Reply To: Help
There’s a pretty big gap between 1:51 and 1:47 or even 1:48. I think it’s OK to chase a “goal” pace, but you need to be careful not to be so aggressive with your goal that you’re not achieving a critical amount of distance before failing the set. How far is the “critical distance?” I don’t have any evidence to back it up, but to me it seems like it’s at least 600m when training for a 200m race.
BTW, what does your coach say? Because if you can do a 100 METERS in less than 50 seconds and are in the low 1:50’s for a 200 meter free, I can’t believe you aren’t working with a professional coach already. That’s out there at the pointy end of the performance curve; a place where improvements come in tiny slivers, not chunks or even bites. Expecting to extend your current 100 speed to the 200 in a few months seems overly optimistic given how much potential you seem to already be tapping. I mean 1:47.9 in the 200 meter (long course) freestyle was the cut for the semi-finals in the last Olympics. If you don’t have a coach, get one now because you’re on the threshold of being a world class athlete.
