.
I recently discovered that I was breathing with every pull on back, basically hyperventilating. My coach told me that mistake is fairly typical. I also tend to overkick on back, despite my kick being generally useless. Check your breathing and kick patterns on back, perhaps you are doing the same.
Today I did 12 100 IMs on 1:55 (SCM), concentrating on holding a consistent stroke count on fly and breathing every 3 pulls and kicking easily on back. I did 50 easy and took a 1:00 break, then did 4 x 200 IM on 4:00 with the same focus. I held around 1:40 on the 100s and 3:30 on the 200s against a PR of about 1:20 for the 100. It was a pretty satisfying 2,000 meter main set that rolled by fairly quickly. The intervals were generous enough for recovery into the fly and back legs, and just doing that much fly keeps my heart rate up.
I think my backstroke is really terrible, and consumes too much energy. Time to work on that technique, I think.
I'm a beginning flyer, and my back is wretched. I negative split the first couple 100 IMs I tried. I also felt completely wrung out after the back.
I recently discovered that I was breathing with every pull on back, basically hyperventilating. My coach told me that mistake is fairly typical. I also tend to overkick on back, despite my kick being generally useless. Check your breathing and kick patterns on back, perhaps you are doing the same.
Today I did 12 100 IMs on 1:55 (SCM), concentrating on holding a consistent stroke count on fly and breathing every 3 pulls and kicking easily on back. I did 50 easy and took a 1:00 break, then did 4 x 200 IM on 4:00 with the same focus. I held around 1:40 on the 100s and 3:30 on the 200s against a PR of about 1:20 for the 100. It was a pretty satisfying 2,000 meter main set that rolled by fairly quickly. The intervals were generous enough for recovery into the fly and back legs, and just doing that much fly keeps my heart rate up.
