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.
Hi Red,
Our times are pretty comparable in the IM's...
The first weekend in March I went:
100 IM - 1:16.38 (36.25, 40.13)
200 IM - 2:47.74 (36.41, 47.95, 47.35, 36.03)
Yup, I negative split this IM.
At the same meet in March 2007, I went:
100 IM - 1:18.32 (37.45, 40.87)
200 IM - 2:50.33 (36.91, 46.65, 48.74, 38.03)
Definitely did NOT negative split this 200 IM! Though you can't tell my the split, I killed myself on the fly and was dead after the backstroke.
As you can tell, I'm not an IM'er either, but like to swim it because it is just fun. Once upon a time, I was a breaststroker, now due to knees, I'm mostly just a freestyler. My backstroke is just plain horrid.
What people have said about not over-kicking the backstroke is good advice. You need those legs for breaststroke! Think about your roll and hip snap in backstroke rather than a mad flutter (oh my, did I actually give backstroke advice? take it with a grain of salt...) Then really work the kick, glide and streamline on breaststroke. I also think it is important to get plenty of air on the butterfly!
Our team rarely does IM workouts. I swim by myself at least once a week due to my schedule and usually do IM that day. Good IM sets for me are:
16x75 continuous IM (first is fly-bk-br, then fr-fly-bk, then br-fr-fly, etc... really thinking about your transitions)
2-turn 50's in continuous IM order (start and end in the middle of the pool, might be challenging to do this in a crowded lap swim)
9x100 done as 100 IM, 100 IM, 100 free repeated 3x. The interval should be such that it is HARD to make the 2nd 100 IM and then use the free as semi-recovery. I do these on the 1:30.
4x50 fly on 1:00, 200 IM on 3:30; 4x50 bk on 1:00, 200 IM; 4x50 br on 1:00, 200 IM; 4x50 free on 1:00, 200 IM. There is a decent amount of rest of this set, so I like to descend the 200 IM's and go under 3:00 on the last one.
I hope you get down to 2:45 at your zone meet! Good luck!
ugh, long post, sorry...
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
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.
Hi Red,
Our times are pretty comparable in the IM's...
The first weekend in March I went:
100 IM - 1:16.38 (36.25, 40.13)
200 IM - 2:47.74 (36.41, 47.95, 47.35, 36.03)
Yup, I negative split this IM.
At the same meet in March 2007, I went:
100 IM - 1:18.32 (37.45, 40.87)
200 IM - 2:50.33 (36.91, 46.65, 48.74, 38.03)
Definitely did NOT negative split this 200 IM! Though you can't tell my the split, I killed myself on the fly and was dead after the backstroke.
As you can tell, I'm not an IM'er either, but like to swim it because it is just fun. Once upon a time, I was a breaststroker, now due to knees, I'm mostly just a freestyler. My backstroke is just plain horrid.
What people have said about not over-kicking the backstroke is good advice. You need those legs for breaststroke! Think about your roll and hip snap in backstroke rather than a mad flutter (oh my, did I actually give backstroke advice? take it with a grain of salt...) Then really work the kick, glide and streamline on breaststroke. I also think it is important to get plenty of air on the butterfly!
Our team rarely does IM workouts. I swim by myself at least once a week due to my schedule and usually do IM that day. Good IM sets for me are:
16x75 continuous IM (first is fly-bk-br, then fr-fly-bk, then br-fr-fly, etc... really thinking about your transitions)
2-turn 50's in continuous IM order (start and end in the middle of the pool, might be challenging to do this in a crowded lap swim)
9x100 done as 100 IM, 100 IM, 100 free repeated 3x. The interval should be such that it is HARD to make the 2nd 100 IM and then use the free as semi-recovery. I do these on the 1:30.
4x50 fly on 1:00, 200 IM on 3:30; 4x50 bk on 1:00, 200 IM; 4x50 br on 1:00, 200 IM; 4x50 free on 1:00, 200 IM. There is a decent amount of rest of this set, so I like to descend the 200 IM's and go under 3:00 on the last one.
I hope you get down to 2:45 at your zone meet! Good luck!
ugh, long post, sorry...
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
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.
