I have trouble swimming the 500 freestyle i have a very fast 200 free and 100 and 50 but struggle to hold pace any suggestions
I have trouble swimming the 500 freestyle i have a very fast 200 free and 100 and 50 but struggle to hold pace any suggestions
If you have a good 200 free, you should be able to hold on long enough to have a decent 500. You'll need a bit more conditioning, of course. And I believe it is important to do sets at 500 race pace on short rest so you get a feel for holding pace. I like to do USPRT sets. My USRPT for 500 training is repeat 50s holding 29 seconds or better on a 50-second sendoff. I do two sets of 30 of those. Of course, as designed by USRPT, I never do the full 60 because I fail out of the set. But that set gives a great feel for the pace and also improves conditioning.
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mmlr38,
Curious why you wouldn't use 100 yd as a distance to train for the 500?
I'm 56 and the national record for the 500 yd free is 4:56, so obviously :29 is not a realistic race pace for those in my age group, but holding 1:05 - 1:10 on 100s swam on a 2:00 interval seems like it might have merit. What do you think? Just seems the 500 requires a mind set of pacing longer distances than the 50, but curious what others think.
The pace I can hold for 60 repeat 50s on a 50 second sendoff, is much closer to my race pace for the 200 and 500. When I do 40 repeat 100s, the pace I can hold is closer to my 1000 or 1650 pace.
So swimming 50s at your 500 pace until you break is a great way to train the pace and feel of the race. Some days with longer sets will help with endurance as well, but for the pacing and muscle specific training, I like repeat 50s to train for the 200 and 500.
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I found the following thread very helpful in trying to improve my 500 time. The biggest advice that I can give is to take it out easy. Like, 3 seconds slower than you the pace where you feel like you are going too slow on the opening hundred! Good streamlines, build your kick as the race goes on. Posts #6,8,14 have good ideas to employ from some great distance swimmers in the Masters ranks...
http://forums.usms.org/showthread.ph...e%20500%20free
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I split the difference, using 75s at race pace to train for the 400/500 free. 100s are too demanding; I fall off the pace before I get enough repetitions to get the desired training effect. 50's I find too easy. I can cruise the first 25 off the fresh rest, blast a strong turn, and maybe only "feel the burn" for the last 10-12 strokes. 75s force me to be a little more conservative for the turns (more closely replicating what I can sustain for an entire 500 race), and I have to swim against the burn (which feels like the back 300 of a 500 race) for the entire second 50 of each repeat after about 5 or 6 reps. I can get to failure much sooner than with 50s, while still getting enough strokes at race pace too have a positive training effect.
I often do 75s as well. 100s are just a bit too long to hold 500 pace for very many reps. 50s and 75s are doable.What amount of rest are you taking? If I try to hold a fast pace (~200 pace) on a sendoff where I get 20 seconds rest, it doesn't take long before the pain starts to set in. I can maybe do a dozen or so and then the burn gets pretty dang intense.
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mm & Gary & knel,
that's all good stuff. I'm back in the pool after three decades away and very new to all this usrpt approach. But I can relate to breaking down trying to swim 100's as part of a broken 500. I always start the workout optimistic and they just waste me and my hope of holding a 1:05 pace soon falls into the reality of 1:15 or worse after 4 or 5 100s.
I have a much better result when holding 50s for my 200 pace, just never considered doing the volume of 50s mentioned here. If my desired time for the 500 is 5:25, that breaks down to 10 50s at :32.5 and I think I can hold more than 10 at that pace if I get some rest. Is the amount rest related to age, or the number of reps, or none of the above and just get in shape!
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