Next year's goal: Sub 5 minute 500 free

Since Glenn Gruber set a WR in the 400M and dropped his 500 yd time using it, I'd have to sat USRPT.

The USRPT does sound good. I very rarely do anything over 200 yds at a time, and we do lots of sets of 100's and 50's. One thing we do need to change is the rest interval. One set we did last week was 10 x 100 free on a 1:10 interval. Great for endurance, but because of the minimal rest, doesn't allow you work them at race pace.

The USRPT does sound good. I very rarely do anything over 200 yds at a time, and we do lots of sets of 100's and 50's. One thing we do need to change is the rest interval. One set we did last week was 10 x 100 free on a 1:10 interval. Great for endurance, but because of the minimal rest, doesn't allow you work them at race pace. If your goal is under 5:00 for the 500, forget doing 100 repeats. Do what I do and do USRPT sets of 50s. You should work into 2 sets of 30 x 50 on the :50 holding :29 to a hand touch, skip if missed. Of course as you know with USRPT, you should never be able to do all 30 in the set. If you can do into the low 20s of the 30 x 50 and hit your total of 3 failures, you will be able to go under 5:00. Best of luck to you! Glenn Gruber

Thanks Glenn. I think I'll try that 30 x 50 set on Monday. Who knows, maybe I'll even be able to catch Mike Shaffer in a 500!

If your goal is under 5:00 for the 500, forget doing 100 repeats. Do what I do and do USRPT sets of 50s. You should work into 2 sets of 30 x 50 on the :50 holding :29 to a hand touch, skip if missed. Of course as you know with USRPT, you should never be able to do all 30 in the set. If you can do into the low 20s of the 30 x 50 and hit your total of 3 failures, you will be able to go under 5:00. Best of luck to you! Glenn Gruber I have made huge gains doing USRPT myself. Many thanks go out to Glenn for posting here on the USMS forums about this training technique and being so friendly and willing to help! I was not a swimmer until a couple of years ago and I'm now 37. Having always been an endurance athlete, I'm naturally inclined to distance swimming and I think USRPT is great for distance and middle distance athletes. Before a recent injury, I got to the point where I could hold 29 seconds/50 yards on 50 seconds and not have more than 3 failures in two sets of 30 x 50, but I could only muster a 5:25 this year at spring nationals. Granted, a 5;25 is 10 seconds faster than I ever went previously in a 500, but it's also not anywhere near sub-5:00. I believe this mostly to be due to my lack of experience controlling my breath into and out of turns. I can easily do 29-30 seconds per 50 yards for 60 repetitions when I have 20 seconds rest between each 50 (doing them on 50 second intervals). Problem for me is, when continuously swimming a 500, somewhere around the 150-200 yard mark, all of the turning catches up to me in terms of oxygen debt and breath control. I attribute this primarily to a lack of experience/coaching. Most everyone I swim with has swum since they were young and they don't seem to have any problem controlling their breath in and out of turns. Hopefully I'll get there someday. For now, my LCM times are great. But all of the turning required in SC results in slower times than I'd expect. Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience. USRPT has definitely made me faster and I'd highly recommend it to nearly anyone, but I can't quite do the times one would expect in a SC setting. However, in LC I'm golden!

Next year?in my case more like next life.

Next year?in my case more like next life. What's funny is I thought the same thing 4 years ago, as I swam my first 500 free in 23 years. I can think of at least three times during that race that I was sure I was going to die: 1) When I did my turn at the 300 yd. mark 2) When I tried to stay with the girl lapping me at about 400 yd. 3) When I tried to get out of the pool afterwards I think my time was around 5:40 or so.

Here are a few sets I've had my middle distance age groupers do. I've modified the intervals and goal times to make them more applicable to you, trident. -10x100 on 1:50, aiming for :59 or faster at the touch -20x50 on 1:00, aiming for :29 or faster at the feet -12x200 as 4 on 2:30, 4 on 2:20, 4 on 2:10, aiming for 30/20/10 seconds of rest -4x400 on 8:00, aiming for 3:58 or faster; then 3x300 on 6:00, aiming for 2:57 or faster; then 2x200 on 4:00, aiming for 1:57 or faster (fyi, the pattern is a 59.5 base on the 400s, 59.0 base on the 300s, and a 58.5 base on the 200s) Those sets all consist of race pace training, so you're going to have high lactic acid buildup. Not quite USRPT, but it's a similar principle.

i'll call EMS now. is the AED charged?

Here are a few sets I've had my middle distance age groupers do. I've modified the intervals and goal times to make them more applicable to you, trident. -10x100 on 1:50, aiming for :59 or faster at the touch -20x50 on 1:00, aiming for :29 or faster at the feet -12x200 as 4 on 2:30, 4 on 2:20, 4 on 2:10, aiming for 30/20/10 seconds of rest -4x400 on 8:00, aiming for 3:58 or faster; then 3x300 on 6:00, aiming for 2:57 or faster; then 2x200 on 4:00, aiming for 1:57 or faster (fyi, the pattern is a 59.5 base on the 400s, 59.0 base on the 300s, and a 58.5 base on the 200s) Those sets all consist of race pace training, so you're going to have high lactic acid buildup. Not quite USRPT, but it's a similar principle. Thanks for the suggestions. I've already done something like the first to sets you listed, but I'm not sure my almost-50 yr old cardiac system could cope with the last two. As sunruh pointed out, the AED would be getting some use. I'll try modifying the goal times on the last two sets. Our main set this morning: 14x100, with the following intervals: 1st: 1:30 2nd: 1:25 3rd: 1:30 4-5: 1:20 6th: 1:30 7-9: 1:10 10th: 1:30 11-14: 1:05 First time since college I've been able to make 1:05 intervals, even if it was for only 4 100's. Really good confidence builder. I've got a meet on the 21st of this month, and I want to try and go around 5:05 or so.