Training for the 200 fly

Warning, another rambling post. I am a 210lb ball of lard, so people who get bent out of shape about us lard balls can go ahead and ignore this post and save us all some grief. Matt, great post. I am someone who has never had a decent fly, but I am working towards completing a 200 fly with good form. I too am in the evil 40-44 age group, but you don't have to worry about me providing any competition to you. I was a nordic ski racer and not a swimmer in HS and college. The approach I am using to get there is extremely similar to the approach that you are using. When I started swimming again last October, (after a 28 year layoff from the swimming), I couldn't even swim a 50 Fly without butter struggle. By last spring I made it up to around 85 yards before it set in. So Progress is being made. (Even on the weight front, being a 210 lb ball of lard is a lot better than being 320lb ball of lard) I am not doing very many long fly swims, since the longest sustained fly I have been able to do so far is only about 115m. (I do this as part of my IM day). I am still an emerging flyer, so I try to maximize the number of stroks of good fly emphasis workout. If most of those good strokes have a lot of intervening freestyle so be it. It is the number of strokes that count. My technique for when I fall into butterstruggle is to keep going, but do a 2 one arms on each side and then pick it back up. That seems to be enough for me to clean out enough lactic acid to keep going for a while. Here are some workouts I am doing to work towards my goal. A typical fly emphasis workout is.. Warmup(1500m) 500m (alternate 3,5 BP by 100) 10X(50Dr, 50 Sw) Every 4-8 weeks I have my coach take a look at my stroke and he tells me what drills to do. 500 Superfly(6) (6 strokes fly/length, I worked up to this starting from 1) 5X600 (Superfly pyramid) 200( rev IM dr/sw by 25), 100 kick, 300 superfly(6,7,8,7,6) (I start with what I can do a 500 superfly in and then increase by 1 to the top and then go back down). I find that the dr/sw and kick help me stay loose. 5000m I tend to do my longer fly swims on the IM day. A typical IM day for me is shown below. Warmup(2000m) 1000 (3,5 BP by 100) 500 Superfly(6) 10X50(odds 1,3,5,7,9 BP, evens drill) Broken 300 Fly (125,75,100) When I can finish a distance, the IM pyramid is made taller. I would like the pyramid to peak out at 600m. IM Pyramid(1600,3600) 100,200,300,400,300,200,100 IM (20s rest/hundred) Strength work(1600m,5200m) 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Fly 40s rest 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Bk 10s rest 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Br 15s rest 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Fr 10s rest 5X100 IM work the turns cruise the rest hard interval 300 Warm down Since I will probably never swim an NQT, a sensible thing to ask is why I do this to myself? Fact of the matter is I grew up doing very long power-endurance workouts, and I got to the point where I enjoyed them. Since I can't XC anymore because of very unstable knees, doing all this long distance stroke work gives me a similar feeling to sking 50 km workout, the switches in technique are similar to the switches in technique that happen during a long ski. So the answer is that I do it because doing those types of workouts is fun.

Warning, another rambling post. I am a 210lb ball of lard, so people who get bent out of shape about us lard balls can go ahead and ignore this post and save us all some grief. Matt, great post. I am someone who has never had a decent fly, but I am working towards completing a 200 fly with good form. I too am in the evil 40-44 age group, but you don't have to worry about me providing any competition to you. I was a nordic ski racer and not a swimmer in HS and college. The approach I am using to get there is extremely similar to the approach that you are using. When I started swimming again last October, (after a 28 year layoff from the swimming), I couldn't even swim a 50 Fly without butter struggle. By last spring I made it up to around 85 yards before it set in. So Progress is being made. (Even on the weight front, being a 210 lb ball of lard is a lot better than being 320lb ball of lard) I am not doing very many long fly swims, since the longest sustained fly I have been able to do so far is only about 115m. (I do this as part of my IM day). I am still an emerging flyer, so I try to maximize the number of stroks of good fly emphasis workout. If most of those good strokes have a lot of intervening freestyle so be it. It is the number of strokes that count. My technique for when I fall into butterstruggle is to keep going, but do a 2 one arms on each side and then pick it back up. That seems to be enough for me to clean out enough lactic acid to keep going for a while. Here are some workouts I am doing to work towards my goal. A typical fly emphasis workout is.. Warmup(1500m) 500m (alternate 3,5 BP by 100) 10X(50Dr, 50 Sw) Every 4-8 weeks I have my coach take a look at my stroke and he tells me what drills to do. 500 Superfly(6) (6 strokes fly/length, I worked up to this starting from 1) 5X600 (Superfly pyramid) 200( rev IM dr/sw by 25), 100 kick, 300 superfly(6,7,8,7,6) (I start with what I can do a 500 superfly in and then increase by 1 to the top and then go back down). I find that the dr/sw and kick help me stay loose. 5000m I tend to do my longer fly swims on the IM day. A typical IM day for me is shown below. Warmup(2000m) 1000 (3,5 BP by 100) 500 Superfly(6) 10X50(odds 1,3,5,7,9 BP, evens drill) Broken 300 Fly (125,75,100) When I can finish a distance, the IM pyramid is made taller. I would like the pyramid to peak out at 600m. IM Pyramid(1600,3600) 100,200,300,400,300,200,100 IM (20s rest/hundred) Strength work(1600m,5200m) 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Fly 40s rest 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Bk 10s rest 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Br 15s rest 200 IM 40s rest 4X50 Fr 10s rest 5X100 IM work the turns cruise the rest hard interval 300 Warm down Since I will probably never swim an NQT, a sensible thing to ask is why I do this to myself? Fact of the matter is I grew up doing very long power-endurance workouts, and I got to the point where I enjoyed them. Since I can't XC anymore because of very unstable knees, doing all this long distance stroke work gives me a similar feeling to sking 50 km workout, the switches in technique are similar to the switches in technique that happen during a long ski. So the answer is that I do it because doing those types of workouts is fun.