r/competitiveswimming

Same weekly metres, mid-season. The first 100 of my 200 free is honest. On the last 50 the stroke gets long and late and the kick quits.

I do not want a bigger threshold set piled on the same week. If you kept the distance flat and the last 50 still moved, what did you change: a few race-pace 50s with full rest, a short kick set, or a breakout you had dropped? And what did you add that only made the next day heavy?

This is not a warm-up question, and it is not about coming back from a month out.

Mid-season meet coming up where I still want to race a 100 free clean, not invent a full taper. My usual warm-up has grown into a long checklist (easy, drills, a few race-pace scraps, underwater, kick). On race morning it feels like I'm already spending the race before the gun. If you've raced mid-season without a full taper, what did you actually keep in the warm-up for a 100 free, what did you cut without feeling cold or foreign in the water, and how long before the heat do you like to finish? Especially curious what protected the race underwater feel without another full kick set.