I've been working really hard on my 100 IM. I'm a relatively new swimmer and want to improve my times as much as possible before my first ever swim meet this February.
My (perceived) biggest problem in the 100 IM is getting comfortable on the breaststroke leg. After two SDK to start the fly and back I do feel i get my breath under control by the end of the backstroke, but really struggle to get a nice pull out. Sometimes, I even abandoned the pull out and surface straight into the stroke. Then, once I get into the stroke, I feel like I am breathing too often, but not getting any air - almost like hyperventilating.
Does this mean I am going out too hard on fly and/or back. Any drills, sets, focuses to work on to help this? Thanks for any suggestions.
Former Member
Thanks for all the help and suggestions.
I incorporated a lot of them into today's workout.
1. Did 4 x 100 backstroke really focusing on breaths
2. Did 16 x 25 (4 of ea stroke working on kicks of the wall and breakouts)
3. Did 16 x 25 from middle of pool (working on turns, 4-FL to Bk, 4-Bk to Br, 4 Br to Fr, then 4 flip turns)
After all of that I did a smooth 100 IM in 1:25. Obviously slower than my PR, but only a few seconds off a sprint earlier this week and way less effort.
I'm pretty sure I can get sub 1:20 off the blocks now, hoping to shoot for sub 1:15 by end of February.
Kirk is a terrific swimmer, way out of my league, but I'd like to qualify his final comment a little. A 100 is a sprint, but there is some degree of "pacing" even in short sprints. For example , consider this comment from Ande's SFF tip #24:
"Yesterday I spoke with Shaun Jordan (Shaun swam for the US in the '88 and '92 Olympics.) we were talking about the 50 free and he was telling me how Matt Biondi and Tom Jager taught him to build his 50 meter free race, that he needed to relax on the first 10 strokes and build into the wall. Rather than going all out from the start. This allowed him to swim much faster on the second 25."
Thanks for the accolades, but I can tell you no one would call me a "terrific swimmer" if they watched me swim a 100 IM! I do think Shaun Jordan's advice is good, but I think the key part is the word "relax." I have a feeling what he's really getting at is you don't want to just start slashing and flailing from the start. You want to establish a nice, powerful stroke. There's no way these guys are really holding back on a 50.
As far as the time difference between these swimmers and novices, yes its a factor, but I don't think you should swim the race like a novice because of this. It might be true that the OP could swim a faster 100 IM by holding back a little on on the first 50, but I don't think it's a good precedent. If his goal is to improve his 100 IM he should work on viewing each 25 as a sprint. I can tell you from experience that holding back on the first half is a hard habit to break. Yeah, if you go out hard you are going to crash and burn sometimes, but I think this is better than having too much left at the end of a race.
What is true speed work? Is that like 50s on 3 minutes and the like?
Yup!
Probably a bit more frequent should be 50's on the 1:30 or 2:00. A really, really easy set to incorporate in any workout is 10x25 on the minute.
