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.
Parents
Former Member
When you get on the blocks you have to race the best you can. At that moment you can't do anything about the training that got you there. The only thing you can control is race execution which includes splitting.
So yeah it would be great to say increase your fitness to split 101/104 instead of 101/108. But you can't do that at race time. So Ande's advice is probably spot on. If you go out in 101 and die with a 108 that means you don't have the fitness to go out that fast. 102/106 might be a better race.
Some people will split wrong no matter what. If you improve fitness, will the 101/108 turn into 100/107? I suggest it pays, no matter what, to learn to split your races smart.
When you get on the blocks you have to race the best you can. At that moment you can't do anything about the training that got you there. The only thing you can control is race execution which includes splitting.
So yeah it would be great to say increase your fitness to split 101/104 instead of 101/108. But you can't do that at race time. So Ande's advice is probably spot on. If you go out in 101 and die with a 108 that means you don't have the fitness to go out that fast. 102/106 might be a better race.
Some people will split wrong no matter what. If you improve fitness, will the 101/108 turn into 100/107? I suggest it pays, no matter what, to learn to split your races smart.
