200 Challenge: Goal time, roadmap and status updates

Thanks Dale. It was great to meet you too. Congratulations on your meet with special kudos on tackling the 400IM last event. You Maine Blue Lobsters are a tough crowd. I have ended my alcohol suspension which, alternating with ibuprophen, is my soreness recovery strategy - I'll guess you're enjoying a similar change of pace!:chug:

Thanks Dale. It was great to meet you too. Congratulations on your meet with special kudos on tackling the 400IM last event. You Maine Blue Lobsters are a tough crowd. I have ended my alcohol suspension which, alternating with ibuprophen, is my soreness recovery strategy - I'll guess you're enjoying a similar change of pace!:chug: You bet!:chug: I'll tell you, though, I haven't felt that kind of lactic acid pain in a long time, if it wasn't as bad as when I finished a 26 mile marathon many years ago then it certainly rhymed. Cheers!

Goal Update. This weekend was my SCM taper meet. Last year I swam 2.09.5 in the meet, but I had a better 200yd (converted) swim in the meantime. Positives going into the meet: Consistent workout regime and yardage, good progression into speed lactate work, no serious illness or major aches and pains. Negatives going into the meet: unable to swim fast enough in workout to hit pace goals (eg in broken 200sets), weak tune up meet performances with no 200s, 200free late in the meet (2nd day of meet after 2 swims earlier in the morning). So, excuses made, my time/splits: 29.26, 32.60, 33.37, 31.94: 2.07.17 (Highly ambitious) Goal pace was 29.5/31/31.5/31 +/- for a 2.03+ Analysis: 1st 50 goal pace, 2nd 50 1.5 sec below goal pace, 3rd 50 -weak- nearly 2 sec below goal, 4th 50 1 sec below goal. My wall work was poor in the second half of the race. So, goals going forward - strengthen mid section of the race by working closer to race pace in workouts (easier said than done). Also need real focus on 200, but I'm still in generalist mode. I can get good drops at the taper meets, but I need to be much closer to goal pace leading up to meet. Overall very happy with my meet performances, but the 200free was one of my weaker swims.

Thanks Michael. For me the 200 is all about the last 150 - my first 50 sort of takes care of itself as I have gotten back enough speed to (theoretically) to hit my goals. In the back of my mind I'm thinking in my ideal race I might go out as quickly as 28.5 and then have a little to play with in the rounding on the back end. But the overall performance will be all about sustaining the back end. My challenge is all about speed endurance - i.e. establishing and maintaining "easy speed" into the mid 100 and then hanging in on the last 50. When I was a kid I swam down to the 200 from a 400, now I'm trying to swim up to it from a 100 - much harder!!! Good job on your 200 progress - a great place to be mid-season. Keep well.

Q - Congrats on bringing it down a little more :) I predict you will not "break 2:00"... but crush it! What is the January meet? Thanks Ahelee. The January meet is a local USAS BB meet the 8th-10th. It is at a new 50M pool and this will be their first USAS meet to host... The good news is that the 200 is the first event of the last session (5 session meet), so they should have most of the kinks worked out, and there should be minimal sitting around. The 200 Free will be the only event I swim at this meet. A vs BB Meets: North Texas splits meets up by age and time. For the older kids, the split is the "A" motivational time standard for 15 and over which is why I care about breaking 2:00.09. All the A meets are held at 50M facilities, and thus you have warm up and cool down lanes. About half the BB meets are held at 50M facilities.

So, excuses made, my time/splits: 29.26, 32.60, 33.37, 31.94: 2.07.17 (Highly ambitious) Goal pace was 29.5/31/31.5/31 +/- for a 2.03+ Hey Guy, Nice drop. Have you split your last 3 50s that close to your first 50 before? 1.5s seems really tight, but if you have done it before, I am sure you can do it again. If you figure out how to successfully go from generalist training to 200 specific, you let me know :)

Goal update: Goal 1:50 SCY or equivalent. Latest swim at regional meet: This year 1:52.51 25.86 54.11 (28.25) 1:23.62 (29.51) 1:52.51 (28.89) Last year at same meet for comparison 26.77 29.22 (55.99) 29.15 (1:25.14) 28.30 for 1:53.44 So this year I took it out much harder (which I have to do to get closer to my goal) but had a slightly weaker back half. 3rd 50 was too much of a fall off from the 2nd. But this gives me confidence to try to swim a similar race next time and with better turns (at least 3 I was too far from the wall) and swimming a bit fresher (last year was first race of the day - this year 3rd race) and with luck make further progress. I'm going back over thread to pick out some 200 conditioning sets for the next few weeks!

Goal update: Goal 1:50 SCY or equivalent. Latest swim at regional meet: This year 1:52.51 25.86 54.11 (28.25) 1:23.62 (29.51) 1:52.51 (28.89) Last year at same meet for comparison 26.77 29.22 (55.99) 29.15 (1:25.14) 28.30 for 1:53.44 So this year I took it out much harder (which I have to do to get closer to my goal) but had a slightly weaker back half. 3rd 50 was too much of a fall off from the 2nd. But this gives me confidence to try to swim a similar race next time and with better turns (at least 3 I was too far from the wall) and swimming a bit fresher (last year was first race of the day - this year 3rd race) and with luck make further progress. I'm going back over thread to pick out some 200 conditioning sets for the next few weeks! Very nice Guy. Is your target meet Zones or Nationals? A favorite set for the 200 was 10x50 on 1:00, hold race pace. You want to hold 28s (flat) to the feet. Did you rest, shave, taper, tech suit for this last meet? If not, dropping 2.5 seconds at your taper meet seems doable. I don't think you need to go out any faster on your first 50 for your goal. Going out in a 25 high, 26 flat seems appropriate for a 1:50. It might be a good idea to do a couple 50s from the blocks whenever possible for time, shooting for 25.5 or 26 low to the feet consistently. The key to the 200 is consistency, or, lacking that, a very high pain tolerance.

Interesting kick in the Davies clip. It's like a 3- beat, or a 1.5 kick each side. It's called a two beat cross-over kick. The .5 kick impression that you have comes from the fact that both feet are touching each other. Great job GBrain. Looking forward to see your next 200m clip. It'll probably look different than the one where you did 2:20 (if I'm not mistaking on time). Well done!!!

the 20th I swam a 200m fr it was far from my best time, but I felt so strong at the end, I couldn't believe that I remember thinking after about 75m that I better hold back a little now if I plan on making it the whole 200. I swam 31.15 1:05.11 (33.96) 1:40.06 (34.95) 2:13.83 (33.77) next time I will shoot for 31 33 33 33 matches my best time but is swam more evenly. last time I swam 1:02 /1:08