the 5 minute 500

I always thought it would be cool to be able to break 5:00 in the 500. While it would be a bit of a stretch I feel like it's potentially within reach and given enough of the right kind of training I could do it. That said I also feel like every second between me and the 5 minute mark is going to get harder and harder to knock off. I've always been, and continue to be, more of a breaststroker than a freestyler. I have no ankle flexibility so I pretty much always need to deal with dragging two brakes through the water. I've never really trained seriously for free events even though I do try hard and consider the longer frees to be my secondary events. To give you an idea I swim about 3000-4000 a day, probably realistically average 4-5 times a week. I can and will increase that over the winter as we head into the meets starting in January. Intervals average in the 1:15-1:20 range, sometimes dipping to 1:10. I can pretty comfortably hold 1:10-1:15 pace depending on the set. Doing a 1:00 100 from a push is hard but not impossible. So far my fastest masters times in the 200 are 1:55 and the 500 a 5:18. I know I can go much faster in both, in that 200 I took water instead of air on the turn at the 100 and was choking and coughing for the last 100 and still somehow managed a best time. The 500 was the last event of a long weekend of swimming and I was exhausted. I bet I could have done a 1:53 and a 5:14 given better circumstances. Anyway, any training tips or things to work on? Ideal way to split it? Is the 5:00 500 going to be ridiculously difficult or given enough training reachable? Thanks guys. That and the :50 100 (I'll save that one for later) are two swimming marks I always wanted to check off my list.
Parents
  • I was never a 500 swimmer, never really a freestyler. I could swim the 200 in 1:52, but my 500 was never better than 5:09. Not sure I swam it more than 3-4 times through out HS and college. but reading this thread about going under 5:00 has inspired me to improve my 400m time. currently I have 4:41. which is about 5:21. so for me to get down to 5:00 means I need to swim my 400 about 4:22. wow 19 seconds. I currently only swim the 100 at 1:00 for me to make 4:22 that would mean 1:03 / 1:05 / 1:07 / 1:07 I'll be swimming the 400 in Nov and then again in March. I went from 5:02 in march 2008 to 4:41 in sept 2008. my current goal was to get to 4:30, but getting to 4:22 (or 5:00 for the 500) sounds so much better.
Reply
  • I was never a 500 swimmer, never really a freestyler. I could swim the 200 in 1:52, but my 500 was never better than 5:09. Not sure I swam it more than 3-4 times through out HS and college. but reading this thread about going under 5:00 has inspired me to improve my 400m time. currently I have 4:41. which is about 5:21. so for me to get down to 5:00 means I need to swim my 400 about 4:22. wow 19 seconds. I currently only swim the 100 at 1:00 for me to make 4:22 that would mean 1:03 / 1:05 / 1:07 / 1:07 I'll be swimming the 400 in Nov and then again in March. I went from 5:02 in march 2008 to 4:41 in sept 2008. my current goal was to get to 4:30, but getting to 4:22 (or 5:00 for the 500) sounds so much better.
Children
No Data