Strategy for 200 FR

Some excellent advice here. Check out these threads, too: Race strategies: 200 free Help me train for the 200 free Help me split my 200y free I am pretty much in the same boat as you. I never was a 200 swimmer and only started swimming it last year. I have spent quite a lot of time training for it this year and will be swimming a 200 LCM in October. bcm119's advice is spot on. If you read the other threads, almost identical advice is given from Paul Smith, John Smith and Ande. First 100 should be easy speed, third 50 is when you start to give it all you got (it starts to hurt badly here), then just hang in there for the last fifty. Bring in your legs on that last fifty. My :2cents: is that you really need to train this event in practice. And I don't just mean by improving your aerobic base (although that is very important, too). What I mean is that, at least, once or twice a week you need to do a 200 ALL OUT just like you would in a race. Plan your strategy in advance, set goals for each 50, each 100 and see how close you come to them. It is only by testing you strategies in practice that you will be confident using them on race day. It is imperative that you accurately time your splits in practice. In time you will start to get a feeling for how fast you need to go to achieve your goals. If you don't practice the 200 and just dive in there and go hell for leather from the word go, you are sure to die a horrible death on the 3rd 50 and by the final one if you don't actually drown, you will begin to wish you would. Check out J Miller's Fun, and Fast for some 200 sets. (Scroll down to the middle of page 13). Don't forget to post your progress and the results from your race. I am really interested to know how it goes. All the best!

50 fast, 50 hold, 50 build from hold, 50 all out. hey i did this at my HS meet and dropped 2 seconds. thanks AG

I've never raced a 200, or even a 100 FR; my 50 FR SCY is 26.8. I'm in a USA meet Sept 20th - expecting to get trounced by kids half my age, but still I want to put in a good showing. How should I race? What should my 50 pace be? How do I not die on the last 50? etc... I'm 44, male, swimming masters only 2 years, still learning lots, and open to all feedback - thanks! Easy speed until you get to the 100. Conserve your energy for the back half. That's when the race begins for me. Start your move at the 3rd 50, and begin to use more of your legs. On the last 50 you'll be hurting no matter how well conditioned you are. Work through the pain, use your kick, and remind yourself there's only two laps left.

Lightning - I am 45-49 and consider myself a sprinter. Not necessarily a good one, but I am just terrible at longer races. My 50 free SCY time is 24.3 My 100 free SCY time is 55.0 (about 2.3 times my 50 time) I estimate my 200 free SCY time would be 2:05 (about 2.3 times my 100 time). I have not raced a 200 free but I swam a 2:15 in practice from a push, and I negative split it (wrong way to swim it) with 1:09/1:06. Just a guess but I think I'd try to split a 200 race with 59/1:05. My 100 splits would be further apart than really good 200 free swimmers. I rarely race 200s. At SCY nationals this year I swim both the 100 and 200 IMs. My times were 1:01 and 2:20 - again the 200 is 2.3 times my 100 time. My high school sophomore son swam 200 free all of last year. He swam 1:49 in his 200 and his best 100 was about 49.5. The ratio was 2.2. He has far better aerobic capacity than me.

I'm assuming you have more 200s planned for the future? Then you should try something which will not destroy you, :cane: so you can build from that experience in future races. Pace the first 100, then swim the end like it is a 100. So that last 100 should be pace the first half, and swim the last 50. Which means pace the first 25, and see what you have for the last 25. ;)

Unfortunately, I was unable to get times and splits in my practice as coach had an intensive aerobic set for everyone and the lanes were full. Maybe later this week... or maybe this race is my practice and I do plan to keep swimming it. I never swam age-group so I think I am missing years of an aerobic base and skill development. I am a studier of technqiue however, and read this forum carefully and watch a lot of video. In workouts, doing hundreds on decreasing intervals, I can reach 1:12 exhausted, so I'm guessing I can hit close to a minute 100FR when I'm fresh in a race (hopeful that is). But I never have done a fast 200. Thanks for all the help!

a good rule of thumb is double your 100 time add 10 seconds Lightning, Last year I swam a minute flat in the 100 free and 2:25 in the 200.......BEWARE! The 200 is difficult. Try them in practice.

a good rule of thumb is double your 100 time add 10 seconds distance swimmers will be under 10 most fall between 5 - 8 seconds some sprinters are over 10 each swimmer has a performance range depending on how well they split their races, hit their turns and just feel ON. Pretty decent "rule of thumb" Ande. I went 2:09.14 200 scm and about an hour and a half later went 59.06 100 scm, both legal swims and I consider myself more of the "distance" type, than "sprinter" even though I was slightly over the +10. There was a 200IM in between the two that may have had some effect but I digress. It's pretty rare I get the opportunity to swim both at the same meet since there's always so much to choose from. :wave:

breathe often save your legs for the 2nd 100 fast turns excellent push offs great touch splitting: keep your 100's with in 2 - 4 seconds keep your 2nd, 3rd & 4th 50's even or descended Hoffman, an interesting formula, I wonder how it applies to other swimmers. I will see for myself this coming weekend; I hope to go out smooth, build the next 50, push the 3rd, and then all out the fourth - appreciate your thoughts about splits; we'll see how I do.

a good rule of thumb is double your 100 time add 10 seconds ie 100 time 50.0 50 + 50 = 100 seconds or 1:40 1:40 + 10 = 1:50 distance swimmers will be under 10 most fall between 5 - 8 seconds some sprinters are over 10 each swimmer has a performance range depending on how well they split their races, hit their turns and just feel ON. Please don't consider those "formulas." I posted them just to give you an idea of the ratios between my 50,100, and estimated 200 times. Others here are much faster and I suspect their 100 and 200 times would differ less than mine. You might look at the SCY Nationals times and look at others in your age group for comparison. Many swim the 50, 100, and 200 free.