I thought about "Ask Ande", but then I thought this might turn into a long topic depending on who replies.
alot of times when someone says they died in the last 50 of a 200, the responses are overwhelmingly slow down the first 50, or take it out slower to save yourself.
but I plan on taking a different approach to improving my times. Work on being able to finish my race. I have accepted the fact that for me to sprint under :27 or under 1:00 would take lots of speed work. but I only swim freestyle for fun and training for OW. I prefer IM and ***. Here is my currrent situation: 35 yrs old SCM
masters best 50m free 27.53
masters best 100m free 1:00.85
I got my 200 time down from 2:14 in nov 2008 to 2:10 in april 2009. But my split was 1:01.8.
29.44, 1:01.80 (32.36), 1:35.52 (33.72), 2:10.95 (35.43/1:09.15)
the first response I got from my teammates was you took it out too fast since I came back 7 sec slower. But did I go out too fast, or did I just not swim the last 100 or 75 to my best ability?
I felt I took it out nice and easy with long strokes. I started to pick up the arm speed for the 3rd 50, but maybe that was a mistake, maybe since I can't sprint I should have just increased the depth of my pull instead of the speed of my stroke.
I won't be swimming SCM again until sept/oct but I plan to try to swim it :
29.5 + 32.00 + 32.5 + 32.5 --> 2:06.5 (1:01.5 + 1:04 )
one of the 17 yr olds on our team swims the 50 and 100 around my times, 27.3 and 1:00.25 but he manages to swim the 200 in 2:07.61.
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Former Member
Rykno, last October in an LCM meet, I went 2:10:33 . Out in a 1:01:44 and back in a 1:08:89. Almost identical to you. This is what Ande had to say:
yes you definitely can split your 200 better
1:01:44 1:08:89 is a 7.45 sec diff
which is too wide,
you want to keep your 100's within 0 to 4.0
you probably went too hard on the first 100 & it cost you on the 2nd 100
you want to go out smooth and easy, breathing often light kick
so you're fast but feeling good at the 100
swim a strong 3rd 50 and bring home that last one
ideally your 2nd, 3rd and 4th 50 should be very close or even descended
with better splitting you should be able to go 63 65
with more conditioning and speed you'll be even faster I think the key is conditioning. The first 100 is no problem. The difficulty lies in being able to maintain that pace for the second 100. Ideally, I would like to go out in a 1:01 and come back in a 1:04. So I work on it the whole time. I do broken 200's in practice and try and get that second 100 as close to my goal time as possible. If I swim a set of 100's, on the last one, I will go for my race pace back-half-100 time. When I am exhausted at the end of a training session, I do a 100 for time and see how close I can get it to 1:04. I do race pace 200's, too and get times for every 50 so I can see where I am slacking off the pace and all the time I try to narrow the gap between those 100 splits.
You have to concentrate on your stroke. It is so important not to let it fall to pieces. It will only increase the pain. On that third 50 it is very important to keep it smooth and long. No thrashing. I try to extend my reach as far as possible, really work that EVF, keep the hips up and head down. Breathing should be rhythmical. On that final 50, you can go hell for leather.
Rykno, last October in an LCM meet, I went 2:10:33 . Out in a 1:01:44 and back in a 1:08:89. Almost identical to you. This is what Ande had to say:
yes you definitely can split your 200 better
1:01:44 1:08:89 is a 7.45 sec diff
which is too wide,
you want to keep your 100's within 0 to 4.0
you probably went too hard on the first 100 & it cost you on the 2nd 100
you want to go out smooth and easy, breathing often light kick
so you're fast but feeling good at the 100
swim a strong 3rd 50 and bring home that last one
ideally your 2nd, 3rd and 4th 50 should be very close or even descended
with better splitting you should be able to go 63 65
with more conditioning and speed you'll be even faster I think the key is conditioning. The first 100 is no problem. The difficulty lies in being able to maintain that pace for the second 100. Ideally, I would like to go out in a 1:01 and come back in a 1:04. So I work on it the whole time. I do broken 200's in practice and try and get that second 100 as close to my goal time as possible. If I swim a set of 100's, on the last one, I will go for my race pace back-half-100 time. When I am exhausted at the end of a training session, I do a 100 for time and see how close I can get it to 1:04. I do race pace 200's, too and get times for every 50 so I can see where I am slacking off the pace and all the time I try to narrow the gap between those 100 splits.
You have to concentrate on your stroke. It is so important not to let it fall to pieces. It will only increase the pain. On that third 50 it is very important to keep it smooth and long. No thrashing. I try to extend my reach as far as possible, really work that EVF, keep the hips up and head down. Breathing should be rhythmical. On that final 50, you can go hell for leather.
