quality versus quantity in sets

I my case, quantity make the difference. I the last few weeks, I was swimming a lot of long sets with long rest and really easy swimming between. I did a lot of technique exercise also. But I didn't swim many race pace sets at all. So going into my first SCM meeting this year, I was never expect to beat my times from last year . But here we go: I swam 2:13,0 in 200m back, almost 4 second faster than last year... It was my best SCM time since 2006 and it would put me into FINA TOP10 SCM last year in my age groupe (35-39).

This is the great debate in Masters Swimming. If your goal is only cardiovascular fitness, or to brag about your yardage, then go for quantity. If your goal is to swim faster, then quality, especially race pace.

It really depends. I am more inclined towards your thinking, but the former has its place. Personally, as it means aerobic endurance, I wouldn't spend a lot of time swimming like that, even early in a training period as I only spend a few hours a week in the pool. So the answer is that you have to do a variety of intensities and volumes, and each has its own appropriate rest interval, depending on your events and where you are in the calendar. But if you are not doing this I'd tend to agree with you.

I think it's somewhat individualistic. There is no one-size-fits-all training plan. Figure out what your body responds to best and go with that. I used to do more yardage, less rest and just crank out yards. When I switched to doing more USRPT sets, very rarely swimming anything longer than a 100, but only getting 20 seconds rest, my times have dropped significantly, so that's working better for me. I also mix in some quality days here and there now, with some very high intensity effort. But being primarily a distance freestyler, I don't do that too often.

Unless you are a pure sprinter I think you should do both. Long aerobic sets without a lot of rest have their place.

Given all the amazing results by swimmers training under many different regimens, it seems clear that there are many ways to skin a cat (apologies to Rich Abrahams). As for me personally, at age 55 it is just as clear that the best workout is the one that I will actually do, instead of just talk about. Put in the effort. Always, always, always work on improving your technique. Show up to workout consistently. You will be on your way to the top of your age group. I encourage everyone in Masters to try different training methods to see which fit you best, both physically and mentally.

Put in the effort. Always, always, always work on improving your technique. Show up to workout consistently. You will be on your way to the top of your age group. Pretty hard to argue with this advice!