I've been focusing on stroke work for the past year or so and I'm hitting on a phase I'm hoping others have hit and have answers to.
My 75-85% efforts are when my stroke is best but 1) It seems to fall apart when I really put the pedal to the metal and 2) If I try to slow down to build endurance, the stroke also does not stay together. If I can't maintain stroke mechanics during peak sprints or cardio/muscular endurance sets would that amount to garbage yardage?
This funky middle ground means I get some decent effort in practice, but it seems too short compared to other swimmers workouts. Without building power or endurance using 'the right stroke' I worry that I'm not really making as good of progress as I can.
Thanks in advance.
Depends. I would say my peak stroke efficiency is in my 200 free, and I don't really swim it that much. I'm a 50 and 100 free specialist, and my stroke is only a tiny resemblance of itself when i do the 50 especially. To go my 50 pace, I have to shorten it up considerably to get more turnover. No matter how much I try to keep the full long stroke, I go slower in the 50 if I try to hold anything resembling 200 technique. My 100 is somewhere between the two. In practice however, I do most of my swimming at 80-85% level. When I try to go slow, I don't fall apart, I just can't seem to go slow, lol. No matter how slow i start off a 100 in practice just trying to go slow, I end up back at above 70% because the stroke is so much more efficient at those speeds.
So really, your observations aren't very far from my own. Aside from some second guessing myself sometimes, it hasn't been a problem so far.
Depends. I would say my peak stroke efficiency is in my 200 free, and I don't really swim it that much. I'm a 50 and 100 free specialist, and my stroke is only a tiny resemblance of itself when i do the 50 especially. To go my 50 pace, I have to shorten it up considerably to get more turnover. No matter how much I try to keep the full long stroke, I go slower in the 50 if I try to hold anything resembling 200 technique. My 100 is somewhere between the two. In practice however, I do most of my swimming at 80-85% level. When I try to go slow, I don't fall apart, I just can't seem to go slow, lol. No matter how slow i start off a 100 in practice just trying to go slow, I end up back at above 70% because the stroke is so much more efficient at those speeds.
So really, your observations aren't very far from my own. Aside from some second guessing myself sometimes, it hasn't been a problem so far.
