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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Ricky Berens - What is Speed?