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".
Yeah, turns out it's pretty close. I estimated my CSS at 1.52 yds/sec. That gives a critical speed of 65.8 seconds for 100 yards and I've been assuming 65 seconds per 100 for my threshold pace.
Thanks for the info! I don't remember ever seeing this before.
My team always does a threshold set on Tuesdays. Typically this is a set of 1500-3000 yards where we hold this threshold pace or slightly under the entire time. Rest is maybe ten seconds for a 50. We do aerobic sets every day. These are 1500-4000 yards where the sendoff is typically threshold +:05/100, so usually right around 1:10 base for me. The only pace requirement is "make it."
We tend to hit the first couple on high 24, then have a couple of slower one's on high 25, then try and bring them back down. It's painful.
Last year's competition times across our group were 23.5 -24.4. We're hoping to go a bit quicker this year, but the clock is ticking, well for me it as the golden oldie in the group
So you guys are all within 1-2 seconds of the all-times for 50 scm? JEEZUS. I hope you have some former high level swimmers there! Man.
Not to hijack but Eaglerest what would a typical workout be for you as a sprinter? I'm just getting back into swimming after 27 years so I'm always looking for workout ideas. Example of what I did last night 16x25fr @ 15-16 secs with 1 minute rest. So I was close to 90% each rep. This was after some kicking drills, br drills and warmup fr/br
Welcome back to the sport. That kind of set sounds about right.
A typical LP set, which we might swim 3 times a week, is:
400 Free, 4 x 100 o/c 25 drill/25 swim, 4 x 50 build
6 x 50 free on 6-7 minutes with 100 recovery between each. Intensity is MAX with racing dive, target is 24.5 - 25.0 each 50 hold, 25M SC pool.
4 x 50 moderate intensity swim-down
Recovery sessions are low intensity with lots of technique work.
We also do max 25's in some sessions. Sometimes use fins, but never swim MAX further than 50M.
I enjoy reading your ideas and thank you for taking the time to present them. I wish I had some stats to share.
I have started tracking the exertion of my workouts more closely but like aztimm said a lot depends on what I can do (with the environment) and am willing to do (balancing with everything else).
I like the way you have presented this. I have also been confused about what exactly constitutes a 90% effort or a 95% effort. Your way of explaining it makes much more sense. A target of a race time plus a certain percentage is something I can work out exactly.
I don't swim backstroke but my free times are pretty close to yours with a few exceptions. I can hit 10% of both my 50 and 100 times with a very hard effort (represented by orange on your graph), but like you I wouldn't attempt any repeats at this pace. At best, I might rest up a good while and then try equal or better that time, but nothing like a set at regular intervals. On the rare occasion and when I have been really training hard for a good few months, I might even get within 5% of my times.
Likewise, I can hit 10% of my 200 time with a very hard effort. Never been able to go much faster than 10%, though. My turns suck and I have to do 7 of them over the course of an scm 200 as opposed to 3 for a lcm 100. (I train scm and race lcm). I think I must be one of the few unfortunates to be slower at short course than I am at long course. If I hit within 5% of my race time for a 200 in practice, I know I am in for a time drop the next time I race.
We tend to hit the first couple on high 24, then have a couple of slower one's on high 25, then try and bring them back down. It's painful.
Last year's competition times across our group were 23.5 -24.4. We're hoping to go a bit quicker this year, but the clock is ticking, well for me it as the golden oldie in the group
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.
