200 Breaststroke

Make sure you do a really good warm-up first. I need at least 600 to warm-up. I say start with 5 x 100 and then work up to 10X100 if you have time. If your stroke gets a little ragged that's OK as it will probably get ragged in a race and you want to be confident you can finish anyway. If it gets very ragged stop and do something else,as you want to minimize swimming with poor form. If you think you can get close to your goal time enter it for the meet.If not enter a time you can do. I think it's great to be in a heat with people about your speed to swim with/against.

Don't worry how you look,no one but you will care. I do agree with Peter,it's better to go out too slow than too fast,you can always speed up the second half. The books I read say a 4 sec. drop off the second 100 is about right for a 200 BR. Very few masters swimmers do that,if you can you will almost certainly be catching or passing people. Good Luck.

Rich- Allen's advice is golden. Be aware that if you take that first 100 out too fast, much as in the 200 fly (esp. LCM!) you may have an-out-of-body experience in the last laps.

Rich- Allen's advice is golden. Be aware that if you take that first 100 out too fast, much as in the 200 fly (esp. LCM!) you may have an-out-of-body experience in the last laps. I get that on 50 of crawl!!!:rofl: Thank you both for advice. I'll be training tomorrow and I'll give you some feedback. Yeah I don't mind being in a slow heat. Of course I want to do the best I can do, and to be honest I'm more nevrous of looking a fool on the dive and turns...it's been a while LOL

If you want to swim a good 200 *** you need to learn pace. What works for me for pace is doing 100's with twice as much rest as swimming,trying to keep the times at the speed I want to swim the second 100. If you have a goal time this works great. If you don't I'd suggest doing 100's on the 4 min. Start at a moderate pace and the see if you can go faster each time. When you can't go faster this is now your goal time. Try to keep every 100 at that speed. After 2-3 weeks try to see if you can lower your goal time. Do this 1-2 times per week.

If you want to swim a good 200 *** you need to learn pace. What works for me for pace is doing 100's with twice as much rest as swimming,trying to keep the times at the speed I want to swim the second 100. If you have a goal time this works great. If you don't I'd suggest doing 100's on the 4 min. Start at a moderate pace and the see if you can go faster each time. When you can't go faster this is now your goal time. Try to keep every 100 at that speed. After 2-3 weeks try to see if you can lower your goal time. Do this 1-2 times per week. Thanks Allen would you reccomend say doing this Monday and Friday and working on stroke/style on wednesday. (this is my workout schedule?) Also how long or # reps should I do the above workout? Should I do a nice easy 1/4 mile first then start or less warm up. would your goal time be my entry time on the form too? Sorry for nub questions.

My best 200 breaststroke races have been when I do a lot of broken 200s trying to maintain the pace for my goal time. 4 x 50 is my favorite way to break it up, that's how I think of it mentally when racing. However, one year my coach had me do 2 x 100; or 50, 100, 50; or 25, 75, 75, 25; or 150, 50 -- every possible combination. It worked. Betsy

OK I'm back from my first real training. Good news...I got a new PB!!!! :rofl: I did 100 on 4 x 5 times. I went 1:45, 1:45, 1:40, 1:40, 1:45 So my best is about 25 secs per 25Y. It means approx 3:30 on a 200. 1st placers I looked at go 2:50, so it is not embarrasingly slower. Considering it's my first time I am happy. I hope I will improve over the next few weeks as I've really only been swimming straight miles, and this kind of pacing work will kick in. I can really feel the after effects in my hams and that's good--I've not had to push myself up until today. I didn't go "nuts" on the speed...I tried to maintain form and breathing. I counted 12 strokes for the first 2 lengths and about 13 on the last two. I did not dive. I did not flip turn. I did not have on race gear, just water shorts. SO If I can get that time a second closer to 20 secs per length between now and Jan 28th I'll be happy. To round off I did 2 sets of Crawl 3x 50's on 2 fo the first set then a "strictly form set" where I ignored the clock pretty much. I Tried to easy *** out the rest of a mile but a calf cramp flared after another 300 and I sensibly called it a day. If anyone has any thoughts or comments on how I did please share them. Rich Here is my analysis of training--I also posted in another thread too, apologies if you've already read it.

Great,keep working on the streamline. I found that REALLY shrugging my shoulders forward to streamline every recovery sropped my SPL by one while maintaining my speed. Remember the fewer strokes you take the first 100 the more energy you have the second 100.

I swam for style and technique tonight.. I got down to 9 or 10 strokes (SCY) with just a push-off, a pull-out, and a good streamline.