You're not a sprinter and you're not a pure distance swimmer. Your 50's & 1500's aren't as great as your 200's, 400's, & 500's. Your 100's aren't shabby. Let the D Divas take those 800's, 1000's, 1500's & 1650's. You're caught in the middle. You've got OK speed, but you can do those longer sets that make pure sprinters ill. You're well conditioned and tend to do well with back to back events. You're in great company, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are middle distance swimmers who have excellent 100's but not so great 50's. Man you can train.
This is the middle distance lane. Don't get lapped.
the breastroke lane
The Middle Distance Lane
The Backstroke Lane
The Butterfly Lane
The SDK Lane
The Taper Lane
The Distance Lane
The IM Lane
The Sprint Free Lane
The Pool Deck
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Former Member
It's been a lot of years, but I clearly remember that my best swims in the 500 came when I took the first 100 out at a pace that felt almost ridiculously slow, and held the last 4 100s at almost exactly the same pace. My arms would really start burning at about lap 13. This is the point where I would try to pick up the pace, but in reality I was just countering my natural slowing down. 'did one in practice about a month ago with this strategy and knocked about 20s off my previous best in practice from the past few years.
Good luck with the 500. Let us know how it goes.
Key to the 500 is to be able to be out fast, but an "easy" fast. That is where all the training comes in. Its a fine line to walk between being out too fast (and dying the last 200) or being left behind to play catch up the whole race. My best 500's I was always just a couple seconds off my best 200 at the 200 split.
It's been a lot of years, but I clearly remember that my best swims in the 500 came when I took the first 100 out at a pace that felt almost ridiculously slow, and held the last 4 100s at almost exactly the same pace. My arms would really start burning at about lap 13. This is the point where I would try to pick up the pace, but in reality I was just countering my natural slowing down. 'did one in practice about a month ago with this strategy and knocked about 20s off my previous best in practice from the past few years.
Good luck with the 500. Let us know how it goes.
Key to the 500 is to be able to be out fast, but an "easy" fast. That is where all the training comes in. Its a fine line to walk between being out too fast (and dying the last 200) or being left behind to play catch up the whole race. My best 500's I was always just a couple seconds off my best 200 at the 200 split.
