Breaking 1:00 in the 100 free SCY for the 1st time

I have several thoughts about your comments based on my pesonal experience. 1) I'm not sure if by "off the wall" you mean a dive start from the deck, (i.e. standing with your feet on the gutter) or a push start from in the water, but either way I'm a little surprised that if you can do :28 for a 50 your best 100 is 1:11. My best in-practice from-a-push 50 is only :30, but my best 100 is 1:03. Maybe you are more of a pure sprinter (I'm *very* far from a sprinter), or maybe you could benefit from work on speed endurance. 2) It's not surprising that your best swims in practice come after swimming 2-3k yds. By then you are well warmed up. IMO, lots of folks don't warm up enought at meets. They do like 100 ez and a few sprints and think they are warmed up. Your observation suggests to me that you will benefit from a substantial warmup. I'm not advocating 3k yds, but 1k is reasonable. One day a few summers ago I had a meet in the evening but wasn't focusing on it or anything, so I went ahead and did a hard 3500 yds in the morning - then surprised myself with a fast swim (for me) in the evening. Since then I have wondered if there was some residual warm-up effect. 3) You are right in your speculation that staying warmed up between the end of your warm-up swim and your race can be an issue. I'm a skinny guy and I get cold (and therefore stiff) easily. I dry off immediately after warm-up and the put on long pants and 2 or even 3 sweatshirts depending on the air temperature. Last summer at a late afternoon meet the air temperature was over 100 F. Lots of people were apparently uncomfortable, I swam 3 personal best times. Warm muscles are fast muscules I say, (but hydration is an issue in such hot temperatures). 4) If your 50 times are the same from a dive as from a push, it sounds like you can get a big time drop by improving your start, unless you are timing in some funny way when you swim from a push. I use the head going under water as the clock start when I time from a push. 5) I encourage you to do a meet. They are fun! Besides, what better way is there to find out what you need to work on most? Thanks for the response. My off the wall push is essentially me looking back at the digital clock behind me, I see it hit the minute mark, and immediately turn and push off the wall gently, coming up and stroking before the flags. The reason I'm not pushing hard is that I'm afraid it would make me faster than my dive time (yeah my dive is not good yet) and I want to get a real sense of my pure swimming speed. As for my 100, probably a combination of endurance and perhaps I'm expending more energy on a 50 than most good swimmers. The other issue is that I'm not the best breather.

I have several thoughts about your comments based on my pesonal experience. 1) I'm not sure if by "off the wall" you mean a dive start from the deck, (i.e. standing with your feet on the gutter) or a push start from in the water, but either way I'm a little surprised that if you can do :28 for a 50 your best 100 is 1:11. My best in-practice from-a-push 50 is only :30, but my best 100 is 1:03. Maybe you are more of a pure sprinter (I'm *very* far from a sprinter), or maybe you could benefit from work on speed endurance. 2) It's not surprising that your best swims in practice come after swimming 2-3k yds. By then you are well warmed up. IMO, lots of folks don't warm up enought at meets. They do like 100 ez and a few sprints and think they are warmed up. Your observation suggests to me that you will benefit from a substantial warmup. I'm not advocating 3k yds, but 1k is reasonable. One day a few summers ago I had a meet in the evening but wasn't focusing on it or anything, so I went ahead and did a hard 3500 yds in the morning - then surprised myself with a fast swim (for me) in the evening. Since then I have wondered if there was some residual warm-up effect. 3) You are right in your speculation that staying warmed up between the end of your warm-up swim and your race can be an issue. I'm a skinny guy and I get cold (and therefore stiff) easily. I dry off immediately after warm-up and the put on long pants and 2 or even 3 sweatshirts depending on the air temperature. Last summer at a late afternoon meet the air temperature was over 100 F. Lots of people were apparently uncomfortable, I swam 3 personal best times. Warm muscles are fast muscules I say, (but hydration is an issue in such hot temperatures). 4) If your 50 times are the same from a dive as from a push, it sounds like you can get a big time drop by improving your start, unless you are timing in some funny way when you swim from a push. I use the head going under water as the clock start when I time from a push. 5) I encourage you to do a meet. They are fun! Besides, what better way is there to find out what you need to work on most? Thanks for the response. My off the wall push is essentially me looking back at the digital clock behind me, I see it hit the minute mark, and immediately turn and push off the wall gently, coming up and stroking before the flags. The reason I'm not pushing hard is that I'm afraid it would make me faster than my dive time (yeah my dive is not good yet) and I want to get a real sense of my pure swimming speed. As for my 100, probably a combination of endurance and perhaps I'm expending more energy on a 50 than most good swimmers. The other issue is that I'm not the best breather.