Ultra Short Training Rushall

I'm kind of confused at the structure of this method. for example, a set would be 10x25 @ race pace of 50 free. say your 50 free is 22.00, so it would be 10x25 holding 11 on a 30 second interval. Yes, that's about right, though while training for a 50 I think the author suggests you should only be swimming the first 12.5 at race pace. There is a table in his full paper I believe. Look in the references at the end of the ultra40 paper. Here's what I did this morning: 200 SKP 4x75 @ 1:30 10x25bk @ 1:00, holding :20s per 25 100 EZ The third bullet was the ultra-short thing. I was doing 25s, swimming at my target pace, which was a 1:20 100bk, thus :20 per 25. I saw a :19 once and a :21 once. The rest were 20-low or 20-high, so I believe I managed more-or-less the proper speed. The 60-second interval gave me the desired 2:1 rest/work ratio. So, divide your race and target time by four. Swim the quarter distance in the quarter time, and set the interval to three times the quarter time. Seems pretty formulaic. (Which I like, because I have to carry my set around in my noggin with its pathetic little neurons. :D) I found it to be an interesting set. I see how you can work both the CP and aerobic metabolism. During each 25, your CP metabolism is worked hard, but recovers during the rest period. Meanwhile, your heart rate is elevated during the entire set, so you're also working your aerobic metabolism. Since each 25 was the same, and I did so many of them, I was able to try things out as well. More SDKs, focus on speeding up my arm recovery, etc. I never did fewer than five SDKs, tried seven once, six a couple times. All in all, I liked it. I'll probably try and work this in once a week, and maybe add a 100bk time trial once a month (or enter a meet, perish the thought!) to see how/if I'm improving. Skip

what happens when you get to the other end and there is no block? how do you adjust for no block? Missed this until I saw Kirk's reply. He was explicit (again, I suspect this might be in the longer paper) that everything is done from a push. Skip

Yes, that's about right, though while training for a 50 I think the author suggests you should only be swimming the first 12.5 at race pace. There is a table in his full paper I believe. Look in the references at the end of the ultra40 paper. Here's what I did this morning: 200 SKP 4x75 @ 1:30 10x25bk @ 1:00, holding :20s per 25 100 EZ The third bullet was the ultra-short thing. I was doing 25s, swimming at my target pace, which was a 1:20 100bk, thus :20 per 25. I saw a :19 once and a :21 once. The rest were 20-low or 20-high, so I believe I managed more-or-less the proper speed. The 60-second interval gave me the desired 2:1 rest/work ratio. I found it to be an interesting set. I see how you can work both the CP and aerobic metabolism. During each 25, your CP metabolism is worked hard, but recovers during the rest period. Meanwhile, your heart rate is elevated during the entire set, so you're also working your aerobic metabolism. Is doing one set of 10 x 25 enough to be considered ultra training though? I did the set that Kirk listed above yesterday, with the exception that I did a 50 EZ between each round of 10. No way can I go actual 100 pace for 30 x 25. Race-pace Set 2: 30 x 25 m butterfly or breaststroke at 100 m race-pace (include underwater work). On 45 seconds This seemed very different than doing an ultra as 3 x (10 x 25 burst + cruise + 50 EZ), which I've done before, still challenging though.

Trying to replicate Rushall's instructions from his full paper, I did 30 x 25 on :35 :bump: adjustment) I was trying to hold 14's. but as Rushall's states, I would sit out a rep if the previous rep drifted up to 15. Using this methodology I had to take a break at numbers 12, 19, 25 and 29. So I ended up going 650 of the 750 set. Progress is supposedly measured by how much of the set you can complete at race pace. If I was able to swim all 30 at race pace I would then shorten the interval to 30 seconds. This was a very tough set but 3 hours later I did not have the same kind of fatigue as swimming 6x 100 on 10 minutes.

Don't know where those icons came from. I was trying to say that I chose the 35 interval as an altitude adjustment and knew 30's would not allow me to keep up that kind of pace for very long.

I'm kind of confused at the structure of this method. for example, a set would be 10x25 @ race pace of 50 free. say your 50 free is 22.00, so it would be 10x25 holding 11 on a 30 second interval. i believe this is flawed for one of two reasons. the first is that your 50 free incorporates a dive into the race. its kind of hard to touch, get out, get up on the blocks and be ready to go in 20 seconds. the second reason - lets just say that this swimmer can get out and be ready in 20 seconds to go again from the block - what happens when you get to the other end and there is no block? how do you adjust for no block? add 2 seconds maybe? but if you do - that is 2 more seconds of activity as opposed to rest. :afraid: it just seems so vague.....

Whoops, typo. I did 20x25bk.

I understand rest time should be 20 seconds or less unless the repeats are 100 m (only encouraged to train for the 1500). (energy39.pdf, page 36, number 5). Also the number of repeats should be meaningful (ultra40b.pdf, page 7, table). For a 400 yard at race pace of 4:16 (around 4:41 for 400 SCM) I have been doing sets like these: 24x75y @1:10 holding 0:48.0 30x50y @0:50 holding 0:32.0 The good thing about the method is it is not very draining, as the intervals are short enough, so you can do two of these sets per workout, three times per week. There are plenty of graphs on the paper explaining why this is the case. I have found it is usually better to start with the more demanding one (24x75), do some recovery and then move to the shorter (easier one). I used to do very little race pace work (10% of the total), and now I am doing 30-50%. I can already feel an improvement. Maybe it's only because I was too lazy before starting with this method. Another thing I like is if you repeat the sets you see easily whether you are overtraining or improving. I find it an interesting proposition to combine with aerobic work on even days.

Thanks for that. In a nutshell this seems to best explain the methodology to this kind of training. Race pace with short rest on manageable distances. I'm still not sure how Ultra Short Training applies to preparing for races other than the 50 and 100. Could one surmise that sprinters would benefit by doing mostly 25(s) and distance people could gear the sets to repeats of 75(s) and 100(s)?

Problem I face is that we have always a schedule from the coach that has to be done and it does not have this type of work in it. But I will try to get some space and time to do them.