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.
One of my coaches at the Northwestern masters program (former LSU swimmer) told me that she would do a 200 build by adjusting the way she kicked. No kicking on the first 50, kick your legs off during the last 50. I think your arms just sort of follow along.
(Running is the same way, at least for me. If I want to up my tempo I focus on swinging my arms faster. My legs might complain but they tend to just follow along, until they give out, of course.)
In both cases you need to make sure that your main power source keeps the same (or roughly the same) "stride length" - doesn't shorten up too much.
One of my coaches at the Northwestern masters program (former LSU swimmer) told me that she would do a 200 build by adjusting the way she kicked. No kicking on the first 50, kick your legs off during the last 50. I think your arms just sort of follow along.
(Running is the same way, at least for me. If I want to up my tempo I focus on swinging my arms faster. My legs might complain but they tend to just follow along, until they give out, of course.)
In both cases you need to make sure that your main power source keeps the same (or roughly the same) "stride length" - doesn't shorten up too much.
