My goals for 2015, any advice?

Former Member
Former Member
50m free - 00:27 100m free - 00:59 200m free - 02:07 400m free - 04:37 750m free - 09:17 1500m free - 18:59 I am hoping to reach or exceed these times by the end of 2015. Has anybody got any advice? Maybe a few good sets/sessions? Thanks, TSB
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 9 years ago
    What are your times right now? How are your workouts structured? Honestly, I think while it is great to have goals for a wide variety of events, perhaps you should focus on your best three freestyle events for training purposes. Are you a sprinter or distance or in between?
  • Good luck with exceeding your goals. I will leave the advice to others with more expertise, but I am wondering why you have a 750m goal instead of an 800m goal?
  • Aha and 750m is a triathlon distance. Do you race triathlons with pool swims, or open water swims? Especially if the latter, conditions on the day (and how well you sight) can make a significant difference to your time. If you race both pool meets and Sprint triathlon, I suggest you make an 800m pool race goal - just you in a lane, swimming 800m. Nothing to make you slower (eg swimming off course, or crowding in a pool triathlon swim), nothing to make you faster (eg wetsuit or drafting)
  • Short term (this year) I will primarily be focusing on 200m, 400m, 750m. But long term I will be focused on 750m and 1500m. I train three times a week for 1 and a half hours each time. The bad news is you really don't have time to train to specific goal times on all those events. The good news is that your goal pace for the 750 and 1500 are so close it won't take much to get to your 1500 goal once you've hit it for the 750, especially since you're getting lots of cardio elsewhere. I'd suggest you pick one other event, the 200, to focus on and let the times on the 50, 100, and 400 fall where they may at the end of the season. I would also suggest you look at Ultra Short Race Pace Training. The great thing about it is that you get tangible feedback in every practice about how close you are getting to your goals. A typical workout for someone training for the 200 free and the 750/1500 free would look something like this: 600-800 warmup 30 50's at 200 race pace with 20 seconds rest 300 EZ recovery 5 min rest 30 75's at 750/1500 race pace* with 20 seconds rest 300-500 cool down. *(once you get the 750 time where you want it, change to 100's at the same pace, still with 20 seconds rest) The trick is, every repetition in the main sets needs to be at race pace. You have a target for each segment based on the race pace. If you miss your target time, you sit out a minute, then resume. If you miss the target time twice in a row, or 3 times total, you're done with the set no matter whether you got to the end or not. So you're rarely going to get all 30 in. When you do, you're ready to increase the pace. I know it sounds counterintuitive to train for 200's by swimming 50's, the 750 by swimming 75's, and the 1500 by swimming 100's. The truth is, however, that it gives you lots of repetition at the actual pace you're going to swim in those races. (NOTE: you need to start at your current race pace, not your goal race pace, or you'll be failing to hit the target times too early in the sets and not get enough volume of repetitions)
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 9 years ago
    Aha and 750m is a triathlon distance.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 9 years ago
    50m free is 30secs without a dive. 100m free is 1:06 without a dive. 200m free is probably about 2:19 without a dive. 400m free is 5:16 without dive but this was a while back. 750m is easily under 10:32 without a dive. Short term (this year) I will primarily be focusing on 200m, 400m, 750m. But long term I will be focused on 750m and 1500m. I train three times a week for 1 and a half hours each time. The third one is normally quite easy and totals up to 7500m, the other two are intense sessions that total up to 5500m. Thanks, TSB
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 9 years ago
    7500m in 1:30h can't be easy.....at all ;-) How old are you exactly, cutting 3sec in a year in a 50 especially if you train for longer distance would be quite the accomplishment. I would with a vo2max pratice for the first of the week. Something like 8-10x100 on 1:20-1:25 (you shouldn't get much more than 5-10sec rest in between and keeping that pace should be pretty hard. Second pratice would be easy, technique work. Third I would fo for volume, so set of 200-400m. You might need to add a 4th session to meet these goals thougt.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 9 years ago
    Thanks for the sessions! One set that I currently enjoy is this: 5 x 100m hitting 1:22 or lower with 10 sec between. 1 x 400m and hit 5:40 or lower, 40 sec rest after. 5 x 100m hitting 1:22 or lower with 10 sec between. 1 x 400m and hit 5:40 or lower, 40 sec rest after. 5 x 100m hitting 1:22 or lower with 10 sec between. 1 x 400m and finish. Is this session any good? It is my favourite to do at the moment, but is it effective and beneficial? Yes I agree that I might need to add an extra swim in, it is hard with the pool times though. Also would be difficult to fit it in with all my other training (triathlon). Actually if I was going to fit in another swim where do you think the best place to put it would be in my schedule?: Monday: 4 mile run followed by 9 miles warm down on the turbo. Tuesday: 3 mile run before or after a swim (average 5000m) Wednesday: 1 hour bike ride on the turbo in winter, 18 miles. Thursday: Swim, average of 5500m. Friday: 1-3 mile very easy jog, mainly my rest day though. Saturday: 25-30 mile club ride followed by easy swim average, 7000m. Sunday: Cycle 18 miles, run 3 miles. Thanks for the advice :) TSB. Aha, sorry I forgot to mention the third session is normally up to 2 hours!
  • I am not an expert on USRPT, but 30 repetition with only 20sec rest is definitly aerobic and not anaerobic. To train your anareobic system, you need to be ale to push as much as you can each rep, which you can never do 30 time with only 20sec. As I understand it Rushall is not interested in training the anaerobic system,rather he wants to get as many yards at race pace as possible by not stressing the anaerobic system.That is a problem I have with doing only USRPT,so I do one USRPT and one HIT set in each mid-season workout.(I don't do HIT early in the season as it is too hard on my joints.)
  • I am not an expert on USRPT, but 30 repetition with only 20sec rest is definitly aerobic and not anaerobic. To train your anareobic system, you need to be ale to push as much as you can each rep, which you can never do 30 time with only 20sec. Unlike traditional sets, USRPT sets are done to failure. So even though the set is called 30 x 50, you never do 30 fifties, because if you can do all 30, the time you are trying to hold is too easy. I can guarantee you that doing them that way is not aerobic in any way. I am toast by the time I get my third failure and it is no where near # 30.