I've traditionally been more of a sprinter, but I've decided to give the 400 free a try next weekend. I'm interested in ideas of how I should pace the race since I just have some vague thoughts on how to do this (e.g cruise the first 200, then slightly decend the last 2 100s). But I really don't what pace I can sustain for 5min, and I'd rather not have any pianos falling. I haven't done any testing regarding this, but I'm pretty familiar with sendoffs that I can make in practice.
I also have 50-100-200 times that may give some perspective- I suppose it depends on the individual to a large degree, but is there some general rule that can be applied (e.g your first 200 should be your best 200 time +10sec) based on your times from shorter races, or should I be looking at this differently?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks for all of the advice! In summary, it seems I don't have a key component of the race, which is an idea of proper pace. I'm sure I'll have a better idea of what that should be after the race :)
I think I'll just try for what I think is my 200 time +10sec for the first half, since I kind of know what that would feel like, with a weaker 6-beat kick. As Kirk suggested, I may then try to gradually pick up the kick to maintain the pace of the 1st 200.
Ande, in the last meet I swam (2mos ago), my 50-100-200 times were 22-high, 50-low, and 1:53-low. I have not done the 400 before so I don't have a time for that. I remember a while back you had posted some criteria to identify if you are a sprinter or distance-oriented (i.e doubling your 100 time and adding >10sec = sprinter). In my case, I need to add 13sec, so it seems I'm leaning more towards sprinting- Do you think someone with this time distribution should swim the race differently?
Thanks for all of the advice! In summary, it seems I don't have a key component of the race, which is an idea of proper pace. I'm sure I'll have a better idea of what that should be after the race :)
I think I'll just try for what I think is my 200 time +10sec for the first half, since I kind of know what that would feel like, with a weaker 6-beat kick. As Kirk suggested, I may then try to gradually pick up the kick to maintain the pace of the 1st 200.
Ande, in the last meet I swam (2mos ago), my 50-100-200 times were 22-high, 50-low, and 1:53-low. I have not done the 400 before so I don't have a time for that. I remember a while back you had posted some criteria to identify if you are a sprinter or distance-oriented (i.e doubling your 100 time and adding >10sec = sprinter). In my case, I need to add 13sec, so it seems I'm leaning more towards sprinting- Do you think someone with this time distribution should swim the race differently?
