Thread: What can i do to help my sprinting endurance?

Plan your race as follows:

1. You must have a very thorough warm-up that you complete within 5 minutes of your race. That means that you have swam a minimum of 800 yds.

2. On the first 25 yds of your race you MUST, on the 2nd stroke after you breakout, start breathing every other stroke. DO NOT hold your breath on the first 25 yds. The air you breath in 'now' does not reach your muscles for about 30 - 35 seconds. So, if you don't breath at the beginning of your race, as you're coming into your 50 there is no fresh oxygen reaching your muscles because you didn't breath 30 seconds earlier.

3. Statistically, swimmers take a 3% drop in time when they taper. So, based on your 52.3, you can realistically go 50.7. If you swim the way I describe below, you should be able to go a bit faster. To do so, you need to determine how fast you should be going on the first 25 yds/m of your race and practice that speed, off the blocks, in practice.

The formula for determining that speed is to take your goal time and change it into all seconds (that statement is for those who are over a minute). Due to your start on the first length, depending on whether you have good starts or poor starts, add 1.4 to the seconds for your goal time. THEN divide by 4. That time is what each of your last THREE 25's should be. Then subtract 1.4 seconds (the start) from the time you should be doing for the last three 25s ... that should be your time for your first 25.

Here is what it looks like. Let's pretend your goal time is 50.6. Add 1.4 + 50.6 = 52.0.
divide 52.0 by 4 which equals 13.0.

So, you should be doing 13.0 for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 25s of your race. However, for the first length, you should subtract the 1.4 from 13.0 ... and that time (13.0 - 1.4 = 11.6) 11.6 is what your first 25 should be.

Thus, in practice, you should do some 25s with a LOT of rest between and see if you can hit 11.6 seconds (foot touch at the turn) from the starting blocks. You should be stretching your stroke and breathing. The big thing is relaxing and building your speed as you swim.

The key thing is that during your race you must work at speeding up BEFORE each turn and hold that speed for the next whole length ... always be speeding up slightly throughout the race. Then, on the last 30 yards, you've GOT to use your kick and really sprint it home.

I am a sprinter and my best times are 23.2, and 52.3, in the 50 and 100 free, i have been swimmin for 2 years and when i swim my 100 i keep on dying lately like all come out a 24.8 but then die what can i do to help, or is it just b/c of all the hard work we do because im gion to start to taper in a couple of days, i swim 5 hours a day

Well your times are incredible...
but it seems like your about to burn out and you DONT want to do that..
so look forward to Tapering.

I dont breathe the first 25 of my 100 and i go a 49.3. After the first lap, i normally breathe 5 strokes out of my turn and then whenever i have to after that. My coaches were concerned that I would become oxygen deprived, so they recommended i planned my breathing for the first lap. When i take even one breath my first 25, i end up adding almost a second of time to my 100. Your recommendations dont work for everyone. Get this: The amount of time i spend without oxygen is only 10-15 seconds. I dont "die" or my muscles dont wear out because i breathe after those 10-15 seconds and replenish my muscles' energy supply just enough to finish my race. And heck, my heart races enough after the first 50 that its just an all out sprint from there, and it brings me home on the last 50 just as fast as it would if i did take a breath my first lap.