I'm kinda nervous I am swimming my first meet in 7 years tomorrow. I'm 26, swam from when I was 9 to end of high school, sparingly since. My last meet was freshman year of college (intramural meet). I am swimming 50y and 100y free. I used to swim about 25 secs on the 50 and 55 secs on the 100. I'm hoping to beat those times. Who knows though...I'm 30 pounds heavier (mostly muscle) from weightlifting, changed my stroke completely to total immersion style a month ago, but have not had a chance to practice much (only 1-2x per week the last 6 weeks or so not doing much yardage). I'll let you know how I do :)
How do you feel in the last 15m of your 100m? If you still feel strong, then you probably went out too slow. If you are dying then you need to work on your back half.
I actually remember thinking that it was the first time in a long time that I actually felt good going into the wall. strong kick all the way through. But I might have taken too many breathes the last 25m, or shortened my stroke the last 15m or so. the guy next to me had 58.20 and I remember thinking that he was pulling away the last 15m too. so you're right i should work on 125's so that 100 seems shorter.
Remember, if you intend going 28 on the first 50, that 28 is a touch to the feet. That would make it faster than your fastest 50 of 27:68. I would say go for 28:50/31:40....... I find the closer I get to within one second of my fastest 50 time the larger the gap is going to be between the two 50's.
That makes sense, but I have yet to feel drop dead tired after the 50 free. I just started swimming free faster at practice this fall. I had gotten into a routine that I was happy swimming sets of 100m on 1:30, swimming into the wall at 1:18-1:20 but now I see that I might have to start swimming them on 1:20 to force me to swim down around 1:12. Which I know I can do, since I did a set of 10x100 st 1:40 6 months ago coming in between 1:11-1:13. This fall I have been able to push through a mental block with freestyle at practice. in the spring of 2007 I had a hard time swimming 200m free under 3:00. now I can negative split 200's 1:20-1:15 or swim them under 2:30 easily.
we usually have one sprint option at our practices, so I am also thinking of doing one of those workouts each week, but since sprint free is not my main event, it's hard to prioritize a sprint workout. But I will definitely keep in mind the 2-3 sec idea.
just for background. when I was my fastest my free times in SCY were 24.3 / 52.4 / 1:51.8 / 5:09 so it's never been my strong stroke.
How do you feel in the last 15m of your 100m? If you still feel strong, then you probably went out too slow. If you are dying then you need to work on your back half.
I actually remember thinking that it was the first time in a long time that I actually felt good going into the wall. strong kick all the way through. But I might have taken too many breathes the last 25m, or shortened my stroke the last 15m or so. the guy next to me had 58.20 and I remember thinking that he was pulling away the last 15m too. so you're right i should work on 125's so that 100 seems shorter.
Remember, if you intend going 28 on the first 50, that 28 is a touch to the feet. That would make it faster than your fastest 50 of 27:68. I would say go for 28:50/31:40....... I find the closer I get to within one second of my fastest 50 time the larger the gap is going to be between the two 50's.
That makes sense, but I have yet to feel drop dead tired after the 50 free. I just started swimming free faster at practice this fall. I had gotten into a routine that I was happy swimming sets of 100m on 1:30, swimming into the wall at 1:18-1:20 but now I see that I might have to start swimming them on 1:20 to force me to swim down around 1:12. Which I know I can do, since I did a set of 10x100 st 1:40 6 months ago coming in between 1:11-1:13. This fall I have been able to push through a mental block with freestyle at practice. in the spring of 2007 I had a hard time swimming 200m free under 3:00. now I can negative split 200's 1:20-1:15 or swim them under 2:30 easily.
we usually have one sprint option at our practices, so I am also thinking of doing one of those workouts each week, but since sprint free is not my main event, it's hard to prioritize a sprint workout. But I will definitely keep in mind the 2-3 sec idea.
just for background. when I was my fastest my free times in SCY were 24.3 / 52.4 / 1:51.8 / 5:09 so it's never been my strong stroke.
