TJ's Blog of Slow (but improving) Swimming!

My on fly: this seems to be the one stroke that can break down / feel bad the quickest for me during hard training ... but also the one that can benefit the most from rest. I often will have a fly event (typically 100 or 200) as my taper meet in addition to IMs. In the week leading up to that meet, I do VERY LITTLE fly in workout. Consider not doing any fly (or doing exceedingly) little on Thursday and Friday. It might not work for your CPP, but it does for me.

Thanks Pat. I typically swim only four times per week, M/W/F/S. My coach will have me do very little on Friday. Perhaps a warmup, one or two sprint 25s and some drills, then a warmdown. I will do no fly on Friday. The last time I swam the 200 IM, I knocked 4 seconds off my 50 fly while trying to go slow. My stroke felt very relaxed, long, and comfortable. I hope to get that feeling again in both my 200 IM and my first ever 100 fly. How about warmup? Do you do fly? Or any variation of it? In November, I did 100-150 yards of 1-arm fly, very slowly, just to work on timing and warm up. Do you have any suggestions?

At the Colonies Zones SCM meet, I swam 3 events with fly in them -- 200 IM, 100 fly, 400 IM. My meet warmup these days is generally the following:

• 200 free really easy & loose
• 400 IM kick / drill by 25s
• 8 x 50: 2 each stroke on roughly 0:45 to 1:00 (depending upon how crowded the pool is) going odds easy and evens fast
• 4 x 100: free descend on 1:30
  
  • starting fairly moderate and trying to get to the pace time on the last one for whatever freestyle event I'm swimming over 200
  • if I'm not doing a longer distance free event, I aim for my target 500 pace
  
  
• 2 - 4 25s from the blocks: working start and break out to about 15 yards for whatever strokes I'm swimming from a start
• 50 to 100 easy

With that said, in terms of fly:

• On the 50s for the fly portion, I generally do the easy one single arm drill and the fast one moderate full stroke
• I then do 1 or 2 of the 25s from the blocks fly

For more background: I'm not a natural butterflyer; the stroke does not come easy for me. I've learned how to swim pretty fast when I'm rested, but generally rely on my freestyle to do the bulk of my warming up in a meet.

Thanks for the help. I'll try them out this weekend. I'm not a natural flyer either. As a matter of fact, I'm not much of a natural any-stroker, but my free is improving!

TJ, My fly felt positively horrible mid-way through my taper. Now, after more rest, it feels better. I second Patrick's suggestion of not doing much fly before the meet. You don't need to, maybe just a few lengths of easy speed. Try to stay smooth on your last 50. You may feel some rigor mortis the last 10 yards or so of your race. Don't worry about it. Breath a lot the first 50, like every other stroke.

That's a lot of warm up Patrick posted. Reflects his distance bias. I wouldn't do that much myself.

Thanks for the good wishes. Right back at ya. Is your meet on Sat or Sun?

Yes, Fort, you are right that my warmup is longer. Please recognize that, while I may enter a 50 free or even a 100, I'm always aiming to swim my fastest in a 200 / 400 / 500 event.

I'm swimming the 500 free on Saturday night and the remainder of my events on Sunday. Saturday will see the 1650, the 1000, and the 500 free, the 400 IM, and 200 choice except free. The 500 is the last event, so I probably won't swim until 5:00 or so.

Then do a long warm up like like the Brundage dude!

My typical warmup has been 500-600, followed by some drills, depending upon what events I will swim. Throw in a couple of sprints and/or starts and another 100 to 200 ez. I'm fairly comfortable with what I need to do on Saturday for the 500, it's the Sunday warmup that concerns me most. I'll figure it out though. Things worked out okay last November.