Interesting Meet Feedback

I had a few people mention to me that other than the underwaters and finish, I was moving through the water at the same speed as the guy who swam the 54 second 100m Backstroke.  Now lets back up a moment.  Those are some huge parts of the race I just isolated there.  My start is solid but once I'm underwater, I'm do not have the speed like these other guys do.  Considering that in a 100 meter long course backstroke, I have the start and the turn which I am losing ground to other swimmers.  Add my poor ability to finish a race and we arrive at the 3.4 second difference between world class, and Kevin Doak's 100 Backstroke.

Sadly, I've known about these deficiencies for a while and I'm not making a lot of progress with them since joining Club Wolverine.  I had a great conversation with Assistant Coach Josh White on Thursday about how I can improve my ability to finish the races.  His recommendation was that during my race pace sets (typically 100meters/yards) that I should not pace myself at all, go all out and HOLD ON.  By depleting all my energy, I will push that threshold and my body will learn to deal with the pain and will hopefully increase my endurance.  This is a contrast to how I currently swim race pace.  I've always looked at it as if I need the best time.  Now I will ignore the time and push my body past it's limit.  I will crash and burn in the set but I will teach my body to deal with it.

It's a new concept anyway, I'll give it a shot.