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 think James was saying it used to be a sprint for him, but now he has to hold back a little. Yeah, those guys going 1:33 aren't holding back anything!
You got it Kirk. Even when I was fast in college (at a measley 1:42), I had to hold back just a little bit, but not much. It was basically a sprint for me then. Now if I go out the first 100 AFAP, I won't be coming home to finish till next week...
I find this really interesting, Jim. My current resting pulse rate is 38. I usually manage to get it down to 30 bpm, but this is helped by taking beta-blockers and other pills. I need a low resting pulse rate because I actually work between heart beats. I hope you find this of interest...
www.youtube.com/watch
:bow: :applaud: :thewave:
Wow! YES, I did find this of interest! Your patience and dedication amazes me- as does your resting pulse. I thought I was doing well by getting mine down to 50, since training for competition (from 68 as a "fitness swimmer").
Thank you for sharing this fascinating interview. I am continuously amazed by the stories I read about other USMS swimmers!
By the way, Forumites, Roderick Sewell (the 19 year old double amputee featured on one of the LCM Auburn Nationals videos) participated in the Auburn Short Course Invitational, this past weekend. He is an amazing swimmer in every stroke!
I would venture to bet that were we to rig up both the NCAA champion and me at the end of our respective best 200s of any given year, the testing apparatus would suggest without doubt that one of us had been moved, by his efforts, considerably closer to the boneyard than the other.Most scientific measures (max heart rate, blood lactate, etc.) would show that the 1:31 – 1:33 athlete is working significantly harder than your, say 2:00 200 swimmer. As for the less scientific measures (flopping and gasping on the deck like a landed carp) I’d probably give the nod to some of our more colorful Masters Swimmers.
Note –for most of us, getting our max heart rate in a race in the 190-210 range or a blood lactate level of 10-13 mmol/L would put us in the boneyard not just closer.
Garbage Yardage is subject to a swimmers expectations, perception, attitude, mood, conditioning, events, & time of the season.
It's the belief that what they are being asked to do or what they just did serves no purpose toward getting them closer to their goal.
Swimmers don't self inflict garbage yardage. It's usually when there's a coach or training group. Certain swimmers have a tendancy to be in foul moods or complain more often than others. They might be more likely to be vocal that a set is.
Most swimmers can handle a lot more training than they think they can.
Extreme sprinters & quality based swimmers don't want or need to do long swims, much aerobic training, threshold training or high repeat low rest type sets. And when such sets are given. They call them garbage yardage.
Garbage yardage is going further and harder than planned or necessary.
the solution is to know your goals, know who you are and where you are and what you need, and if you are given a set that doesn't really fit in with your plan. Tell your lane mates how you're going to modify the set and stay out of the way.
Today we were given an 800 set that was
150 DPS 50 strong with 4 breaths
I did 100 DPS 50 rest on the wall 50 fairly fast with 4 breaths
Masters is different than age group, HS and college swimming.
Masters can do what they want, we can arrive late, leave early, skip days and modify sets. Younger swimmers need to do what their coach says unless they have a very good reason not to.
Garbage yardage is going further and harder than planned or necessary.
I don't know, Ande. Going farther and harder than planned can produce results. And, I don't know how you'd define necessary. I think there's a lot to be said for taking it to the next level, especially if unplanned.
Masters is different than age group, HS and college swimming.
It doesn't have to be (excluding college, in which I concur). We get age groupers all the time who practice with us when they get in trouble with their coaches. I guess 5:30 am is water-boarding for AGers. Nothing like seeing a teenager gasp at trying to keep up with the geezers, until we do kick sets. But, yes, the Masters Prerogative is a thing of beauty. We had an AGer once raise his hand and ask our coach to use the restroom. Boy, that brought the house down with laughter, poor kid.
It occurs to me that another form of garbage yardage is performing a drill without any idea of what the drill is supposed to accomplish. Bonus points if the coach who assigned the drill doesn't know either.
It occurs to me that another form of garbage yardage is performing a drill without any idea of what the drill is supposed to accomplish.
Is it garbage if the only drill I do is catch-up and I don't do it right and it really is just an opportunity for me to loaf?
Why, 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.
This may help some of your times, especially if you're entering some OW races, and your psyche. But it has nothing to do with "speed." And one cannot do 8 x 100 @ 1:30 ALL OUT. It's really just a threshold or pacing set.
Geek's drill failure may just be recovery, and hence possibly not il garbagio.
