Last 150 of my 500 falls off

Scott et al, A friend of mine here in the Pittsburgh area, Glenn Battle, is both a super swimmer and a really nice guy. I asked him at one of our little Y meets how to swim the 500 when you aren't in the greatest shape and want to do okay without either humiliating or damaging yourself. Before I tell you his strategy, let me just say that this is probably not the way to swim the 500 if you want to get your best time for the season. The way to swim to get your best is to not wimp out: swim intelligently but without letting yourself off the pain hook too much. As my coach Bill said once, "It's supposed to hurt." With this preamble acknowledged, here is a strategy for swimming the 500 if you don't want it to hurt too much: 150 comfortable 50 faster 150 comfortable 50 faster 50 comfortable 50 sprint So basically, you break it down into 2 x 200 and 1 x 100; the 200s become 150 moderate/50 fast, and the 100 becomes 50 moderate/50 fast. Glenn added one more complication: the very first 50 should be just outside the comfort zone, otherwise you will establish too much comfort! Observations: I think the real genius of this strategy is that you spend so much time thinking and counting that it distracts you from pain It is easy to become confused, which is what happened to me on Sunday. I ended up "miscounting"--I did the initial "just out of the comfort zone comfortable 50" but then followed this by 150 comfortable yard. It should have been 100. If you are getting confused just reading this, imagine how much more confusing it would be with hypoxia setting in. In any event, here are my splits: Eventually, I hope to be able to man up and swim the whole thing with some pain; but for now, I was very happy with this relatively pain-free execution of Glenn's strategy! We have the advantage in our area of having small Y meets every 2-3 weeks, so it gives you the chance to play around with different ways of swimming events. The drawback is that very few of these meets are ever USMS sanctioned, not that this time would have much of a chance of Top 10 qualification. I also did a 53.35 earlier in the 100 free, which in previous years might have just squeaked in, though this is almost certainly too slow for the age group now. AGE GROUP: 55-59 1 JIM THORNTON 57 M SEWY 5:34.13 29.29 33.64 34.73 34.65 32.75 35.19 34.93 34.76 33.58 30.61 PS Ande, if you happen to see this posting, do you have any explanation for the following. Here is my 100: And here is my 50: AGE GROUP: 55-59 1 JIM THORNTON 57 M SEWY 53.35 25.74 27.61 And here is my 50: AGE GROUP: 55-59 1 JIM THORNTON 57 M SEWY 25.16 The 50 split felt controlled and decent; the 50 by itself felt like I was trying MUCH harder, but the times were virtually identical (given that the split time was measured from the feet and the regular 50 by the hand. What gives? Where does raw speed vanish in ones dotage?

Scott et al, A friend of mine here in the Pittsburgh area, Glenn Battle, is both a super swimmer and a really nice guy. I asked him at one of our little Y meets how to swim the 500 when you aren't in the greatest shape and want to do okay without either humiliating or damaging yourself. Before I tell you his strategy, let me just say that this is probably not the way to swim the 500 if you want to get your best time for the season. The way to swim to get your best is to not wimp out: swim intelligently but without letting yourself off the pain hook too much. As my coach Bill said once, "It's supposed to hurt." With this preamble acknowledged, here is a strategy for swimming the 500 if you don't want it to hurt too much: 150 comfortable 50 faster 150 comfortable 50 faster 50 comfortable 50 sprint So basically, you break it down into 2 x 200 and 1 x 100; the 200s become 150 moderate/50 fast, and the 100 becomes 50 moderate/50 fast. Glenn added one more complication: the very first 50 should be just outside the comfort zone, otherwise you will establish too much comfort! Observations: I think the real genius of this strategy is that you spend so much time thinking and counting that it distracts you from pain It is easy to become confused, which is what happened to me on Sunday. I ended up "miscounting"--I did the initial "just out of the comfort zone comfortable 50" but then followed this by 150 comfortable yard. It should have been 100. If you are getting confused just reading this, imagine how much more confusing it would be with hypoxia setting in. In any event, here are my splits: Eventually, I hope to be able to man up and swim the whole thing with some pain; but for now, I was very happy with this relatively pain-free execution of Glenn's strategy! We have the advantage in our area of having small Y meets every 2-3 weeks, so it gives you the chance to play around with different ways of swimming events. The drawback is that very few of these meets are ever USMS sanctioned, not that this time would have much of a chance of Top 10 qualification. I also did a 53.35 earlier in the 100 free, which in previous years might have just squeaked in, though this is almost certainly too slow for the age group now. AGE GROUP: 55-59 1 JIM THORNTON 57 M SEWY 5:34.13 29.29 33.64 34.73 34.65 32.75 35.19 34.93 34.76 33.58 30.61 PS Ande, if you happen to see this posting, do you have any explanation for the following. Here is my 100: And here is my 50: AGE GROUP: 55-59 1 JIM THORNTON 57 M SEWY 53.35 25.74 27.61 And here is my 50: AGE GROUP: 55-59 1 JIM THORNTON 57 M SEWY 25.16 The 50 split felt controlled and decent; the 50 by itself felt like I was trying MUCH harder, but the times were virtually identical (given that the split time was measured from the feet and the regular 50 by the hand. What gives? Where does raw speed vanish in ones dotage?