In my most recent blog entry, "One Man's Garbage..." forums.usms.org/blog.php , I asked my fellow swimmers their respective opinions on the impact long, slow, continuous swimming has on meet performance.
The expression "garbage yards" (and the pejorative overtones such a phrase conjurs) has become so embedded in the forum lexicon that many, I suspect, now consider as indisputable truth swimming this way is a waste of time for anyone with competitive ambitions.
Such a view appears particularly well-entrenched among the many non-credentialed exercise physiology pontificators here on the forums who also have a fondness for sprinting and dry land exercise.
But is the concept of garbage yards truly valid--or a kind of urban legend made up largely by sprinters who would rather be doing something other than spending 90 minutes without stopping in the pool?
I don't mean only practicing this way. But if you are, like me, inclined to enjoy swimming, once or twice a week, long, slow, relatively relaxing, continuous yards, do you believe (and more importantly, perhaps, have any evidence to bolster said belief) that so-called "garbage yards" can have some value for actual racing?
Or do these only teach your body to swim slow?
I invite you to read my recent blog forums.usms.org/blog.php and post your thoughts advice there or here.
At the risk of provoking censure by the forum authorities, I furthermore ask you to leave all civility by the wayside.
Feel free to trash talk and smack upside the head of any and every one who disagrees with your personal bias here!
It's been way too long since these forums have had a good, old-fashioned range war of opinions run amuk and ad hominem attacks!
Go at each other tooth and claw. It will only stir the blood of us all, I say--something we garbage yard enthusiasts probably need a bit more of, I will admit.
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Former Member
Hello! I am going to contribute to this poll topic now. But first, the 200 free has been absolutely pummeled in this thread so far. I thought I'd give it a little bit of appreciation.
I love the 200 freestyle. I love doing 200s in practice, I love doing 200s in races. I sincerely don't understand all this "evil race" talk. Some of the things that have been said in this thread seem like slander to me. Come here, 200 free distance, come to my embrace, away from these slimy, monocle-and-top-hat wearing villains. :bighug:
Okay, so on the topic of Il Garbagio.... lately, I did this following workout:
500 warm-up
1x800 on 13:00
2x700s on 11:00
3x600s on 9:00
4x500s on 7:30
5x400s on 6:00
6x300s on 4:30
7x200s on 3:00 descending 1-3, 4-6, recovery 7
8x100s on 1:30 ALL OUT
500 warm-down
13k yards total. I found it in a Michael Phelps book. I added the intervals, intensity, and the 500 bookends. Everything up to the 200s was on 90%. It took almost 3.5 hours to complete.
When I finished that set, I did not feel like I had wasted 3.5 hours of my life. I did not feel like Duke Vittorino il Garbagio, either. I did not feel like I had wandered nowhere on the back of inuring, mind-numbing discomfort and pain.
I instead felt the most invincible pride, the most invulnerable happiness, the most scintillating, seductive illusion of indestructibility. I did not feel like I had somewhat closed or shut the door, the access point, the portal, the gateway, to more speed, to faster times... instead I felt that door was now a gaping maw of opportunity that it was impossible for me to fool myself from entering because I would be too blind or too lazy, because now it did the work for me, it vacuumed me into and on through to its inescapable consequences and conclusions: I had worked hard, I had used my body for what its made, I had told my body what its made for, and I had unlocked the permission slips, the permits, to acquire more of that all too obsessing, wonderful, sublime, and soul-penetrating thing- SPEED, the wheels spinning me forth on the highway to a land, a plane, a happy place where times are smaller. Faster.
Hello! I am going to contribute to this poll topic now. But first, the 200 free has been absolutely pummeled in this thread so far. I thought I'd give it a little bit of appreciation.
I love the 200 freestyle. I love doing 200s in practice, I love doing 200s in races. I sincerely don't understand all this "evil race" talk. Some of the things that have been said in this thread seem like slander to me. Come here, 200 free distance, come to my embrace, away from these slimy, monocle-and-top-hat wearing villains. :bighug:
Okay, so on the topic of Il Garbagio.... lately, I did this following workout:
500 warm-up
1x800 on 13:00
2x700s on 11:00
3x600s on 9:00
4x500s on 7:30
5x400s on 6:00
6x300s on 4:30
7x200s on 3:00 descending 1-3, 4-6, recovery 7
8x100s on 1:30 ALL OUT
500 warm-down
13k yards total. I found it in a Michael Phelps book. I added the intervals, intensity, and the 500 bookends. Everything up to the 200s was on 90%. It took almost 3.5 hours to complete.
When I finished that set, I did not feel like I had wasted 3.5 hours of my life. I did not feel like Duke Vittorino il Garbagio, either. I did not feel like I had wandered nowhere on the back of inuring, mind-numbing discomfort and pain.
I instead felt the most invincible pride, the most invulnerable happiness, the most scintillating, seductive illusion of indestructibility. I did not feel like I had somewhat closed or shut the door, the access point, the portal, the gateway, to more speed, to faster times... instead I felt that door was now a gaping maw of opportunity that it was impossible for me to fool myself from entering because I would be too blind or too lazy, because now it did the work for me, it vacuumed me into and on through to its inescapable consequences and conclusions: I had worked hard, I had used my body for what its made, I had told my body what its made for, and I had unlocked the permission slips, the permits, to acquire more of that all too obsessing, wonderful, sublime, and soul-penetrating thing- SPEED, the wheels spinning me forth on the highway to a land, a plane, a happy place where times are smaller. Faster.
