The Butterfly Lane

Without reading all 34 pages of posts to see if anyone else is/was in the same boat as me, here's my situation: I've been swimming Masters for 2.5 years now and compete regularly (usually 7-10 meets per short course season). Back in the day, I was a backstroker and butterflier, and my events were the 200 back, 200 fly, and 400 IM. That was...a while...ago, though. Over the past 1.5 years, I've focused on backstroke and have had great results. Dropped back down to within 4 seconds of my old 200 back time at the Indy Nats. However, now I'd like to switch focus and work on my fly, specifically the 200 fly. I've been able to BS my way through the 50 and 100 fly the past couple years without much real fly training, and am fairly satisfied with how I've swum in them. For the 200 fly, though, I'm scratching my head on the most efficacious way to train for that event. Due to my work and coaching schedule (I coach both kiddos and Masters), I can only practice 3-4 times a week. I'm only one of two swimmers on the team who even consider doing more than a 100 fly, so none of the sets at the practices we swim at are written for flyers. I've pretty much written off any substantive fly training happening during the organized Masters practices, since there are just too many people for me to just swim fly instead of XYZ stroke we're supposed to be doing. My current plan is to swim three times a week with my team and then 2-3 times a week on my own (for about 1-1.5 hours each time). Since it's been so long since I trained for the 200 fly, and back then I was doing doubles and about 12,000 yards a day, what would y'all recommend I do to train for it when I swim on my own? I've swum the 200 fly three times in meets as a Masters swimmer. I did it once on a whim two years ago when I was able to practice 6 times a week, so I was in better overall shape than I am now, and went a 2:32. I swam it two weeks ago (after almost a month out of the water due to work conflicts) and went a 2:47. Swam it again this past weekend after swimming two practices all fly with fins and went a 2:43. My goal time is around a 2:20 by Santa Clara. I've got the technique down, I'm just struggling mightily with the endurance now, and have never trained for the 200 fly outside of age group swimming. EDIT--Man, I'd totally forgotten about the stroke/IM workouts that are posted on the forum. I'll check those out and modify them as needed. Still, I welcome any additional advice y'all have. Thanks!

Without reading all 34 pages of posts to see if anyone else is/was in the same boat as me, here's my situation: I've been swimming Masters for 2.5 years now and compete regularly (usually 7-10 meets per short course season). Back in the day, I was a backstroker and butterflier, and my events were the 200 back, 200 fly, and 400 IM. That was...a while...ago, though. Over the past 1.5 years, I've focused on backstroke and have had great results. Dropped back down to within 4 seconds of my old 200 back time at the Indy Nats. However, now I'd like to switch focus and work on my fly, specifically the 200 fly. I've been able to BS my way through the 50 and 100 fly the past couple years without much real fly training, and am fairly satisfied with how I've swum in them. For the 200 fly, though, I'm scratching my head on the most efficacious way to train for that event. Due to my work and coaching schedule (I coach both kiddos and Masters), I can only practice 3-4 times a week. I'm only one of two swimmers on the team who even consider doing more than a 100 fly, so none of the sets at the practices we swim at are written for flyers. I've pretty much written off any substantive fly training happening during the organized Masters practices, since there are just too many people for me to just swim fly instead of XYZ stroke we're supposed to be doing. My current plan is to swim three times a week with my team and then 2-3 times a week on my own (for about 1-1.5 hours each time). Since it's been so long since I trained for the 200 fly, and back then I was doing doubles and about 12,000 yards a day, what would y'all recommend I do to train for it when I swim on my own? I've swum the 200 fly three times in meets as a Masters swimmer. I did it once on a whim two years ago when I was able to practice 6 times a week, so I was in better overall shape than I am now, and went a 2:32. I swam it two weeks ago (after almost a month out of the water due to work conflicts) and went a 2:47. Swam it again this past weekend after swimming two practices all fly with fins and went a 2:43. My goal time is around a 2:20 by Santa Clara. I've got the technique down, I'm just struggling mightily with the endurance now, and have never trained for the 200 fly outside of age group swimming. EDIT--Man, I'd totally forgotten about the stroke/IM workouts that are posted on the forum. I'll check those out and modify them as needed. Still, I welcome any additional advice y'all have. Thanks!