'Pacing' by Clay Evans

[Pacing is apparently the paradigm for spectacular swimming. We are seeing it with Michael Phelps and Kate Zeigler as well. Clay Evans wrote an article for SCAQ members regarding pacing.]

PACE PACE PACE! For those of you who are ocean swimmers and don't think pacing is important, take a look at Kate Ziegler who just broke Janet Evan's 19-year-old World Record in the 1500, the oldest record on the books. She broke the World Record by 11 seconds holding nearly precision timing pacing. See her splits below for her world record:

15:42.54:
29.23 31.26
31.60 31.37
31.71 31.57
31.60 31.53
31.54 31.60
31.79 31.68
31.59 31.56
31.43 31.51
31.34 31.51
31.65 31.67
31.44 31.51
31.72 31.75
31.38 31.99
31.59 31.72
31.42 29.27

You can bet she did this over and over in workout until it felt second nature to her. She was definitely in a groove. This applies in the ocean as well. If you know your pace and are in a groove when you swim you will finish stronger and without dying at the end of the race. Everyone has an optimal pacing speed. You need to spend some time in the pool going back and forth and working with the clock, to know what that pace is for you personally. This comes from clockwork, during warm-up, main
sets, kick sets and warm down.

You can be sure that in the open rough water you will need to return to your pace. Something will interrupt you or throw you off pace and you need to be able to find your pace again and return to it. Pacing not only means finding your racing speed and sticking to it, but also means holding back a little. If you go out, or begin, a race too fast you will struggle with fatigue at some point in the race. Fatigue will result in poor technique, which will in turn slow you down. If Kate Ziegler had started her race too fast she could never have held another 14 100's at that pace. She knew what she was doing. She had practiced it over and over.