I recently read a fascinating book on Sprinting (author- Samuel James Freas). The book emphasizes the importance of swimming all out during practice in addition to dryland exercises. Although the sequence of daily workouts consist of recovery, fast, and superfast workouts, the book does seem to focus on the college age swimmer. QUESTION...How many times during the week should a middle age Master swim fast/ superfast workouts? I have heard that too much anaerobic training may be detrimental. I am in search of the right mix between anaerobic and aerobic that will allow a Sprinter to significantly improve their times.
Chuck
Parents
Former Member
Chuck,
At your age weight workouts esp. for breaststroke become more important than extra sprint sessions. email me seperately, I have several heart rate articles I wrote when I experienced what you are going through. Also check out the number one web site for Breaststroke articles http://www.breaststroke.info. Number one for eight years now. I am positive you will find information that will help you get faster.
As we get past the age where our hormones such as Testosterone, and human growth HGH beging to drop off, we have to train smarter. When I was 35 I could sprint every other day, or do hard (max) weights every other day. By 42 I was down to every third day. What you really need is to get aerobically fit with normal masters workouts 5 days a week. Then just one day a week go anerobic, but no more than a total of 20-30 minutes. So that could be 10 fifty sprints from a dive on two minutes, or 6 75 sprints on three minutes, or 5 broken at the fifty 100's on four minutes. You should really slow down on the last sprint due to lactic acid build up. It takes 72 hours for the cells to rebuild after becoming full of lactic acid, so swim real easy the next couple of days. Water is what the body needs for sprinting, be sure to drink lots of water and stretch properly.
Sam Freas book has many great drills you can be doing, reaction time on the start and expolsive turns is important as we get older.
Wayne McCauley
ASCA Level 5 Masters Coach
18 years now top 10 in breaststroke
Chuck,
At your age weight workouts esp. for breaststroke become more important than extra sprint sessions. email me seperately, I have several heart rate articles I wrote when I experienced what you are going through. Also check out the number one web site for Breaststroke articles http://www.breaststroke.info. Number one for eight years now. I am positive you will find information that will help you get faster.
As we get past the age where our hormones such as Testosterone, and human growth HGH beging to drop off, we have to train smarter. When I was 35 I could sprint every other day, or do hard (max) weights every other day. By 42 I was down to every third day. What you really need is to get aerobically fit with normal masters workouts 5 days a week. Then just one day a week go anerobic, but no more than a total of 20-30 minutes. So that could be 10 fifty sprints from a dive on two minutes, or 6 75 sprints on three minutes, or 5 broken at the fifty 100's on four minutes. You should really slow down on the last sprint due to lactic acid build up. It takes 72 hours for the cells to rebuild after becoming full of lactic acid, so swim real easy the next couple of days. Water is what the body needs for sprinting, be sure to drink lots of water and stretch properly.
Sam Freas book has many great drills you can be doing, reaction time on the start and expolsive turns is important as we get older.
Wayne McCauley
ASCA Level 5 Masters Coach
18 years now top 10 in breaststroke
