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

Hello, First, I am new to this forum and to the USMS. I was originally a 1m springboard diver in H.S. but not active in swimming. When I started swimming on our Masters team in February 2005, I entered the 500, 200, 100, and 50 FS races. My 500 time for my first race was 10:30, not bad but I wanted to improve. My last 500 race at the Keystone games in July was 8:30, a whole two minutes improvement. Here's what I contribute it to: 1. Practice 4x (+)/week 2. Stroke development w/ coach 3. Bi-lateral Breathing 4. Goal setting -To cross the English Channel in August 2007 I swim open water races in addition to my pool workout. Currently I swim 4x/week 5,000+ yds/swim. I mix it up by using workouts I found in Swim Magazine and Marcia Cleavland's website doversolo.com. I'll swim for an hour before the team shows up on team nights. Hope you all enjoyed my input. Tony

you've made some excellent progress keep doing what you're doing ande Originally posted by ow-swimmer Hello, First, I am new to this forum and to the USMS. I was originally a 1m springboard diver in H.S. but not active in swimming. When I started swimming on our Masters team in February 2005, I entered the 500, 200, 100, and 50 FS races. My 500 time for my first race was 10:30, not bad but I wanted to improve. My last 500 race at the Keystone games in July was 8:30, a whole two minutes improvement. Here's what I contribute it to: 1. Practice 4x (+)/week 2. Stroke development w/ coach 3. Bi-lateral Breathing 4. Goal setting -To cross the English Channel in August 2007 I swim open water races in addition to my pool workout. Currently I swim 4x/week 5,000+ yds/swim. I mix it up by using workouts I found in Swim Magazine and Marcia Cleavland's website doversolo.com. I'll swim for an hour before the team shows up on team nights. Hope you all enjoyed my input. Tony

are you still around, ande? I certainly would like to discuss strategies to make leaps and bounds (or maybe less splashes, then :D)

hello yes I am but I don't check this thread often I've written many tips in swim faster faster forums.usms.org/showthread.php ande Originally posted by reej are you still around, ande? I certainly would like to discuss strategies to make leaps and bounds (or maybe less splashes, then :D)

anyone care to have a breakthrough? ande

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

Along these lines, how much slower than my best 50 free time do I want my 50 split in the 100 to be? How about the 200? I'm pretty sure I went out too slow in my last meet at about 2 seconds slower in the 100 and 5 in the 200.

hello I've written about this topic in my swim faster faster series for the 100 Ideally your first 50 split for the 100 should be between 1.0 - 2.0 seconds slower than your 50 time your second 50 split should be 1.0 - 2.5 slower than what you did your first 50 in, ideally 1.5 so if you go 22.0 in the 50 when you're swimming a 100 you should go out in 23.5 and come back in 25.0 for the 200 the key is to take your race out fast but relaxed, breathe often, stay in control and save your legs your first 50 should be 2 - 3 seconds slower than your all out 50 your next 3 50 splits should be very close ie let's say you go 22.0 in the 50 and 48.5 in the 100 you should be able to go 1:47.0 in the 200 splitting it in the vicinity of 52.5 54.5 ideally 25.25 27.25 27.25 27.25 a good rule of thumb is to take your 100 time double it and add 10 seconds so if you go 55.0 in the 100 free you should be able to go 2:00 in the 200 free so your first 100 should be 4 seconds slower than your 100 time and your last 100 should be 6 seconds slower than your 100 time split their 200 59.0, 1:01.0 distance swimmers might only add 4 - 8 seconds drop dead sprints might add 11 - 15 when you compare 100 splits for the 200 your first and second 100 should be in the range of 0 - 4 seconds Ideally 1.0 - 2.0 to use real life examples heres some actual times from the recent Santa Clara meet Keller, Klete D 24 1:48.69 0:26.30 0:53.86 (27.56) 1:21.58 (27.72) 1:48.69 (27.11) Coughlin, Natalie 1:58.47 0:27.47 0:58.20 (30.73) 1:28.01 (29.81) 1:58.47 (30.46) Proper splitting really boils down to perceived effort and motivation: How does the swimmer feel at the half way point of her race? How intensely does the swimmer want to race the second last half? ande Originally posted by BillS Along these lines, how much slower than my best 50 free time do I want my 50 split in the 100 to be? How about the 200? I'm pretty sure I went out too slow in my last meet at about 2 seconds slower in the 100 and 5 in the 200.

Thank you, Ande, that is most helpful. I know you did a table of contents for your Swim Faster series, but it is still hard to find topics in there, and harder still to scroll through the many pages get to the right spot in that big thread. There is so much good stuff in there, I sure wish someone at USMS would set it up as a separate spot where you could jump directly from each topic to the responsive posts.