Quest for the 200 fly

At the age of 54 I decided to start swimming again in January after a 35-year absence.  Even though I was in reasonably good shape my first workouts were about 500 SCY tops and my first few attempts at butterfly were hopeless.  Fast forward to now and I'm doing 2600 yards in about an hour 4 times a week and finish the workouts with 200 IMs before the cooldown.  I do some stroke work, mainly in the form of a set of 4x100 IMS and 16x25's at pace (4fly at 20 secs rest, 4 back, breast, and free at 10 secs rest). 

I feel strongest at the end of the workouts, which is a good thing I think, and plan to increase the total distance to 3100 SCY.  I eventually want to compete though at this point I'm not really interested in my times; those will take care of themselves if I train with proper effort and technique.  I'm excited about starting this all again and joining USMS too.  The feeling after a good, vigorous workout is amazing and in case anyone is wondering, given my age, I did consult with my doctor before starting all of this

I have an intermediate (long term perhaps?) goal of being able to complete a 200 fly without having a piano falling on my back! (I love that phrase that I learned while trolling thru this site the last few hours!)  When I first started several months ago, I didn't think this would be a possibility, ever, but I know better now and want to know if anyone has any training advice, suggestions or resources that they think might help?  

Parents
  • learning to swim butterfly while tired, while still maintaining good form (its a tough skill to get good at!).  Not saying swim your butterfly tired all the time, but you have to do some simulation of how it will feel on the last 50/75 yards.  Doesn't have to be all FL.  You can do FR, to get you a little fatigued, then go right into doing a little FL focusing on great technique!

    (I am a 200 FL guy, so I am speaking from a little experience!)

Reply
  • learning to swim butterfly while tired, while still maintaining good form (its a tough skill to get good at!).  Not saying swim your butterfly tired all the time, but you have to do some simulation of how it will feel on the last 50/75 yards.  Doesn't have to be all FL.  You can do FR, to get you a little fatigued, then go right into doing a little FL focusing on great technique!

    (I am a 200 FL guy, so I am speaking from a little experience!)

Children
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