Speed in practice

You don't need to do race pace every set or even every workout,but I think it should be the central theme to the majority of workouts in the main part of your training cycle.Unless you are a sprinter,race pace doesn't mean AFAP,it means the speed you want to swim the race.Good sets to do this are either broken swims or 1/2 the distance swims (a set of 50s at 100 pace etc.)

"to swim fast in a meet you need to swim fast in practice" The other side to this idea, apart from specific % of max speed, is just to say that if you swim your sets with the goal of "just" getting through them, you are not really putting full effort into swimming them in a manner that is required to get the full benefit from the set. Strolling through turns, disregarding SDK's off the walls, breathing every stoke under flags on the last length develop poor habits that will hurt you more in a race. Take the time that you are able to get in the water and really work it out! :cheerleader:

There are a number of reasons for having the race pace incorperated in your training sets: - it stresses other energy systems in your body. The ones that you don't need with swimming long distances on 70% - you can learn how to split correct, for instance on a 100 meter. Otherwise the race its self is the only possibility to learn it - frontal drag increases dramatically when speed is higher. You need to learn to deal with that drag. - it is a good copy of the race - it gives you the possibility to learn to maintain good technique under stress

There are a number of reasons for having the race pace incorperated in your training sets: - it stresses other energy systems in your body. The ones that you don't need with swimming long distances on 70% - you can learn how to split correct, for instance on a 100 meter. Otherwise the race its self is the only possibility to learn it - frontal drag increases dramatically when speed is higher. You need to learn to deal with that drag. - it is a good copy of the race - it gives you the possibility to learn to maintain good technique under stress You don't need to do race pace every set or even every workout,but I think it should be the central theme to the majority of workouts in the main part of your training cycle.Unless you are a sprinter,race pace doesn't mean AFAP,it means the speed you want to swim the race.Good sets to do this are either broken swims or 1/2 the distance swims (a set of 50s at 100 pace etc.) Excellent posts. Sometimes people distinguish between race pace and race intensity. For example, if I lift before a swim practice I might be too fatigued to hit my goal race paces but I might still be able to put together a high level of intensity. This would have some value from a physiological training standpoint but you would lose some value based on items mentioned in Why Not's post (eg technique at high speed, pacing). Race intensity is fine but it is not a complete replacement. Plus if you are routinely too fatigued to hit race pace I think you are not training right.

... race pace ... should be the central theme to the majority of workouts in the main part of your training cycle ... race pace doesn't mean AFAP, it means the speed you want to swim the race. Good sets to do this are either broken swims or 1/2 the distance swims (a set of 50s at 100 pace etc.) I've been doing a lot of that this year, and it's paid off, particularly for my 200s. When choosing a set, I like to ask myself, "What am I training for?" I do a lot of 4 x 50s back at 200 race pace, and N x 100 free at 500 or 1650 pace. I'm splitting my races better & swimming better times. One frustration I have when reading workouts written by others: I can easily tell WHAT the set is, but it is often hard or impossible to puzzle out the WHY of it. "What are you training for?" If I can't figure out WHY I should do a certain set or workout, I usually don't do it.

So, do I need to be swimming at race pace for each set that I do? Definitely not. For starters you need a warmup and a warmdown that are slower. Then it's a question of whether you want to do more aerobic based (i.e., slower) swimming or faster, race paced stuff. I doubt many people do more than 50% of their total yardage at race pace. Many do much, much less.

swim fast in practice do I need to be swimming at race pace for each set that I do? NO Should I just make sure that I am swimming at say 80 or 90%? do each set the way you coach tells you to do it Have the attitude & objective to continually better your best Sometimes in practice when you're given more rest you want to open it up and swim AFAP

I've been doing a lot of that this year, and it's paid off, particularly for my 200s. When choosing a set, I like to ask myself, "What am I training for?" I do a lot of 4 x 50s back at 200 race pace, and N x 100 free at 500 or 1650 pace. I'm splitting my races better & swimming better times. I do this too, and I agree it's very valuable training. You build anaerobic capacity (and/or aerobic, if the sets are for 800-1650) and you get great pacing practice. If you swim a set of 4x50 at 200 race pace and take it out too hard, you'll know by the last rep. And if you are too cautious, and drop two seconds on the last 50, you know you can go out faster. For 200m events I do 3x(4x50 race pace + 100 easy) with 15-20 seconds rest on the 50s. For 200 and 100 I do 8x(50 race pace+100 easy), with 30-40 seconds rest after the 100. In this set I try to keep my target pace for the second 50 of a 100. I do two or three sets like these a week. The rest is mostly endurance work, SDKs, kicking and shorter sprints (10-25). For 800/1500 I do like Swimosaur - 6-15x100 with 10-15 seconds rest. I have a test set I use before meets; 8x100 on the 1:20. The combined times will usually be very close to my time for the 800 at the meet, and a 1500 will be close to the average 100 m time + 0,5-1,0 sec. For this season I have decided to shift my focus from the 400-1500 events to the 200 free/400 IM. I'm still trying to figure out the optimal training for this. More speed work and more weights, is my guess, but how and how much?

One frustration I have when reading workouts written by others: I can easily tell WHAT the set is, but it is often hard or impossible to puzzle out the WHY of it. "What are you training for?" If I can't figure out WHY I should do a certain set or workout, I usually don't do it. Have you asked whoever wrote the workout these questions? I post my workouts in my blog, and I'd certainly welcome questions like this. But truthfully, the answers probably aren't what you're looking for. Usually, "why," is, "because the coach assigned the set." Our team goes through specific training cycles, and I trust our coaches to give the right workouts at the right time for me to benefit the most. And you probably won't like this answer either, but I don't train for specific events, and most people I swim with don't either. When I see a meet order of events for one I may do, I take a look and base my events on what works best for me, based on that order. If it works out that I can do the 800 free and 200 ***, so be it. But if they're back-to-back, I probably won't.

At my age I need to pace my swims till I get closer to state or Nats.