I'm new to masters this year and have had two meets since January. The first 500 was 5:50 and the second one was 5:51. I can't hold on to my pace after 350. I'm 49 and am working out 5 days a week. Most days are 3000 yards. Once a week I go 4000 yards. Most of my workouts are 250-500 yard swims, with some 100's on 1:30. I can go 6:10 in the middle of practice without killing myself. Why can't I do better in a meet? In meets my first 100 is 1:03 and at 200 at 2:11. Why the fall off? Any meet nutruition ideas? Workout ideas? Pacing ideas?
You are averaging 1:13s for the last 3 hundreds, which is 10 seconds slower than your first 100. Try pacing it a little more even. Even the 5 second drop-off from your first to second 100 is a bit large. (You can look up swims in your age group at Nationals to see how other people paced their swims.)
Let's say you want to do a 5:45 for your next swim, which is a 1:09 average. You could try 1:06 / 1:09 (2:15) / 1:10 / 1:10 / 1:10. Feel comfortable the first 200, even if it feels too slow, so you have energy to be aggressive on the back half.
You are averaging 1:13s for the last 3 hundreds, which is 10 seconds slower than your first 100. Try pacing it a little more even. Even the 5 second drop-off from your first to second 100 is a bit large. (You can look up swims in your age group at Nationals to see how other people paced their swims.)
Let's say you want to do a 5:45 for your next swim, which is a 1:09 average. You could try 1:06 / 1:09 (2:15) / 1:10 / 1:10 / 1:10. Feel comfortable the first 200, even if it feels too slow, so you have energy to be aggressive on the back half.
