breaststroke training

I have dramatically different strokes for the 50/100 vs. the 200. My turnover (stroke count) on the 50 is significantley higher than the 200. I am tempted to post videos, but I'll spare myself the humiliation. As for training, I break my season into 3 major phases, usually 5 to 6 days a week, trying to train for all three races: 1. Endurance phase (~8 weeks) The focus here is on basic (low) and anaerobic threshhold endurance. Sometimes, I really have to go into recovery mode (very slow) Most of the endurance work is freestyle or breaststroke kicking/pulling/drilling (about 3 days a week) I do very little full-stroke breaststroke - it would just be sloppy and build bad habits. Full stroke is reserved for sprint work. I do a fair amount of lactate production sprints (2 to 3 days a week). I do sets like 8 to 12x50 on 2:00 for lactate production. I do a little lactate tolerance sprint work. My favorite set is 3x200 on 6:00 broken at each 50 with ten seconds rest. Subtract 30 seconds and you should be around your 200 time.2. Quality phase (~6 weeks) The focus here is shorter anaerobic threshhold/overload (high) endurance sets (two days a week), though I still do a fair amount of basic (low) endurance, as well as recovery. I still do freestyle for the endurance work (50%), but now I add full-stroke breaststroke. I track my high endurance set times during this phase to see improvement trends. My favorite set is 5 to 7x200 BR on an interval that allows me 20 to 25 seconds rest. Towards the end here, I really pick up the sprint work (3 to 4 days a week.) I continue with a fair amount of lactate production sprints. l start doing more lactate tolerance sprints. Here I track my 4x50s on 2:00, broken 200s, and 100 kick sets.3. Race specific/taper phase (~3 race specific+2 taper weeks) I really dial down the high endurance set distances to maybe 4x200s (or less moving into taper) and really increase the intensity, again I keep recording set times. Sprint work comes front and center. I continue with my lactate sets, add power sprint sets (8x15s on 1:00 full bore) I really go for broke on some 1 or 2x broken 200s, and mix in a lot of 25 sprints on 1:00, 50s on 2:00 and 100s on 4:00. Very high intensity stuff Taper, well lots of rest. Shorter sets, repeats, and much less yardage, but with high intensity and FAST. I think a lot of people make the mistake of swimming easy during their taper.Hope this gives you a few ideas. PS. I recommend Ernest Maglischo's Swimming Fastest book. It's ALL in there. I can see how those of us, like me, who aren't that good at any other stroke might want to do this. But boy are they different events. The 200 is a real lung-busting endurance race (for a 200) while the 50 is a pure muscle sprint. It's almost like they are different strokes. It might be a little hard to switch gears between the three of events, but I'm sure it can be done. How to train for it? I don't really know. Swim a lot of breaststroke and have days where you practice the 200 and days where you practice sprinting, I'd guess.

I have dramatically different strokes for the 50/100 vs. the 200. My turnover (stroke count) on the 50 is significantley higher than the 200. I am tempted to post videos, but I'll spare myself the humiliation. As for training, I break my season into 3 major phases, usually 5 to 6 days a week, trying to train for all three races: 1. Endurance phase (~8 weeks) The focus here is on basic (low) and anaerobic threshhold endurance. Sometimes, I really have to go into recovery mode (very slow) Most of the endurance work is freestyle or breaststroke kicking/pulling/drilling (about 3 days a week) I do very little full-stroke breaststroke - it would just be sloppy and build bad habits. Full stroke is reserved for sprint work. I do a fair amount of lactate production sprints (2 to 3 days a week). I do sets like 8 to 12x50 on 2:00 for lactate production. I do a little lactate tolerance sprint work. My favorite set is 3x200 on 6:00 broken at each 50 with ten seconds rest. Subtract 30 seconds and you should be around your 200 time.2. Quality phase (~6 weeks) The focus here is shorter anaerobic threshhold/overload (high) endurance sets (two days a week), though I still do a fair amount of basic (low) endurance, as well as recovery. I still do freestyle for the endurance work (50%), but now I add full-stroke breaststroke. I track my high endurance set times during this phase to see improvement trends. My favorite set is 5 to 7x200 BR on an interval that allows me 20 to 25 seconds rest. Towards the end here, I really pick up the sprint work (3 to 4 days a week.) I continue with a fair amount of lactate production sprints. l start doing more lactate tolerance sprints. Here I track my 4x50s on 2:00, broken 200s, and 100 kick sets.3. Race specific/taper phase (~3 race specific+2 taper weeks) I really dial down the high endurance set distances to maybe 4x200s (or less moving into taper) and really increase the intensity, again I keep recording set times. Sprint work comes front and center. I continue with my lactate sets, add power sprint sets (8x15s on 1:00 full bore) I really go for broke on some 1 or 2x broken 200s, and mix in a lot of 25 sprints on 1:00, 50s on 2:00 and 100s on 4:00. Very high intensity stuff Taper, well lots of rest. Shorter sets, repeats, and much less yardage, but with high intensity and FAST. I think a lot of people make the mistake of swimming easy during their taper.Hope this gives you a few ideas. PS. I recommend Ernest Maglischo's Swimming Fastest book. It's ALL in there. I can see how those of us, like me, who aren't that good at any other stroke might want to do this. But boy are they different events. The 200 is a real lung-busting endurance race (for a 200) while the 50 is a pure muscle sprint. It's almost like they are different strokes. It might be a little hard to switch gears between the three of events, but I'm sure it can be done. How to train for it? I don't really know. Swim a lot of breaststroke and have days where you practice the 200 and days where you practice sprinting, I'd guess.