Dropping 200yd IM time?

Usually I believe you want to have about the same split time for the first and last 50 so pacing and general endurance will help you out there. For me personally, since I'm an awful backstroker and decent breaststroker my middle two 50s end up the same split as well. If you want to go 2:19 then you're probably looking at something like this (assuming your back is also weaker than your ***, based on your splits): Fly: 31 Back: 38 ***: 37 Free: 31 plus random tenths here and there. That's a lot of time to drop. Since back was my weakest stroke I gained the most by concentrating on it. You're going to want to get that split down a good 5 seconds and do it without killing yourself. Beyond that just lots of conditioning and pacing work to get your last 50 much faster. I did lots of 200s free and 200s back in practice and my 200 IM came down significantly. I bet you can do it too. I should say that in no way am I a coach or anything and there are tons of ways to skin an IM, so something else might work best for you. Good luck!

It's hard to know how to advise you to improve without seeing you swim. You could be having issues with technique, endurance or pacing and it's hard to know which it is in a vacuum. Your butterfly split is very fast relative to your backstroke split. Is that because you need to work on your backstroke technique or is it that you're wiped out after the 50 fly? The breaststroke split looks good relative to the butterfly split. The freestyle split seems slow compared to the breaststroke split. Maybe you are a short axis (butterfly/breaststroke) swimmer? In any event, dropping 12 seconds is tough. I would take your own advice in the first instance and work on pacing and turns. Try to make the fly leg long and smooth (I would breathe every stroke) and really work the backstroke leg. Good luck!

....anyone?

It is obvious that you go out wayy to fast the first 50, You should also post your current time doing a 50 from a push (fl,bk,br,fr), that might answer if you have to work more on conditioning or sprint. You definetly have to work on spliting that better. With that time on your 50 fly, I would say that if you add 2 second to that fly (32) you probably can drop 4 seconds in your final 50 free (34), and maybe 2 seconds in the 50 back (41), the *** is not bad. You have to go fast but more relaxed during the fly, remember you need to finish the 1st 50 with some air and legs for another 150. You also need to work on that 50 back, is too slow, even after a 50 fly fast, do more backstroke sprints, you should be going 35-6 at least.

My intuition says that you are swimming the fly all-out and that your conditioning is not good enough to do that without tanking the rest of your race. I also wonder if you have enough "gears" to be able to slow your fly down to save energy. Some people have to give a max effort just to get the arms to clear the water on recovery and get proper positioning with hips up. I am guessing that training to swim longer fly events will improve your economy so you will be able to swim a 50 fly with more ease. That will help you pace a 200 IM so you don't overswim the fly.

As, noted above, it's difficult to comment with specific advice. But here's a suggestion. How about mixing in some 150s in training 25fly/50back/25br/50free, ie emphasizing your weak splits? Also qbrain started a thread on 200s where there is a lot of good advice from the forum experts on preparing for 200s generally. 200 Challenge: Goal time, roadmap and status updates - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums

You were way out of gas. Gotta swim fly easy speed and not fall asleep on the back.

Your butterfly split is very fast relative to your backstroke split. Is that because you need to work on your backstroke technique or is it that you're wiped out after the 50 fly? The breaststroke split looks good relative to the butterfly split. The freestyle split seems slow compared to the breaststroke split. As stated, your weak links are back and free. If you can figure out why -- technique, endurance, ? -- you'll be able to put together a plan for dropping time. I'm going to suggest working on your flutter kicking, as that's one commonality between back and free that will benefit both strokes.

You should also post your current time doing a 50 from a push (fl,bk,br,fr), that might answer if you have to work more on conditioning or sprint. You definetly have to work on spliting that better. Here are my sprint times from a push: Fly - 28.1 Back - 33.55 *** - 35.7 Free - 28.3 And I know that these are up-to-date, because they were just timed during practice. how often do you train? how far? how hard? are you coached? I train every day, not counting meet days and sundays. It really depends on what's planned out for the team, usually warm up is anywhere between 800 and 1600, then we have sets in between. So it can be anywhere between 3600 yds and 5000 yds. During practice, I always push myself and try to keep up with the fast swimmers. And yes, I am coached. As for suits, I just wear my speedo (the regular kind, not a jammer or fast skin). Also, just a side note, my time of 231 is from 3 weeks ago, and I've been doing distance work since then, so I can probably go under 230. Oh yeah, this isn't exactly related, but how do I swim 200 yd ***? I keep being told to go 1:20 on the first 100, then 1:25 the second. My 100 *** time in races is always around 1:15 or 1:16.

Hey Green, how often do you train? how far? how hard? are you coached? here are my suggestions to improve your 200 IM: 1) train for the 200 & 500 fr, 200 bk, & 200 IM 2) Lift weights to get stronger 3) swim a fast 200 IM twice a week 4) Correctly split your race just eye balling your splits you went too hard on fly, too easy on back, then did what you could on *** and free Here's my blog from my best 200 IM in 2009 here was my race plan for the 200 IM 03. 03:20 PM Men’s 200 m Individual Medley NR: 2:13.42 Glenn D Mills 06-22-08 WR: 2:10.49 02/15/2009 JPN TAIHEI SAKA Entered 2:14 right next to Todd FL: easy speed 6 SDKs breathe every stroke, save legs when swimming BK: 4 or 5 SDKs easy speed, save legs breathe often, hit on left arm for BK to br turn BR: great push offs, streamline GLIDE, far pull outs, wide pull, fast insweep, great kick FR: 4 SDKs, 6 beat kick, bring it home fast went 2:14.16 in 2008 splits 29.10 34.93 38.82 31.31 went too easy on BK, let up on FR, need to blast legs the whole way 5) Train hard for 3 weeks rest for 1 week 6) Wear the fastest legal suit are you a USS swimmer or master? Here's what's legal for USS swimmers Masters are waiting to find out what our rules will be 7) work on technique a. easy speed fly breathing every stroke, barely kicking b. easy speed SDK c. easy speed backstroke d. FAST bk to BR turns e. long glides on push offs especially breastroke, push off hard, stay streamlined longer before doing your underwater pull f. Breastroke: Fast insweep / thrust g. Freestyle 6 beat kick the whole way 8) Read Swim FASTER FASTER some of my faves are: Tip 01 Swim fast in practice Tip 05 ACTING AS IF Tip 265 Train harder, smarter, faster, further, more often, with a coach, with a team, in a convenient facility & at a convenient Time Tip 165 Build a Better Boat This should help you swim faster faster, let us know how you do Ande So, right now I go 2:31 in the IM, not the best, which is why I want to get faster. My splits are: Fly - 30 Back - 43 *** - 39 Free - 38 I don't have the decimals for my splits, but that's what the seconds are. My pacing is usually horrible, same goes for my turns. I think I'm pushing myself too hard in the fly, and not enough in the back. I have a little over a month and a half to drop 12 seconds to get to my goal, and it seems reasonable (to me at least). All help would be appreciated. Thanks.