Training for the 100 fly?

Hey Fort, At the end of practice today I used the parachute (fully closed) for some 50 fly repeats. It was the first time I had used the chute for anything longer than 25s. VERY brutal, the last half-lap felt exactly like the end of a butterfly race. IMO a much more realistic simulation of a race than a typical long fly set (I had done a set of 125s fly earlier in practice: tiring but not the same way a race is). Anyway, if your shoulders can hack it, it might be a good way to train for the 100 fly. How very enticing! Others have reported possible shoulder ouchies to me though. Got another tip on my Geek 9:27 trip to NC. I was talking with Wookiee about the Cavic video and he suggested swimming fly with very light handweights and fins. I think the fly sets may have helped my 50 fly too. Started off much faster this year. Don't think it was all suit, although Smith might suggest differently.

(S)he, I'm going to guess that your a lot stronger and better conditioned now than you were when you were at your "young" peak. Also, having watched the video you posted of one of your 100 flys it was very apparent that although in excellent shape your technique needed a fair amount of fine tuning and the "details" like turns/breakouts/streamlines/etc. were all in need of work...I think you even pointed out that you could probably be 1-3 seconds faster? So the point being swimming a lot of 100 flys in practice may get you to the next step (or not)...but if you are in generally very good aerobic shape focusing on shorter distances at fast speed and an emphasis on perfect form vs. hammering longer fly sets can do wonders for sprint (50/100 fly). 3 seconds faster? I wish. That would be a :55. Can't see myself committing to that. Do you have the training plan for "Act of God?" Give a gal some time to make changes! We're not all ex Div I swimmers and Olympians here! You had your years in college to work on technique. I saw myself for the first time ever on that 100 fly video April 2008. Patience! Time and video will tell. I could almost take your advice seriously if your training plan for the 200 fly (an important event in my line up) was something other than "avoid at all costs."

I agree. I was talking about repeats. If you're training for the 200 fly, 400 IM, etc, you should do them in practice from time to time. But I don't recommend doing repeats. I don't think I've ever repeated 200 flys, not even in college. 75 flys are generally the longest distance that I'll do sets of, so that I don't break myself down. Very rarely I might do a lactate set of 100s on a long interval. Why should fly be different than any other stroke? By that reasoning only middle- and long-distance swimmers should do repeats longer than 75. I'm pretty sure Dennis Baker doesn't train this way, and he's been moderately successful at the event. :) Jokes aside, generally I don't think a 200 flier should have trouble with 100 fly repeats, and should not hesitate to do them. But different strokes for different folks, I guess. :dunno:

Why should fly be different than any other stroke? By that reasoning only middle- and long-distance swimmers should do repeats longer than 75. I'm pretty sure Dennis Baker doesn't train this way, and he's been moderately successful at the event. :) Jokes aside, generally I don't think a 200 flier should have trouble with 100 fly repeats, and should not hesitate to do them. But different strokes for different folks, I guess. :dunno: Including freestyle.

I was in a rut so I've been trying a new method of training this cycle. I've shortened my workouts to about 2000 yards (about 500 of which is fly, typically) and added a small amount of heavy lifting (only pecs and lats, so far). I'm swimming much faster on a day-to-day basis, and the meet that I swam last month indicated that I'm getting faster in competition too.

I used to laugh when I saw people swimmin 400 fly. I am a believer in Paul's way of thinking.

If you're only training for the 100 fly, particularly if only the short course 100 fly, doing repeats of 50's should be enough. Now if you're training for the 200, or maybe the LCM 100, then 75's are an excellent distance to do in practice, provided that you can maintain your stroke technique. I think training for the 200 fly (especially LCM) needs longer distances than 75s, but the thread is about the 100, so... I would observe that the 100 fly LCM is quite a bit longer than SCY, more than the nominal 10% difference in distance suggests. Consider that I take about 30 strokes in the event SCY while it is about 38 in LCM, which is more than 25% longer...and with 2 fewer turns to "rest" on. So I think if you want to train for the 100 fly LCM, repeat 75s are not at all out of line. (Of course, I don't think that they are out of line for SCY either, but it appears I'm in the minority!) And you should do some race-pace efforts of 100 fly off the blocks every now and then so your body can get used to the feeling. In training for LCM, you might want to try doing 125s off the blocks if you are stuck in a SCY pool in the summer.

Here's my taper plan though. I'm very excited about it. You're going to need to post your videos when you start tapering. :)

I agree with Paul Smith. (That can't be good, can it? Anyway...) If you're only training for the 100 fly, particularly if only the short course 100 fly, doing repeats of 50's should be enough. Now if you're training for the 200, or maybe the LCM 100, then 75's are an excellent distance to do in practice, provided that you can maintain your stroke technique. When I do 75's, I get that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that 50's don't provide. It's the exact opposite of this: :bliss: I think one reason that the piano dropped on me in the 200 in Portland was that I didn't train enough 75's. Another reason was bad race execution. Another was that I'd never done the 200 in LCM before. Those last two are easy to address. Doing repeats of 75's once or twice a week is not as easy, but I've been keeping it up so far, if only to avoid another piano. :banana: My 100 fly in Portland was better than my 100 fly in Austin - at least in terms of feel. (I actually "broke-up" with the 100 fly after Austin briefly). I worked a lot more on technique that summer and did TONS and TONS of kicking. I think my 100 fly death comes from the turns - particularly the last turn. A key to my not dying (not ready to call it success yet) seems to be a strong last turn and keeping my head down off the turn rather than breathing off of the wall. I also think that it helps me mentally to know I've done some 100s all out in practice. My 100 fly is a total work in progress ....

Also there's a well known and very fast masters swimmer out there that advocates training stroke like we train free - various distances and levels of excursion - to me this makes total sense? Anyone else?