200 Challenge: Goal time, roadmap and status updates

My 200 free goal time for this year was a 2:05 LCM. I might have to revise it, though. The birth of our youngest, just three months, ago has meant a serious lack of sleep and not nearly as much time in the pool as I had anticipated. To compound matters, this year, our pool doubled the number of classes they normally hold over the summer holidays, so it has been really difficult to get a lane to swim in when I have managed to get there. But I haven't given up on it entirely. I'd like to get as close to it as I can. My meet is still 10 weeks away at the end of October. In the meantime I have a smaller meet next weekend (9/5) where I will be swimming the 200 (also LCM). I am not going to taper or shave for it. I will stop going to the gym this coming week, though. This coming weekend I am aiming for a sub 2:10 and even splits. The thing is, I am relatively new to the 200 and, only now, am beginning to understand how to swim it. Two years ago, at my first masters meet, I went 2:16.34 (out in 1:05.07 and back in 1:11.27). Last year, I went 2:10:33 (out in a 1:01:44 and back in a 1:08:89). Last years splits were worse than the first year. I died horribly on that last 50. I was aiming for a 1:01 on the first 100 - so that was spot on - but had wanted to come back in a 1:04. Just didn't have the stamina. This year I intended to fix the stamina but it just hasn't worked out that way. I had wanted to do lots of aerobic stuff. 100's on the 1:30 getting as close to my target time as possible. Instead, out of necessity I have been doing much faster, shorter stuff. A lot of what I have been doing is similar to what Allen and Chris describe. Everything I have been doing has been geared towards swimming at a pace that I can maintain. My target time is a 2:05 which works out to be an average of 31.25 per 50. Put that way it sounds quite manageable but, in reality, it is a different story. I am probably one of the most unstructured swimmers you could possibly imagine. I hardly ever go to the pool with a workout in mind. Sometimes I take a set from the workout section or the blogs. But mostly my workout just evolves as I swim it. Very often I will do something like this: after a warm up, swim 8 or so 50's at my target pace 31:25. I might do them on the minute but very often, I don't even care about the rest interval because all I am trying to do is to get a feel for how much energy/effort I need to swim at that pace and also try and be consistent. Then, when I am consistently swimming 31's, I will try and do a 100 in just under 1:03. If I am really feeling up to it (and I like to try this once a week, if possible) I will take a 10 second interval and try and do another one under 1:05 (i.e. a broken 200 with ten seconds at the 100). On Thursday I did one going 1:04.33 and 1:05:08. Not good enough for my goal time but not bad splitting. That is the one thing I am pleased about this year: I have been much more consistent. This morning I did a set of 4 X 100's at 2:45 (1:03:57, 1:02:30, 1:03:06, 1:05:86). Once again, all I was trying to do was to go as fast as my 2nd - 100 pace. I am now at the stage where I know how fast to go if I want to do a certain time and can usually get within one and a half seconds of it. This is a huge improvement from two years ago. Now I still need to work on that stamina. I will definitely be trying some of the workouts on this thread. Chris, ehoch and Allen all had some really good suggestions. Chris mentioned this, but it is well worth repeating: one of the most invaluable ways to train (and I also try to do this once a week) is an all out 200. In order to this, I warm up like I would at a meet, take a rest (not as much as I would at a meet) and then go for time. I soon find out if the pace I started out at can be maintained. It's one thing to do a broken 200 with 10 seconds rest at the 50 but quite another to swim four 50's consecutively at your target time. The first one will leave you out of breath while the second will leave you gasping for breath and wracked with a feeling of nausea.

My 200 free goal time for this year was a 2:05 LCM. I might have to revise it, though. The birth of our youngest, just three months, ago has meant a serious lack of sleep and not nearly as much time in the pool as I had anticipated. To compound matters, this year, our pool doubled the number of classes they normally hold over the summer holidays, so it has been really difficult to get a lane to swim in when I have managed to get there. But I haven't given up on it entirely. I'd like to get as close to it as I can. My meet is still 10 weeks away at the end of October. In the meantime I have a smaller meet next weekend (9/5) where I will be swimming the 200 (also LCM). I am not going to taper or shave for it. I will stop going to the gym this coming week, though. This coming weekend I am aiming for a sub 2:10 and even splits. The thing is, I am relatively new to the 200 and, only now, am beginning to understand how to swim it. Two years ago, at my first masters meet, I went 2:16.34 (out in 1:05.07 and back in 1:11.27). Last year, I went 2:10:33 (out in a 1:01:44 and back in a 1:08:89). Last years splits were worse than the first year. I died horribly on that last 50. I was aiming for a 1:01 on the first 100 - so that was spot on - but had wanted to come back in a 1:04. Just didn't have the stamina. This year I intended to fix the stamina but it just hasn't worked out that way. I had wanted to do lots of aerobic stuff. 100's on the 1:30 getting as close to my target time as possible. Instead, out of necessity I have been doing much faster, shorter stuff. A lot of what I have been doing is similar to what Allen and Chris describe. Everything I have been doing has been geared towards swimming at a pace that I can maintain. My target time is a 2:05 which works out to be an average of 31.25 per 50. Put that way it sounds quite manageable but, in reality, it is a different story. I am probably one of the most unstructured swimmers you could possibly imagine. I hardly ever go to the pool with a workout in mind. Sometimes I take a set from the workout section or the blogs. But mostly my workout just evolves as I swim it. Very often I will do something like this: after a warm up, swim 8 or so 50's at my target pace 31:25. I might do them on the minute but very often, I don't even care about the rest interval because all I am trying to do is to get a feel for how much energy/effort I need to swim at that pace and also try and be consistent. Then, when I am consistently swimming 31's, I will try and do a 100 in just under 1:03. If I am really feeling up to it (and I like to try this once a week, if possible) I will take a 10 second interval and try and do another one under 1:05 (i.e. a broken 200 with ten seconds at the 100). On Thursday I did one going 1:04.33 and 1:05:08. Not good enough for my goal time but not bad splitting. That is the one thing I am pleased about this year: I have been much more consistent. This morning I did a set of 4 X 100's at 2:45 (1:03:57, 1:02:30, 1:03:06, 1:05:86). Once again, all I was trying to do was to go as fast as my 2nd - 100 pace. I am now at the stage where I know how fast to go if I want to do a certain time and can usually get within one and a half seconds of it. This is a huge improvement from two years ago. Now I still need to work on that stamina. I will definitely be trying some of the workouts on this thread. Chris, ehoch and Allen all had some really good suggestions. Chris mentioned this, but it is well worth repeating: one of the most invaluable ways to train (and I also try to do this once a week) is an all out 200. In order to this, I warm up like I would at a meet, take a rest (not as much as I would at a meet) and then go for time. I soon find out if the pace I started out at can be maintained. It's one thing to do a broken 200 with 10 seconds rest at the 50 but quite another to swim four 50's consecutively at your target time. The first one will leave you out of breath while the second will leave you gasping for breath and wracked with a feeling of nausea.