How about a few tips on maintaining pace for longer sets. I can maintain t-pace pretty easily for sets of 100 - 300 mtrs. I see a drop off for those 400 - 500 mtr sets. How about some swim tips to help maintain speed on the longer sets? Thanks
How about it!
I might sound like a ass by saying this but … Train more.
As a competitive swimmer in college we always trained twice the distance that we competed. So if you’re event was the 500 free you swam more than your fair share of 1000’s during training. Distance swimming is a little bit different animal but I think you get what I’m saying.
In order to truly have a constant pace you’re going to have to put in some longer sets. 200’s and 300’s isn’t going to cut it. Have one swimming workout a week that’s like your long runs … do some 800’s and 1000’s at a certain pace then go back to the 400’s during another workout and see how you do.
Hope this helps
I agree chjohnson. You need to train more. If you were looking to maintain a greater speed on the bike or faster pace on the run, you would train for it.
I do not know what happened to triathlete’s but as soon as the TI method of swimming came out, people stopped putting in the hard pool efforts.
Shorten your recovery intervals. And as other posters said… train more.
Also, your pace is going to slow down when you increase the distance, if you can swim a 200 and a 500 at the same pace, your not going hard enough on the 200.
I love how folks are telling you to train more, when you have not even told them how much you train…Listen, it has nothing to do with how much you train, guys that train 15k a day have the same problem. It is the nature of all sports that the shorter the distance you train, the faster the pace. If you want to do the same time for a 200 as a 500, then you have to do the 200 easier than it should be done in an interval session. You can do the same time all day regardelss of distance, but you may as well be in a lake doing a 5k straight swim. Intervals are done for reasons, some for speed, some for endurance. Other than slowing down your 200, take less rest doing the 200’s and more rest doing 500’s, that will net a closer pace. But don’t get caught up too much on a workout like that, it will only serve to flaten out your race times. Once in awhile ok, but use the pool and intervals to do what they have been doing since they were first used, building more speed in short ones with long rest, and endurance in longer ones with less…
I actually see my pace descend as I get deeper into my main sets and then start to head back up towards the end, so my fastest intervals are usually in the middle part of the training and I can hold that for a while until the last few get progressively slower.
In thing that helps me is looking at my watch every 100. If you track your splits over a 500 you can learn where you drop off and how over-pace you are in beginning.
Its a little tricky catching your time in mid flip and I occasionally miss a split, but it also give you some math to do on the longer sets.
How did you determine your T pace?
jaretj
In thing that helps me is looking at my watch every 100. If you track your splits over a 500 you can learn where you drop off and how over-pace you are in beginning.
Its a little tricky catching your time in mid flip and I occasionally miss a split, but it also give you some math to do on the longer sets.I look at the clock on the wall for 50 splits twice in a row every 500, both to tell what kind of a pace I’m holding, and to keep track of my splits. Its a pretty good spacing… I don’t obsess over splits on longer distances, but I can still get a sense of what I’m doing.
How did you determine your T pace?
jaretj
this is a good question. maybe it’s time to do another test set to reevaluate your t-pace.
but again this is natural - just think about a race - you go hard at the beginning of the swim to hopefully get some open water, and then settle into a pace. plus, i know that the longer i swim the less i kick so i try to limit my kick in the begining of a long set/swim and then turn up the kick once i reach the second half. one thing that a coach once told me is to break your swim into 4 parts, go pace the 1st quarter, work your upper body the 2nd (i.e. higher turnover/more power through the pull), turn up the kick in the 3rd quarter, and then just finish with good technique.
i do agree that you should not be going the same pace for a 200 as a 500 - they’re totally different lengths.
As stated by others, it is perfectly normal to have a pace drop off as the distance gets longer. In fact, swimming that way in training is fundemental to efficient training. That being said, you must keep in mind that it is highly possible that the problem is not that your distance swims are too slow but that your short stuff is too slow. That is a very typical issue with triathletes. You may actually need to work on increasing the difference by going faster on the short stuff. So, the answer may not be train more but it is almost certainly train differently.
Swimming is no different than running. No one complains about not being able to hold their typical 200m interval run pace for a 1 mile training repeat. The only relevant question is which of those two times you are less satisfied with. Then, modify your training to deal with your particular issue.
Many athletes in their primary sport track their progress and you may too. Some use GPS watches, Bike computers and in the pool we use pace clocks. When you run or bike many people track your pace? If you are a runner your know about what your pace should be for a 5K and how it differs for a 10K, 1/2 marathon or marathon. You don’t expect to hold a 5K pace for a marathon. Same goes for the bike with speed, power etc.
The basic parts of swim training is knowing how to judge what you are doing. In swimming we do this with a pace clock. Your workouts should have a purpose or multiple goals, some may be strength with pulling, kicking, drills for technique, intervals etc. but you should know what pace you are swimming for just about all your swims. If you are doing a 1000 yard swim, you should look at the pace clock just after your turn at each 100 and see what your time was for that 100. Follow the clock each 100 and in time you will be comfortable figuring out what pace you are going and what pace you want to be. This is second nature to swimmers who have been doing it since they started swimming.
Once you understand your pacing, you should teach yourself what pace you should be throughout the race distance and train accordingly. If you go out too fast or too slow in a race, your time will suffer. Pacing is an important part of your race skills. Understanding pace allows you to set goals and train through pacing in workouts to continually improve.
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In short, two words: negative split
In long, an excerpt from “Finding Freestyle”:
The basic idea of a negative split is that the second half of the swim is faster than the first. So, if you are doing a 200 negative split, and your first 100 is done in 2:00, the second 100 needs to be faster than 2:00. For some, changing speeds may come quite naturally. For the rest of us mortals, the primary focus on this must be patience. It can be extremely vexing to attempt to negative split at first – you come off the wall feeling fresh, your technique is at it peak, and even the least amount of effort seems to yield superior speed. As you move along, fatigue sets in, your body position starts to falter, and all of a sudden increases in speed can become elusive. In order to properly achieve this, at first, you need to begin by forcing yourself to swim at an effort level that is far below your capabilities.
regards,
r.b.