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
Former Member
"Waaaaaay back in high school, spent most of the regular season at :51 100 Free, 1:51 200 Free, and 5:12 500 Free. My 500 splits were "bell curve": 1st 100 fastest, each of the 100s slower than the previous one except for the 5th one (which was about the same as the 3rd 100). At the end of the season, shaved and tapered, my splits flattened out and did a 5:00.1 (:58.1 followed by four 1:00.5)."
Ouch.
"Waaaaaay back in high school, spent most of the regular season at :51 100 Free, 1:51 200 Free, and 5:12 500 Free. My 500 splits were "bell curve": 1st 100 fastest, each of the 100s slower than the previous one except for the 5th one (which was about the same as the 3rd 100). At the end of the season, shaved and tapered, my splits flattened out and did a 5:00.1 (:58.1 followed by four 1:00.5)."
Ouch.