Swimmers and coaches often set workout targets like 90% effort or 95% effort for practice swims. I've always found these directives to be less than useful. What is "90% effort"? I've taken to setting time targets of race time plus a certain percentage. For example one could specify the set:
5x(100 free @ race + 15%)/2:00.
That is, five 100 free swims on the 2:00 (120 sec.) interval with a target time of race time + 15%. (This would be a painful lactate production set in my estimation.)
Based on my own experience, I constructed this chart giving qualitative descriptions of the effort level associated with a practice swim from a push to achieve race time plus a percentage:
7283
A few notes:
This would correspond to the effort level of the first swim in a group. Obviously even race +25% will constitute a very hard effort after you have done a lot of them.
Generally, it appears to be easier to swim at race pace + x% for longer swims.
It is easier to swim near race pace for backstroke than freestyle. I suspect that this is simply due to the fact that a freestyle dive start gives more of an advantage over a push than a backstroke race start.
I pose the following two questions to the forum community:
1) How do these effort levels compare with your experience? I'd love to see similar charts for other swimmers.
2) How much time do you spend in practice at each effort level? This will certainly depend on the time of the season. Early in the season I expect one might do a lot of "blue" swims up to some yellow, whereas later in the season one needs to spend a lot more time in yellow with frequent excursions into in the "red zone".
Quantifying effort by percentage may work in elite ranks, where the coach is infinitely familiar with each swimmer's capabilities. But in more garden variety masters practices, I think it makes more sense to use descriptive adjectives whose meanings shift a bit as the set grinds on.
Our coach Bill, for instance, has four basic speeds:
Just make it (for multiple reps with not much rest, like, for instance, last weeks 30 x 100 on 1:20)
Easy (invariably as a prelude to harder things soon to come)
Fast (quick, painful, but not a sprint)
and finally
Sprint
Moreover, correlating the above with actual times is difficult, especially as the set wears on. For example, last night we did the following 4 x:
100 just make it on 1:40
100 fast on 2:00
50 just make it on :50
50 sprint on 1:00
1:30 rest, then repeat
By the end of four times through, it required near sprinting the 100 to do the same time as its "fast" predecessors. And the sprint 50s--well, they just went to hell completely. But the effort and pain were, if anything, exaggerated!
On the occasions I get to run practice, I use a parallel but somewhat differently worded group of adjectives to suggest the pace I hope I and my comrades can hold. To illustrate this, consider a set of 12 x 100s on 2:00 where the effort is essentially easy, moderate, fast, and sprint, then repeat, by 100.
Easy, in my workouts, translates to "swim as if you aren't fully awake yet.)
Moderate becomes "swim as if you are awake and paying a bit of attention to what you are doing"
Fast means "swim as if you are fully awake and exhilarated but holding your horses somewhat in check"
And finally, sprint means "swim so hard that you will want to go back to sleep the moment you finish."
At which point it's time to swim the next one.
And on this note, time for a nap.
Quantifying effort by percentage may work in elite ranks, where the coach is infinitely familiar with each swimmer's capabilities. But in more garden variety masters practices, I think it makes more sense to use descriptive adjectives whose meanings shift a bit as the set grinds on.
Our coach Bill, for instance, has four basic speeds:
Just make it (for multiple reps with not much rest, like, for instance, last weeks 30 x 100 on 1:20)
Easy (invariably as a prelude to harder things soon to come)
Fast (quick, painful, but not a sprint)
and finally
Sprint
Moreover, correlating the above with actual times is difficult, especially as the set wears on. For example, last night we did the following 4 x:
100 just make it on 1:40
100 fast on 2:00
50 just make it on :50
50 sprint on 1:00
1:30 rest, then repeat
By the end of four times through, it required near sprinting the 100 to do the same time as its "fast" predecessors. And the sprint 50s--well, they just went to hell completely. But the effort and pain were, if anything, exaggerated!
On the occasions I get to run practice, I use a parallel but somewhat differently worded group of adjectives to suggest the pace I hope I and my comrades can hold. To illustrate this, consider a set of 12 x 100s on 2:00 where the effort is essentially easy, moderate, fast, and sprint, then repeat, by 100.
Easy, in my workouts, translates to "swim as if you aren't fully awake yet.)
Moderate becomes "swim as if you are awake and paying a bit of attention to what you are doing"
Fast means "swim as if you are fully awake and exhilarated but holding your horses somewhat in check"
And finally, sprint means "swim so hard that you will want to go back to sleep the moment you finish."
At which point it's time to swim the next one.
And on this note, time for a nap.
