Speed is all relative. A distance swimmer thinks he's fast. He's not. I don't have the fastest turnover. I'm not the fastest 50 freestyler. But I can hold a good speed the entire race. Eddie Reese always told me that speed comes with taper, which meant that he has long tapers, and you end up with a lot of POP to your stroke. I also felt that during that taper, you had to learn your stroke. Your body and stroke weren't used to the pop and increased stroke rate. It's a learning curve that you can learn with fins, paddles and stretch cords. For the 200 speed, I like to hit that speed at least once in every practice, even if it's just for a 50 at the end. Leading up to the 2012 Games, I could do a 50 freestyle, and know within 10ths of a second what my time was because I did it so frequently. If the 200 pace was 27.0 or 26.5, I would start training my pace at 25s. That way a 26 felt so easy.
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