My apologies up front for asking a question that has been asked on various different threads over the past couple of years I have been in USMS. I don't remember the responses, however, and can't seem to find the answers in my searches.
Here's the deal: I started as a breaststroker and only competed in the three breaststroke events as a newbie. Seven months later, however, I competed in a pentathlon and found I really enjoyed racing the stroke sprints and 100 IM. Last year, I ended up winning my age group and felt even more encouraged to continue working on my other strokes.
Recently, I attempted an easy 400 IM in workout to see if I could swim a 100 fly without pausing at the walls. I came in at 7:24 :cane:, but it wasn't the worst in my age group in the rankings! :D
Today, after my usual three day post-meet bout of insomnia, I thought, what the heck, I'll try it again. (Yes, I AM crazy!) Again, I took the fly out very easy with the intent of surviving without rescue. My time ended up 7:16, now placing me 56 out of 71 in my age group; still low, but improved. :wiggle: So, now, I'm thinking of giving it some real effort and see where I can go with this...
50 breaststroke is my best event, followed by 100 breaststroke. After that is 50 free and 100 IM. Don't even ask where my 200 breaststroke rates... :bitching: But, my 400 IM, with some effort, will have it beat soon enough.
As a six day per week swimmer on pace to beat my goal of 400 miles for the year, how would you recommend I plan my swim week out to train 400 IM without losing breaststroke speed? I average 3,000 yards per workout and currently dedicate Mondays and Fridays to Allen's breaststroke sets or Ande's sprint IM sets that he wrote up for me. Saturday is my recovery day. September thru May, I train in a challenging coached adult program and swim 3,500 - 3,800yards; a mix of speed, endurance, etc.
Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated! (Oh, and, by the way, I am working up to swimming 400m IM and 200yd fly, too.) :afraid:I hope to swim 400IM at Dixie Zone Championships, in August, and see where it goes from there. :worms:
Your AFAP after doing a distance set might not be as fast as your AFAP when you're fresh, but does it matter? You're still going as fast as you can at the time.
The danger is if you get locked into a distance mentality and cannot break out of it to hit those higher intensities. I see it all the time in the age-group workouts, they switch to "survival mode" to make the (very hard) intervals, and then when they are given a little extra rest they really don't go much faster.
And it's a vicious cycle, the coaches then reason "well, they aren't really going faster when I give them more rest, so why should I give it to them?"
I don't agree with Fortress that all (non-lactate) sprint training must be unfatigued to be useful. But I agree with her that there is a problem in always putting speed work at the end of practice. Sometimes it needs to be the focus set of the day. (Kicking sets too, for that matter; they are usually given the status of "recovery sets" instead of being important in their own right.)
Your AFAP after doing a distance set might not be as fast as your AFAP when you're fresh, but does it matter? You're still going as fast as you can at the time.
The danger is if you get locked into a distance mentality and cannot break out of it to hit those higher intensities. I see it all the time in the age-group workouts, they switch to "survival mode" to make the (very hard) intervals, and then when they are given a little extra rest they really don't go much faster.
And it's a vicious cycle, the coaches then reason "well, they aren't really going faster when I give them more rest, so why should I give it to them?"
I don't agree with Fortress that all (non-lactate) sprint training must be unfatigued to be useful. But I agree with her that there is a problem in always putting speed work at the end of practice. Sometimes it needs to be the focus set of the day. (Kicking sets too, for that matter; they are usually given the status of "recovery sets" instead of being important in their own right.)
