What do YOU need to do to have a major swimming breakthrough?"

hi Feisty, on paper if you can go a 27.9 you should be able to take your 100 fr out in 28.9 and come home in 30.4 which is a 59.3 at worst you should come back in 30.99 which still puts you at 59.99 from reading your splits below, it looks to me like you're haing a hard time finishing your races I would work on the things I write about in swim faster faster train more often train harder swim faster in practice wear a fast skin shave lose weight work on splitting lift weights pick a meet set a goal good luck hope this helps ande Originally posted by aquaFeisty Hi Ande, I would love to break through the minute in the 100 free. Here are my lifetime bests: 2002 IL States 1:01.79 (29.48, 32.31) 2003 Nationals 1:01.91 (28.64, 33.27) 2006 IL States 1:02.30 (29.46, 32.84) 2006 Nationals 1:02.16 (29.61, 32.55) I took the 03-04 and 04-05 seasons off (burnt-out and pregnant, respectively). In 2002 and 2003, my 50 time was 27.77 and this past season it was 27.94. In *theory* a sub minute 100 should be possible. This past season, I swam 2-4 times/week for an hour to hour 15 - these were coached practices. I was really ugly-out-of-shape at the beginning of the season, so initially focussed on technique on slow repeats. Specifically, I spent the season working on taking at least 2 dolphins off every single flip turn, streamlining out of turns, and kicking with a 6-beat kick all the time (even if the kick wasn't all that strong - this was a huge improvement over my old 1 1/2 beat kick). My in-season times were really slow, 1:07, so I was very psyched to be so close to my best times at the end of the season. This was despite packing around a 20 lb baby at meets... not carrying the baby should help my arms a bit next season. So what can I work on to get down closer to and hopefully under a minute? This is my goal for the end of the 06-07 season. I know I die off way too bad on the 2nd 50... how can I bring this back better? Or, how can I use less energy on the first 50 to help bring the 2nd one back faster? My legs sap so much energy, but if I don't kick hard on that first 50 I have no chance of a decent time. FYI, my 200 is even uglier in terms of dying off... best time is 2:19.7 (in 2002), this season it was only 2:23. Thanks! Feisty

hi Feisty, on paper if you can go a 27.9 you should be able to take your 100 fr out in 28.9 and come home in 30.4 which is a 59.3 at worst you should come back in 30.99 which still puts you at 59.99 from reading your splits below, it looks to me like you're haing a hard time finishing your races I would work on the things I write about in swim faster faster train more often train harder swim faster in practice wear a fast skin shave lose weight work on splitting lift weights pick a meet set a goal good luck hope this helps ande Originally posted by aquaFeisty Hi Ande, I would love to break through the minute in the 100 free. Here are my lifetime bests: 2002 IL States 1:01.79 (29.48, 32.31) 2003 Nationals 1:01.91 (28.64, 33.27) 2006 IL States 1:02.30 (29.46, 32.84) 2006 Nationals 1:02.16 (29.61, 32.55) I took the 03-04 and 04-05 seasons off (burnt-out and pregnant, respectively). In 2002 and 2003, my 50 time was 27.77 and this past season it was 27.94. In *theory* a sub minute 100 should be possible. This past season, I swam 2-4 times/week for an hour to hour 15 - these were coached practices. I was really ugly-out-of-shape at the beginning of the season, so initially focussed on technique on slow repeats. Specifically, I spent the season working on taking at least 2 dolphins off every single flip turn, streamlining out of turns, and kicking with a 6-beat kick all the time (even if the kick wasn't all that strong - this was a huge improvement over my old 1 1/2 beat kick). My in-season times were really slow, 1:07, so I was very psyched to be so close to my best times at the end of the season. This was despite packing around a 20 lb baby at meets... not carrying the baby should help my arms a bit next season. So what can I work on to get down closer to and hopefully under a minute? This is my goal for the end of the 06-07 season. I know I die off way too bad on the 2nd 50... how can I bring this back better? Or, how can I use less energy on the first 50 to help bring the 2nd one back faster? My legs sap so much energy, but if I don't kick hard on that first 50 I have no chance of a decent time. FYI, my 200 is even uglier in terms of dying off... best time is 2:19.7 (in 2002), this season it was only 2:23. Thanks! Feisty