200 Challenge: Goal time, roadmap and status updates

Way to go, Dale!:applaud:

My goal time is sub-2:20 for SCY. We recently did some broken 200's in practice. Right now, after a month out of the pool, I am capable of hitting 34's for 50s SCY from a push and 31's from a dive. How do I split the 200 without dying at the end?

In the 200 anything, pain is inevitable. Yes I have quickly learned that. What are you splits now? In June, I went out in a 1:19 and came back in a 1:27 (LCM). No splits for the 50s, but that is not an "ideal" way to split a 200. In August the meet I swam in didn't give us splits but I dropped time and didn't feel too horrible. I think its just a matter of actually being able to do it. I will definitely talk to my coach about it.

How do I split the 200 without dying at the end? In the 200 anything, pain is inevitable. Suffering through it is optional. Try swimming some 200's from a push and get acquainted with your personal pace and the gut wrenching sensation that starts at the halfway mark. Trial and error.

My goal time is sub-2:20 for SCY. We recently did some broken 200's in practice. Right now, after a month out of the pool, I am capable of hitting 34's for 50s SCY from a push and 31's from a dive. How do I split the 200 without dying at the end? Short answer: 32-34-34-34 What are you splits now? Swimming the 200 is very mental. I suggest swimming your 50s in the following manner, ez speed, strong, build to sprint, sprint. That works out to correct splitting for me, but I am working harder each 50 to maintain the same speed. Mentally, I am turning it up one notch each lap until I hit 11 on the way home. Something else that was really important before I started training my kick was managing my kick. I used to have a really weak kick (now it is just weak), and my kick would progress no kick, gentle kick, strong kick, build to sprint kick. After working on my kick, this doesn't work at all any more, and using this pattern makes my splits look like a strange time mountain. So the stronger your kick and kick endurance, the sooner you can drop the hammer on kicking. If you don't six beat kick while swimming during practice, the weak kick plan is probably a good place to start. If you six beat kick during practice, a strong comfortable kick from the start should work, and you will need to experiment when to crank out your sprint kick. For me, I want to be going full bore about 37.5 yards from the end of the race so I hammer that last wall with max speed. The long answer doesn't give any time guidance, sorry. I understand that you have a really good coach, and I think he could give you some good guidance on how you should be splitting your 200 based on your current conditioning.

the right way to split a 200 is even 3 28 30 30 30 a bit worse is add 1 27 29 30 31 much worse is add 2 27 29 31 33 Hey guys, swam at my first USA-S meet in 15 years this weekend. I would like some analysis if you would be so kind. My goal was to break 1:58. To do that I needed 27 high followed by 3 29 highs. I swam one event Friday, Sat and Sun, the 50, 100 and 200. I was very nervous for my 50 all day, and I think it affected my swim a little, but the 100 and 200 I felt comfortable. 50 free: 24.41 100 free: 54.0x split 12.0 13.7 14.4 14.0 My turn off the 2nd wall was deep, got stuck on the touch pad high. 200 free: 2:01.56 split 27.38 29.73 31.96 32.49 I think I have read those splits somewhere before... I went out too fast, and died. If I would have gone out .6 slower on the first 50 and .2 on the second, would that have made the difference to bring home the back 100? I do agree that it would make a difference, but based on my other times, I think I lacked the conditioning to split that 200 correctly and hit my goal time. The strength was there, just not the endurance. Please criticize. I even welcome comments from pwolf.

My goal was to break 1:58. 200 free: 2:01.56 split 27.38 29.73 31.96 32.49 I think you did really well. I went out too fast, and died. Agreed. Even if I just look at the difference between your 100's (57.11 vs 64.45) that gap is too big. A four second gap would have been better. Also your first 100 (57.11) was only 3 seconds off your current fastest 100 and, for me at any rate, that pace is a little ambitious. My own rule of thumb is to swim my first 100 of my 200 no faster than 4 seconds off my 100 time. So, if I were you, I would have aimed for a 58.50 for my first 100 - 28.50/30.00 - then come back in 31.00/31.00. That would have got you closer to your goal time. Having said that, your first 50 was about 3 seconds off your 50 time which is about spot on; maybe a little fast. It looks like the conditioning is not there. If I would have gone out .6 slower on the first 50 and .2 on the second, would that have made the difference to bring home the back 100? Hard to know for certain without trying it out in practice. The time drift between your 50's might have remained the same and your overall time might have just been .8 slower. Some people just have to go out fast to do a fast time: I tend toward that category. I am not sure that going out .8 slower on your first 100 would have allowed you to go under 2:00 but it might have made the race more pleasant! The strength was there, just not the endurance. Yes, given your 100 time of 54 you should be able to go 1:58 (that is if you are, as per Ande's middle distance classification, a double your 100, add 10 seconds, kind of swimmer). Instead, you fall into the double your 100, add 14 seconds (drop dead sprinter) category. But you can move between categories. Last year I also fell into the sprint category. This year, I fall more into the middle distance category. How did you feel on the third 50? For me, this is the most crucial part of the race. It's all about concentration in the face of increasing pain. The time gap between the second and third 50's is always the biggest for me. Also, it is easy to toss around these times: chop off half a second here, add half there.... but it is quite another thing to execute it. We are only talking about half seconds here and there. Actually, your times are very respectable. You just need some fine tuning and that is only going to come with practice. My biggest problem is trying to hold back the 'jackrabbit' (as Paul Smith calls it) in me and slow down a bit, just a tad, on that first 50. I can't contain the excitement and going out too fast can blow the entire race. Practice, practice, practice...

Hey guys, swam at my first USA-S meet in 15 years this weekend. I would like some analysis if you would be so kind. My goal was to break 1:58. To do that I needed 27 high followed by 3 29 highs. I swam one event Friday, Sat and Sun, the 50, 100 and 200. I was very nervous for my 50 all day, and I think it affected my swim a little, but the 100 and 200 I felt comfortable. 50 free: 24.41 100 free: 54.0x split 12.0 13.7 14.4 14.0 My turn off the 2nd wall was deep, got stuck on the touch pad high. 200 free: 2:01.56 split 27.38 29.73 31.96 32.49 I think I have read those splits somewhere before... I went out too fast, and died. If I would have gone out .6 slower on the first 50 and .2 on the second, would that have made the difference to bring home the back 100? I do agree that it would make a difference, but based on my other times, I think I lacked the conditioning to split that 200 correctly and hit my goal time. The strength was there, just not the endurance. Please criticize. I even welcome comments from pwolf. I've been working on my 200 for a few years now. I think it's conditioning. I'm roughly the same speed as you, 50 pr is a 24 flat, 100 is a just under 54, and I share your goal time. Here are my splits from Austin Nationals: 39 Sumerfield, Bill H 47 OREG 2:04.00 2:00.68 27.53 57.71 (30.18) 1:28.75 (31.04) 2:00.68 (31.93) and a year later at Clovis: 24 Sumerfield, Bill H 48 OREG 2:00.68 1:59.40 27.69 57.73(30.04) 1:28.09(30.36) 1:59.40(31.31) Note the same basic pace in both swims. I think the difference in the second swim is just due to better conditioning (although the Austin swim was a huge breakthrough for me. That 2:04 seed was a real, recently swum time coming in). Once I can get that fourth 50 down closer to 50s 2 & 3, I'll work on trying to take it out harder, but I'm obviously still dying at the end with my pace now. It's hard to find that happy medium between going out too soft and having a slow race and going out too hard and barely hanging on at the end. 200s of all strokes hurt a lot, but it's my favorite distance. You get to go pretty fast, there's strategy involved, and you don't lose the race completely in one little bobble like in a 50.

Just a status update, I am going backwards in my 200 free goal. Luckily my 50 and 100 seem to be on track. My goal is to break 1:50 in the 200 free scy. Yesterday I swam a 2:20.21 scm, which translates to around a 2:05.mid. My last 200 was a 2:01. My splits were: 33.48/36.18/36.78/33.77 1:09.66/1:10.55 2:20.21 7 lanes of competition, I was in 3 seeded with a 2:15 and the guy in lane 4 was seeded with a 2:06. This might have thrown me off, since the last 200 I went out too fast and died hard. This time around I went out slow and never picked it up. I need to swim my own race. YouTube- Mike 200 free DAM SCM 2009

SCY: 139:99; Slowly, albeit painfully, getting back into shape... 1:55 from a push last week at the end of a grueling set. Didn't feel all THAT bad... ugh. I practice 3x times a week, hopefully more come spring! I am a 200-1650 kind of guy. qbrain: Very smooth, pretty stroke! I'm jealous! That said, you may want to try shortening your stroke length (and thereby increasing the tempo), particularly in the 200. Up until last month, I took around 10-11 strokes per length (I have orangutan arms), and maximized the glide portion of the stroke as much as possible. Now, I take about 13-15, instead focusing on an "instant catch" and minimizing the "dead zone," where deceleration occurs. This really helps me save my legs: In order to keep my momentum steady, I had to kick like a madman. I think I was too focused on the TI philosophy: Long, "effortless" strokes utilizing an exaggerated "catch up" pull. Problem was, I had to do keep up that six-beat kick in order to swim FAST. That sort of swimming was just too taxing for anything over a 500, at least for me, and I now use a two-beat kick to go faster with much less effort. Since this seemed a bit counterintuitive, I decided to investigate and watch a bit of swim vids. I noticed a bunch of successful mid-distance and distance swimmers using a higher turnover with shorter strokes (NCAA champ Troy Prinsloo, olympic champ Kieren Perkins, 1650 record-holder Chris Thompson, Chad LaTourette, Yuri Prilukov, Federico Colbertaldo, Pal Joensen, Laure Manaudou and, of course, Janet Evans). If you take shorter, faster strokes, you breathe more often, too :) Here are a couple of movies: YouTube- Freestyle swimming - 2004 Olympics YouTube- 2 Men's 1500m Freestyle Final European Short Course Championships Rijeka YouTube- 2008-2009 UGA Swimming vs UNC Men's 500 Free Long story short, I think you've got to find a stroke that really helps you maintain a consistent "easy speed." For me, that stroke was a shorter, faster one. It might work for you, too. Either way, I'm positive you'll be able to hit that goal soon... you seem to be on the right track!