Finishing Strong

Let's take a look at the 200 freestyle splits at the recent (2014) Pan-Pacific Championships:

Katie Ledecky - current USA freestyle phenom

1. 27.49
2. 29.12
3. 29.49
4. 29.64

Conor Dwyer - up-and-coming USA freestyler

1. 24.83
2. 26.93
3. 27.36
4. 27.33

Ledecky's last three splits were within 0.52 seconds of each other. Dwyer's last three splits were within 0.40 seconds of each other. Is this a coincidence? It almost makes them seem like machines. Well, let's face it. They are. 

Now feast your eyes on something even more mind-blowing...Ledecky's 400 free splits at the same meet in which she set a World Record:

1. 27.85
2. 30.02 (57.87)
3. 30.04
4. 30.39 (1:00.43)
5. 30.07
6. 30.37 (1:00.40)
7. 30.33
8. 29.30 (59.63)

Can you believe that!? That's probably why she is (not so arguably) the best women's freestyler in the history of swimming. She knows how to finish a race. After 300 meters of freestyle holding under world-record pace, she shifted gears and picked it up! She dropped a full second in her last 100. That's determination and a willingness to succeed. She didn't say to herself, "I have a 6 second lead, I'm just going to shut it down and coast to the finish." Good athletes never say that. When there isn't anyone to race, they race the clock.

Negative splitting is a common term in endurance sports like swimming, running, and cycling. It means that if you cut your race in half, the second half is faster than the first half. This is a very tough thing to do because as the race goes on, you get more and more tired and your form starts to turn to garbage.

This week, I have really been working on my girls to finish their races HARD. We get way to caught up in getting out to a fast start, that we forget the end is even more important than the beginning. In a 200 freestyle, no one cares who had the fastest first 50. 

For example...one of my boys swam the 200 free at the state meet in 2013. He went out like a bullet. Out of the 24 swimmers, his firsts 50 was the 2nd fastest. His last 50 was the slowest. He ended up 18th out of 24. Then in 2014 he turned it around. His splits were 24, 26, 27, 27. He ended up 11th and was 2.5 seconds faster than in 2013.

So we have been doing some tough sets that challenge the girls in the SECOND half of their swimming. A lot of negative split 200s and 300s. Last night we did some 50s. The goal of each 50 was to be fast from the turn to the finish. We had a lot of good swims. I am sick of getting passed in the last 10 yards of a race. If you practice swimming fast at the end of your races, and being mentally tough to push through that "brick wall" that is inevitably waiting for you at the 85 yard mark...YOU WILL GET FASTER.

Let's work on figuratively running through a brick wall, not actually running through a brick wall :)