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.
I'm a little late to the party on joining this discussion, but I've just had some recent conversations along these lines that crystallized my thoughts on this.
My constant battle in practices is to be able to push myself far enough into the "discomfort" zone. It takes physical energy and emotional energy. It's much easier to do something that pushes me a little, but doesn't take intense concentration. This can be a long slow/med swim, or it can be 100's on 1:40 at 20% to 25% slower than my fastest. On the surface it looks like I'm working, but the real work is how hard I have to dig, and how much discomfort I have to push through. Unfortunately the rest of my life (work, children, etc.) often requires that energy so I settle for leaving a little in the tank and not pushing to a highly uncomfortable stage of swimming. When I do have the luxury of pushing that hard (and most likely napping a couple of hours after the workout), and can summon the focus.....well, that is when I have seen my biggest gains in my times.
I push about as hard in every race I do. The difference in my race times is more often about how hard I worked on the preparation in practice (I keep meticulous records of every single practice I do). A set of 3 100's on 1:30 at 10% slower than my fastest takes concentration and putting up with a lot of discomfort (I'm 55... Make the interval shorter for you younger folks). When I can do this regularly, as part of a serious and well-structured sequence of workouts, my times drop. Or it might be a long swim(for me 500 to 1000) at 5% to 8% slower than my best, where I am in a high state of discomfort toward the end, again as a part of a well-structured sequence of workouts. When I can only do the regular serious workout without pushing into that zone of high discomfort,my times stay the same or even slide back a bit.
So I think there are all kinds of "garbage yards". The hardest thing for me to do is to have enough focus and drive to push into that high discomfort zone in practice. It's easy to do it in a meet, since it is episodic. But for me the gains come from going there as part of my workout regimen. When I need to shock myself out of complacency I go to a lot of meets to remind myself what that discomfort feels like. It's hard to do, and I can't always do it. So I guess for me the focus is not on what "garbage yards" are, but how to get their opposite in my workouts --- pushing to high levels of discomfort. (Note that I never used the word pain --- for me pain is a signal something is starting to go wrong, but serious discomfort is where my gains are made.)
My 2¥ worth!
I'm a little late to the party on joining this discussion, but I've just had some recent conversations along these lines that crystallized my thoughts on this.
My constant battle in practices is to be able to push myself far enough into the "discomfort" zone. It takes physical energy and emotional energy. It's much easier to do something that pushes me a little, but doesn't take intense concentration. This can be a long slow/med swim, or it can be 100's on 1:40 at 20% to 25% slower than my fastest. On the surface it looks like I'm working, but the real work is how hard I have to dig, and how much discomfort I have to push through. Unfortunately the rest of my life (work, children, etc.) often requires that energy so I settle for leaving a little in the tank and not pushing to a highly uncomfortable stage of swimming. When I do have the luxury of pushing that hard (and most likely napping a couple of hours after the workout), and can summon the focus.....well, that is when I have seen my biggest gains in my times.
I push about as hard in every race I do. The difference in my race times is more often about how hard I worked on the preparation in practice (I keep meticulous records of every single practice I do). A set of 3 100's on 1:30 at 10% slower than my fastest takes concentration and putting up with a lot of discomfort (I'm 55... Make the interval shorter for you younger folks). When I can do this regularly, as part of a serious and well-structured sequence of workouts, my times drop. Or it might be a long swim(for me 500 to 1000) at 5% to 8% slower than my best, where I am in a high state of discomfort toward the end, again as a part of a well-structured sequence of workouts. When I can only do the regular serious workout without pushing into that zone of high discomfort,my times stay the same or even slide back a bit.
So I think there are all kinds of "garbage yards". The hardest thing for me to do is to have enough focus and drive to push into that high discomfort zone in practice. It's easy to do it in a meet, since it is episodic. But for me the gains come from going there as part of my workout regimen. When I need to shock myself out of complacency I go to a lot of meets to remind myself what that discomfort feels like. It's hard to do, and I can't always do it. So I guess for me the focus is not on what "garbage yards" are, but how to get their opposite in my workouts --- pushing to high levels of discomfort. (Note that I never used the word pain --- for me pain is a signal something is starting to go wrong, but serious discomfort is where my gains are made.)
My 2¥ worth!
