Here is what I discovered while swimming the 750 meter fly as the first leg of a relay at the Culpepper Tri here in VA August 1st.
1) I swam much more relaxed as the course navigation issues I normally have were not an issue (I swam 200 yards off course at the 1 mile national course this year).
2) It is fun to pass people before the 200 meter turn that were sent out 3 min earlier in the wave before and more fun passing people sent out 9 min before at the half way mark.
3) I only hit three people in the head. That is less then normal. Nobody hit me. That is a first.
4) It is a blast passing people during the last 200 yards. They are right there in front of you and you can navigate around them easier.
5) You get a lot of people cheering for you at the finish.
6) It is a totally different event. The distractions of seeing everything along the way keep your mind off the pain!
7) It is much easier judging your pace swimming butterfly.
Preparation: for the past two months I have been swimming at least 1500 yards fly at each practice. Lots of 50's and 100's. Watching the clock and adjusting your tempo seemed critical to me. I wanted to know what if felt like at the pace I wanted to keep. I swam the 750 meters last year free in 11:08 (I completed the entire tri last year) and did the fly this year in 12:40. My goal was to beat the swim time of last years overall winner of the tri and I did.
