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.
Former Member
With 19 turns there's a great opportunity for most people to pick up speed and even a little rest. Analyze the distance to the wall, speed of flip, exact amount of rotation, streamlined push off, and work to achieve perfect form and minimal effort. I've always felt the difference between a perfect turn and a mediocre turn was perhaps .5 secs or maybe more.
I swam next to Kirk in Austin, and I think both of us were hoping I would have put up more of a fight and having a war on the last 50 would have probably put both of us under.
That's right, I blame you! :)
My last 50 in the 500 was slower than my last 50 in the 1650. I just didn't have enough left in the tank by Sunday morning, I guess.
Talking about SCM perhaps?
as others have already stated, yes, SCM is what I swim most of the time.
currently only have one LCM meet a year. this year my time of 5:02 scm was not good enough to qualify, but my recent time of 4:41 allows me to swim in in June LCM. I'll have two more chances to swim it scm before then.
so not sure getting to 4:22 in 2009 will be possible, but hopefully before Aug 2010.
Justin, your getting a lot of good advice here but I wanted to add my thoughts on one of my favorite distances.
The biggest mistake I see swimmers make who are training for middle distance/distance is they almost never do speed work. Case in point today at ASU the main workout was 8 x 50's @ 2:00 best average then 4 x 100's @ 4:00...at which point about 6 swimmers moved over to do a "D" workout (something like 6 x 500's @ 6:00).
Do you need to get longer training swims in? Oh course. But the bottom line is you don't develop "easy speed" swimming repeat 500's & 1000's...you need to have a fast 25 to swim a fast 50 and a fast 50 to swim a fast 100...on and on.
Work on getting your 50's feeling very comfortable in the :28/:29 second range starting with as much rest as you need to hold those times....then progress to faster intervals. Your going to need to be able to swim a 100 around :56/:57 comfortably as well and the 2:00 in that 1:57/1:58 range...keep all these times in your thoughts during training and work towards them in descending sets of 50's, 100's, 200's on aerobic days and on speed days work on best average sets holding these time.
Totally doable based on your current times.
I have to admit that I really experienced this the hard way. Paul is right on with his advice. I was doing TONS of distance this summer for my 25K. Recently, I've been getting in the Mid D/ Sprint lane (I felt my speed was sucky and I was right) and have been doing lots of 50s/ 75s/ 100s/ 125s, FAST, and it is killer hard. I feel like I'm trying to come out of a coma. I'll be focusing lots on speed until my next meet. Should be interesting to see what happens for me.
Oh yea, and not trying to do 5:00 but I would like to knock off a nice chunk of time from my 5:12. My lane mate just did 5:05.0 untapered and in a drag suit at her last meet, so I'm hopeful.
Justin, your getting a lot of good advice here but I wanted to add my thoughts on one of my favorite distances.
The biggest mistake I see swimmers make who are training for middle distance/distance is they almost never do speed work. Case in point today at ASU the main workout was 8 x 50's @ 2:00 best average then 4 x 100's @ 4:00...at which point about 6 swimmers moved over to do a "D" workout (something like 6 x 500's @ 6:00).
Do you need to get longer training swims in? Oh course. But the bottom line is you don't develop "easy speed" swimming repeat 500's & 1000's...you need to have a fast 25 to swim a fast 50 and a fast 50 to swim a fast 100...on and on.
Work on getting your 50's feeling very comfortable in the :28/:29 second range starting with as much rest as you need to hold those times....then progress to faster intervals. Your going to need to be able to swim a 100 around :56/:57 comfortably as well and the 2:00 in that 1:57/1:58 range...keep all these times in your thoughts during training and work towards them in descending sets of 50's, 100's, 200's on aerobic days and on speed days work on best average sets holding these time.
Totally doable based on your current times.
But I had more energy left at the end that usual, so maybe I could have gone faster.
It looks like it, but you did a nice job keeping your split consistent. Next time just try to be a little more aggressive.
Speaking of race strategy here are my 500 splits from today. At least, the differences between them since my actual time was kind of slow and I don't feel like posting it.
0.00 (fastest 50, other splits are relative to this)
+3.13
+3.90
+3.48
+3.69
+3.32
+3.45
+3.25
+3.08
+0.23
What I strive for is to try to maintain the same pace throughout. Except for the first and last 50, my splits were pretty even (between 3.08 and 3.90 slower than my fastest 50). But I had more energy left at the end that usual, so maybe I could have gone faster.
