Wow getting under 1min is going to be harder than I thought!

.48 time drop on your last 100, that's huge for a 100! worry less, swim more.

You've got the speed to do it Absolutely. I once coached a high school team that had had one male swimmer break a minute in the previous 8+ years. Yet, on the first day of workout, after a light warm-up, I had the boys do a 25 sprint off the wall. 7 kids broke :15. I told them that after one season there's absolutely no excuse for not breaking a minute. We worked on pacing 25s and 50s a LOT. At the end of the season, the fastest kid -- a freshman -- went a :51, another went :52 (and would've broken :50 if he hadn't gone surfing {at least it was an 8 foot swell}), 2 more went 53 and a fourth went 54. The "slowest" kid went 1:56 in the 200. Anywho... Focus on streamlining. Practice starts. Stroke drills, and lots of them. And plenty of rest throughout a stroke drill set.. Skulling. Kicking w/ proper technique. You've got the speed, so it's going to come down to streamlining and splits. I'd say go out in a 28.5 (in other words, restrain yourself the first 50), and then bring it home like nobody's business.

Going under a minute for a 100 SCY free has eluded me for over 10 years of masters swimming. After several years of little to no progress, I put doing meets on hold, and focused on other aspects, such as losing weight/body fat, building up my core, and building up my overall fitness endurance. Now that I've accomplished most of that, I have begun to once again tackle the sub-minute 100 SCY free. I'm testing my workout pace about every 2 weeks, going out of my way to ask my coaches for feedback, and plan to enter a SCY meet next year. Unfortunately, here in AZ our SCY season is over for the year. I may do a LCM meet this year just for kicks, if it doesn't disrupt my schedule too much.

without seeing your splits, we can't tell if you're a take it out and die person or a take it out too cautiously person. I'd say, pick an in-season meet, swim both the 50 and 100 and take the 100 out like you're swimming a 50 (but breathe more!!!) and then see what happens. tell yourself that your goal is to get within 1.0 sec of your 50 time for your split and that it doesn't matter what happens to your overall time. odds are, you will die impressively, but you'll have a decent time and you'll then know what that kind of 100 death-pain feels like. work on your at-speed turns in practice too. if you're missing the pad, sounds like something is going on with your turn that is costing you time. you have plenty of speed to break that barrier!

It's isn't easy. I started swimming as a 48 year old in 2000, and had no prior competitive swimming experience. It took 6 years but I did it once. Getting there again has been my struggle. I've been so close but seems like I blow a turn or don't go out fast enough. Here's a summary of my best 50 and 100 times for each year since my first swim meet in December 2001. --------50y--100y 2001 - :30.35 1:11.01 2002 - :28.29 1:06.80 2003 - :27.93 1:02.58 2004 - :28.56 1:02.40 2005 - :26.81 :59.23 2006 - :27.08 1:00.93 2007 - :26.60 1:00.40 I'm hoping to bust a 59 again in Austin. If I do, it will be :bouncing::banana::groovy: and of course lots of :drink:.

I Here's a summary of my best 50 and 100 times for each year since my first swim meet in December 2001. Well I hate to take over rtodd's thread, but since I have the same issue, I hope I'm not hurting the cause. Thanks for posting those times, that is extremely helpful information. For some reason I took you for one of those super-fast people who've been swimming their whole lives. It is easier to identify with someone else who started late, although you have a much faster starting times than I did. I'm curious, what is the time difference between a fast workout time (off the block even) and a meet time? And for your meets, were you tapered/shaved, did you wear any special/fancy suit? I'm trying to assess if/when I'll be ready to do a meet again.

turns are usually good in practice but choke alot at meets It's possible you haven't been doing enough turns at race speed during practice. This really affects the timing of the turn. A good way to practice this is to do a running start from the side of the pool, dive in around the flags, then do a turn. I think Paul Smith mentioned this drill in another thread.

I'm hoping to bust a 59 again in Austin. If I do, it will be :bouncing::banana::groovy: and of course lots of :drink:. Based on the avatar, you evidently have a weight problem, and maybe even a tendency to slack off. I suggest you shave down and lay off the beer for a few weeks. The tail's probably gotta go too. Please let us know how it goes. You're right there!

It would be interesting to know your breathing pattern in the 50 and what time you can do for a 50 breathing every stroke as you do in the 100.

I agree with one thing Ande said - give up the 500 for a while. The training you do for that isn't helping you much for the 100. Shorten your sets and/or shorten the repeats (100s and 200s more than 400s or longer). I agree also with the suggestions for splits around 27/31. A 4 second gap is perhaps even slightly high. Some suggest the 1st 50 of a 100 should be about 1 sec above the best 50. I think that's about right. So you should get to a low 26 50 for a ~ 27 sec 1st 50.