Hi All
My name is Darian Townsend, I am an Olympic Gold Medalist from South Africa
( ). I am a 3 time Olympian (2004, 2008 and 2012). I held the SCM 200 IM world record in 2009/2010
and I currently hold 24 Masters world records.
Just thought I would introduce myself before I got into what I wanted to say today :)
I am going to be blogging about once a week or so on various swimming topics I am interested in or if any of you have topics you would like my opinion on, please feel free to message me and I will respond with a blog.
With the Championship season fast approaching (I assume you all are tapering for a meet last November/early December) I wanted to hear from you on what your expectations are and where you feel you are in your training? Do you feel confident that best times are coming? What makes this season different from last year, what have you done differently? Has a new piece of equipment you bought really made a big difference to your training?
From me personally, this season has been great so far. Firstly I am now American, and able to represent the US internationally. This is a huge deal for me and I feel very proud to call myself an American. After living here for over 10 years now, it feels great to wear the Red, White and Blue on my cap!
After a summer of trying a new form a training called USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training) I decided to go back to the more traditional way of training, and I am really enjoying it! There is nothing quite like doing a long kick set and getting out the water afterwards and having your legs feel like jelly! (Kick sets are one thing that USRPT doesn't involve). I enjoy swimming, fast and slow in practice, so to be able to vary my efforts again is really making me happy once again to be in the water working hard!
So how is your season going? What meets are you doing? I am always looking for a meet to swim in a new place I haven't visited before?
Cheers
Thanks for your replies everyone.
I would say the USRPT training beat me up both mentally and physically.
On the mental side if I did a practice that I wasn't able to hit my pace I felt defeated and not on track to reach my goals at the end of the season. But at the same time when I did hit my pace, then I felt on track and confident. But as you know not every day will be a good day at the office, but when you are constantly going up against fast times in practice, I tended to really over analyze my bad practices and was as a result really moody until I could go my goal pace again. My problem was that I felt I couldn't relax away from the pool in between practices because I was worried about how I would feel the next day. This became mentally really tiring!
Physically going fast every day at your race pace breaks you down very quickly! Going back I would definitely add in a few recovery practices in between the race pace practices. Some longer swimming is needed to lengthen out the stroke. Sprinting all the time I felt tight, which is not how you want to feel when you race, you want to feel long and easy. Some recovery practices where you swim longer sets, some 400's, some 200's I feel would help a lot!
Here is a sample workout for a 200 free race pace set (SCY):
9133
Hopefully you can read that.....
I have similar feelings about USRPT. I have found some usefulness and do 1 USRPT set as part of my workout 3 days/wk.I also do longer swims and some HIT work (Race pace at longer distance than "ultra short" with longer rest.)
Are you going to the SPMS SCM meet www.lbgrunions.org/generalinfo.html .It is the biggest masters SCM meet in the west and in a fast pool.
Thanks for your replies everyone.
I would say the USRPT training beat me up both mentally and physically.
On the mental side if I did a practice that I wasn't able to hit my pace I felt defeated and not on track to reach my goals at the end of the season. But at the same time when I did hit my pace, then I felt on track and confident. But as you know not every day will be a good day at the office, but when you are constantly going up against fast times in practice, I tended to really over analyze my bad practices and was as a result really moody until I could go my goal pace again. My problem was that I felt I couldn't relax away from the pool in between practices because I was worried about how I would feel the next day. This became mentally really tiring!
Physically going fast every day at your race pace breaks you down very quickly! Going back I would definitely add in a few recovery practices in between the race pace practices. Some longer swimming is needed to lengthen out the stroke. Sprinting all the time I felt tight, which is not how you want to feel when you race, you want to feel long and easy. Some recovery practices where you swim longer sets, some 400's, some 200's I feel would help a lot!
Here is a sample workout for a 200 free race pace set (SCY):
9133
Hopefully you can read that.....
I have similar feelings about USRPT. I have found some usefulness and do 1 USRPT set as part of my workout 3 days/wk.I also do longer swims and some HIT work (Race pace at longer distance than "ultra short" with longer rest.)
Are you going to the SPMS SCM meet www.lbgrunions.org/generalinfo.html .It is the biggest masters SCM meet in the west and in a fast pool.
