The IM Lane

hey elaine! i saw your other thread about your turns but couldn't watch those videos anymore so here's my thoughts on my 400 im video unless you're intentionally holding on for a sec to catch your breath, there's no reason to reach up to the gutter on your fly turns. all you have to do is touch the walll in front of you, then "richocet" off the wall (the 3rd fly turn and your *** turns are more of what you should be doing on your other fly turns) are you able to stay longer underwater (streamline/flutter or few dolphin kicks) before your breakout in the backstroke? have you ever learned the old fashioned backstroke whip turn, as opposed to just an open turn? would it also make you dizzy? can you do it faster than an open turn? have you determined with your breaststroke experience, when you need oxygen and will forgo the underwater pullout? obviously, training to be able to do the pullouts at each turn would be helpful having never raced with freestyle open turns, i guess you're doing it as well as possible! the quicker/snappier you can get thru the turns, the better! with most of your turns, you don't need to reach as far as placing your palm on the wall (nor sink/pull into the walls with bent elbows, which i don't see you doing). all you have to do is touch with your fingertips, hopefullly with perfect degree of outstretch of your arms, and then bring your body around as quickly as possible (think the hand-over-ear body twist, like in breastroke turns) and legs placed in position for maximum pushoff power fly is my weak link as well. i've only ever swum the 400 im once (checked that off the list :) but for 200 im's, i try to just maintain easy speed and form during the fly; don't forget that race adrenaline usually adds a boost to your fly leg as well. since you're a breastroker, you don't want to tire yourself out too much on the back. try to build/maintain speed on the back, catching your breath after the fly and making sure you've got enough air in the lungs, going into the back-*** turn. breastroke is your forte, so Bring It on this leg, but maintain form and don't spin (unfortuantely, it's not the 100 im :D . freestyle, i would try to build to the point that you've figured out that you can do an all-you-have-left sprint. as a breastroker, i think you can really feel the building momemtum and finishing strong!, from the breaststroke through freestyle legs you'll have to play with the pacing, for each stroke leg, and for the race as a whole, to see what works best for you. remember there are FIFTEEN turns in a short course 400 im, so it's worth working on them! Hey there, chowsh! Thanks for taking the time to watch my video and post feedback on my strokes. I appreciate getting feedback from different swimmers, because everybody sees different things and provides a unique perspective. So, I take it all in and paste it into my ongoing Word Doc on stroke advice that I read regularly as a reminder on what to work on. Anyway, about those fly turns... :blush: Ya think? Yeah, I'll admit it; I used it as a great excuse for an extra breath! I am usually more disciplined than that and don't even do it at my home pool that is designed the same way. BUSTED. :agree: On backstroke, I am trying to get used to swimming it without a nose clip. When I use a clip, I am able to stay under longer, but I just can't get used to using a clip for the other strokes. So, I am not using it on IM. Since that meet, I have been swimming more and more backstroke without a clip and I am trying to get better at getting a good breath before the turn, so I can get some good kicking in off the wall. As for the bacstroke turn, the only one I have learned is a bucket/open turn. I am open to trying it another way; I just need to learn how to do it. And, while I am learning, I'll find out soon enough whether my inner ears will let me do it. :afraid: On breaststroke, I did a pullout on each of my turns. I always do; I have never skipped a pullout- ever. Now, I will admit I have surfaced from a pullout gasping for air on that first breath, at times, during a 200 breaststroke race, but I always do a pullout. I'll keep working on those turns; thanks for your advice! Cheers! :chug:

hey elaine! i saw your other thread about your turns but couldn't watch those videos anymore so here's my thoughts on my 400 im video unless you're intentionally holding on for a sec to catch your breath, there's no reason to reach up to the gutter on your fly turns. all you have to do is touch the walll in front of you, then "richocet" off the wall (the 3rd fly turn and your *** turns are more of what you should be doing on your other fly turns) are you able to stay longer underwater (streamline/flutter or few dolphin kicks) before your breakout in the backstroke? have you ever learned the old fashioned backstroke whip turn, as opposed to just an open turn? would it also make you dizzy? can you do it faster than an open turn? have you determined with your breaststroke experience, when you need oxygen and will forgo the underwater pullout? obviously, training to be able to do the pullouts at each turn would be helpful having never raced with freestyle open turns, i guess you're doing it as well as possible! the quicker/snappier you can get thru the turns, the better! with most of your turns, you don't need to reach as far as placing your palm on the wall (nor sink/pull into the walls with bent elbows, which i don't see you doing). all you have to do is touch with your fingertips, hopefullly with perfect degree of outstretch of your arms, and then bring your body around as quickly as possible (think the hand-over-ear body twist, like in breastroke turns) and legs placed in position for maximum pushoff power fly is my weak link as well. i've only ever swum the 400 im once (checked that off the list :) but for 200 im's, i try to just maintain easy speed and form during the fly; don't forget that race adrenaline usually adds a boost to your fly leg as well. since you're a breastroker, you don't want to tire yourself out too much on the back. try to build/maintain speed on the back, catching your breath after the fly and making sure you've got enough air in the lungs, going into the back-*** turn. breastroke is your forte, so Bring It on this leg, but maintain form and don't spin (unfortuantely, it's not the 100 im :D . freestyle, i would try to build to the point that you've figured out that you can do an all-you-have-left sprint. as a breastroker, i think you can really feel the building momemtum and finishing strong!, from the breaststroke through freestyle legs you'll have to play with the pacing, for each stroke leg, and for the race as a whole, to see what works best for you. remember there are FIFTEEN turns in a short course 400 im, so it's worth working on them! you're so awesome. i wish we were roommates. oh wait, we were for 16 years! No seriously, great advice. The way I used to do the 400im, short version, is first to get conditioning up for the 16 lengths, but in race focus on every turn and go smooth in the middle bits. You're actually going faster on the middle bits from adreniline, but the by really working the turns & breakouts, that is where the money is! If you "save" even just 1/4 of a second on every turn plus the dive, then that's 4 secs right there for not really working any harder (assuming you have conditioned up to it)! If you can eek out another .25 on half more, then that's another 2 seconds! Try and map out your event and where you think you bog down the most.

you're so awesome. i wish we were roommates. oh wait, we were for 16 years! No seriously, great advice. The way I used to do the 400im, short version, is first to get conditioning up for the 16 lengths, but in race focus on every turn and go smooth in the middle bits. You're actually going faster on the middle bits from adreniline, but the by really working the turns & breakouts, that is where the money is! If you "save" even just 1/4 of a second on every turn plus the dive, then that's 4 secs right there for not really working any harder (assuming you have conditioned up to it)! If you can eek out another .25 on half more, then that's another 2 seconds! Try and map out your event and where you think you bog down the most. Thanks for the advice, chow! First 'sh and now 'mi; :banana:! So, it's definitely the turns, since there are so many of them in 400 IM. I have worked hard on my breaststroke turns, since 50 & 100 breaststroke are my best events, but I have a lot of work to do on the others; especially my backstroke turn. Aside from practice "racing", I have only raced the 400 IM twice; once LCM and once SCY. Both times, I negative split, but I have a lot of work to do to improve my race overall. At least I am closer to an "A" on the Motivational Times Chart than a "BB"! :D As a newbie brute squad event swimmer, I'll take it, considering I am still not even on the chart for 100 or 200 fly! :afraid:

elaine, you are awesome for adding challenging events to your race program! you've done a long course 400 im?? :bow: looking forward to hearing how you progress! Yeah... Back in June, I wanted to see if I could swim 100 fly continuously which would mean I could swim a 400 IM. (I hadn't actually tried 100 fly since high school). I made it, so I wanted to see if I could swim a legal 200 fly. To make sure it was legal, I had my husband video the swim, so I could review my stroke. When I (very slowly :cane:) finally made 200 yards without stopping, I decided to keep going to see just how much I could swim. At 900 yards, my husband gave me that if-looks-could-kill glare, because his arms were getting tired from holding the camera. I had lost count of my yards, so I didn't know it was 900 until I reviewed the video. And, yes, it was all legal: www.youtube.com/watch Two weeks later, I decided to swim it again; this time trying to make it to 1,000, because 1,000 sure sounded better to me than 900! :agree: So, I brought a tripod and asked my husband to keep track of the yards and let me know where I was from time to time. When I made it to 1,000, I decided to see if I could make it to 1,100... then 1,200, then, well, why not try for a mile? At some point during the video, the file became so large the camera automatically stopped and wrote the file to the card: www.youtube.com/watch Bruce started it up again, so my swim is in 2 parts: www.youtube.com/watch :bed: At the 2,000 mark, he came around to the end of the pool to tell me the camera stopped again. By the time he finished telling me, it wasn't a continuous swim any longer, so I just stopped. Besides, he was :bitching: at me about hurting my shoulders again. (See page 36 of the current issue of Swimmer Magazine). Yeah, my shoulders were tired at that point, but they never did hurt; not even the next day or few. So, :blah: (this story is getting long...), I decided if I could swim a 2,000 yard butterfly, I could swim any event at a USMS meet- slow, perhaps, but I could swim it legally. After swimming my first open water meet (Georgia Games) and swimming a 3k, followed by a 1k a few minutes later, my coach declared me a distance swimmer; especially since I was able to negative split those races and hold my stroke count and pace on my 2,000 yard fly. So, I decided to swim the maximum 10 events allowed at Dixie Zone LC Championships, in early August, and signed up for 5 new (for me) events: 100 fly, 400 fr (on Saturday, in addition to my other three events and a relay); 200 fly, 400 IM, 800fr (on Sunday, in addition to two other events and a relay). My 400m IM was only 8:10 (converts to around 7:10 SCY), but it improved at my next meet (6:51.06); the one on the video you viewed. So, I really want to keep working on my 400 IM. I am already better at it than some other events I have been training for a lot longer. (Same goes for the 1650.) I'm not so sure I deserve a :bow:, but thanks for your encouragement 'sh! :chug:

Elaine's enthusiasm towards swimming new events has been motivating to witness. My next opportunity I will be doing the 100IM, where a year ago I wouldn't have even thought of it. :smooch: Thanks, Steve! I would really like to see you swim that 100IM! :cheerleader: REALLY! Like, next time you see me at a meet, will you actually come out of the shadows and introduce yourself to me? Don't make me study the heat sheets and go up to every "Steve" and ask if it's you like a stalker! :afraid::bolt: Thank you. :D Edit: Ok... after a little bit of sleuthing I figured out exactly who you are. (It didn't take a rocket scientist, fortunately. :D). Still, don't wait for me to track you down at the blocks at the next meet, ok? :bouncing:

Trying to get back into swimming more. Am wanting to train for 400 im and 200 fly. Fly is by far my best stroke although ive lost much of endurance after not swimming hardly at all. After that its probably *** then free and least is back. Should i work fly more than rest or train all evenly? And when i train other strokes should i pick days to work each individual stroke or mainly focus on im sets? Thanks, steve I think this is a personal choice. I couldn't tell you the last time I did a breaststroke set. If you just want to survive the fly (like I just try to survive the breaststroke), maybe do less fly in practice. If you want to attack it, then work it more.

Elaine's enthusiasm towards swimming new events has been motivating to witness. My next opportunity I will be doing the 100IM, where a year ago I wouldn't have even thought of it.

Trying to get back into swimming more. Am wanting to train for 400 im and 200 fly. Fly is by far my best stroke although ive lost much of endurance after not swimming hardly at all. After that its probably *** then free and least is back. Should i work fly more than rest or train all evenly? And when i train other strokes should i pick days to work each individual stroke or mainly focus on im sets? Thanks, steve

And quick second question: I am a delivery driver and have to lift about 20'000 lbs each day, 5days a week...should i keep a couple days off or would it be better to swim every day shorter swims?

elaine, you are awesome for adding challenging events to your race program! you've done a long course 400 im?? :bow: looking forward to hearing how you progress!