Hello Everyone,
I have been back in the pool for about a year now and am enjoying myself. With a busy schedule and two young swimmers, I rarely have time to swim Masters meets. But when the opportunity presents itself, I dodge the meet quite effectively.
Here is the reason. I have absolutely no confidence in my racing ability. In my workouts, I can lead the lane for the intermediate swiimmers and easily make 100 frees LCM on the 1:35 but many of those behind me can blow me away on sprint day when we do 50s and 100s.
I had my strokes taped and have been able to make a few nice adjustments to my freestyle that allows me to swim with much less tension in my arms and provides a greater catch with a higher elbow. I notice that I am able to go faster with much less effort now. Thus, when we do 200s and longer, I can hang with the faster swimmers. It seems the longer we go, the better I do. I am 5' 7" and about 160 pounds so I am not tall but have a pretty solid chest and shoulders.
I find that if I tell myself to go 80% during a sprint, my time is perhaps only a few seconds slower than if I tell myself to go 100%. My stroke is much stronger if I go slower and thus more efficient. But I am still stuck in the mindset that unless I go all out, I will not achieve max speed.
I realize that I am talking about pacing and my own mental block but I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem with acheiving their potential when there is a disparity between workout speed and race results.
My coach keeps prodding me to enter meets but I resist. But I am tired of being a "workout warrior".
Any input would be appreciated.
Rob
Parents
Former Member
Keep in mind that the energy cost gets very high to improve just a bit in time. It is perfectly reasonable that the 100% effort swim is not much faster than an 80% effort swim.
I swim with some guys who are "workout warriors." One of them is a triathlete and I think he truly doesn't have any fast twitch muscles. He is a strong aerobic swimmer and kicks my ass on anything long. He repeats 100s at least 5 secs faster than me. The other guy also repeats 100s faster than me - but he CAN go faster. One thing he doesn't do is vary his speed much. Even on easy sets he swims upper moderate. I think he feels guilty going slow even when he is supposed to. Guy #2 races and I beat him in any stroke for a distance 200 or less.
You sound naturally better at middle distance or longer. Give up racing the 50 although I think you should still do sprints in practice. You might make an effort to vary your speed more in workouts. Swim some stuff where you descend the set. Or build speed in a repeat - such as 200s where you start slow and build up to fast. You may have stroke flaws that only happen when you try to pick up your turnover. That's where sprint practice will help. You might also swim fast occasionally with fins - where you will swim abnormally fast which forces your arms to get used to your body moving through the water at high speed.
Keep in mind that the energy cost gets very high to improve just a bit in time. It is perfectly reasonable that the 100% effort swim is not much faster than an 80% effort swim.
I swim with some guys who are "workout warriors." One of them is a triathlete and I think he truly doesn't have any fast twitch muscles. He is a strong aerobic swimmer and kicks my ass on anything long. He repeats 100s at least 5 secs faster than me. The other guy also repeats 100s faster than me - but he CAN go faster. One thing he doesn't do is vary his speed much. Even on easy sets he swims upper moderate. I think he feels guilty going slow even when he is supposed to. Guy #2 races and I beat him in any stroke for a distance 200 or less.
You sound naturally better at middle distance or longer. Give up racing the 50 although I think you should still do sprints in practice. You might make an effort to vary your speed more in workouts. Swim some stuff where you descend the set. Or build speed in a repeat - such as 200s where you start slow and build up to fast. You may have stroke flaws that only happen when you try to pick up your turnover. That's where sprint practice will help. You might also swim fast occasionally with fins - where you will swim abnormally fast which forces your arms to get used to your body moving through the water at high speed.
