I've got a bug in my head that I want to break 1:00 in the 100 *** at Nationals in May. I was a backstroker/IMer in college and so never got a chance to swim breaststroke races rested (or really any breaststroke races at all - I think I did about 2 100s and 2 200s my whole college career). I did a 31.2 SCM 50 on 2 months of training (after 6 years off) with a completely jammed turn so I think this isn't an unreasonable goal.
Problem is, I know breaststroke training is a bit different than anything I have experience in - I'd probably wear out my knees and/or pull a groin trying to just sub out some of my best backstroke sets with ***. Anybody have insight on good drills or sets for building breaststroke speed? I'm most interested in learning about 1) progressive type stuff - things I can repeat or build on and be able to measure progress, and 2) drills for building effective stroke rate.
As Elaine suggested, I would definitely check out the Breaststroke Lane forum thread for some great information. Allen Stark also wrote a great article about his approach to breaststroke training: www.swimspire.com/.../
Olympic silver medalist Kristy Kowal also demonstrated some great drills you can try to incorporate into your own workouts: www.swimspire.com/.../
However, as you pointed out in your earlier post, focusing consistently on one particular stroke does come with some risks of injuries, so incorporate anything new into your workouts slowly. Good luck!
The approach, which Allen describes in the article only partially works for me. It's fine for 50s and 100s but for 200 I discovered that after a while I my splits are getting worse, because I lack endurance.
For me if I need to prepare 200br I need 3 more phases when I work 1) on endurance 2) on threshold. About 2 months prior to the race I'm ready to the 3rd phase lactate tolerance. Without doing this homework my second half of 200 is falling apart (getting a bad split). One month prior to the race my focus switches to sprint and my workouts start looking more like what Allen describes.
I don't have a separate day for drills. In my case times in the sets are worse if I don't do some drills, therefore, I do them daily. Also I do some sprint and threshold work during all phases, but obviously the amount of sprint work will be significantly higher during the last month before the race. During last 2 weeks I completely eliminate any sets causing building lactate in my muscles and focus on all out short sprints with significant amount of active rest (very easy freestyle). This glycolysys system preparation boosts my times and I feel refreshed when I approach to the race. The race itself also goes smoothly and the split is more even.
This approach works for me. It requires some time spent for planning, significant focus while working on glycolysys system to maintain good technique and persistence to follow the plan to the end. At certain point there's a significant mental battle, because you feel tired and it seems that you are not reaching your goal but if everything is done correctly during the taper the feeling is that you are a superman.
As Elaine suggested, I would definitely check out the Breaststroke Lane forum thread for some great information. Allen Stark also wrote a great article about his approach to breaststroke training: www.swimspire.com/.../
Olympic silver medalist Kristy Kowal also demonstrated some great drills you can try to incorporate into your own workouts: www.swimspire.com/.../
However, as you pointed out in your earlier post, focusing consistently on one particular stroke does come with some risks of injuries, so incorporate anything new into your workouts slowly. Good luck!
The approach, which Allen describes in the article only partially works for me. It's fine for 50s and 100s but for 200 I discovered that after a while I my splits are getting worse, because I lack endurance.
For me if I need to prepare 200br I need 3 more phases when I work 1) on endurance 2) on threshold. About 2 months prior to the race I'm ready to the 3rd phase lactate tolerance. Without doing this homework my second half of 200 is falling apart (getting a bad split). One month prior to the race my focus switches to sprint and my workouts start looking more like what Allen describes.
I don't have a separate day for drills. In my case times in the sets are worse if I don't do some drills, therefore, I do them daily. Also I do some sprint and threshold work during all phases, but obviously the amount of sprint work will be significantly higher during the last month before the race. During last 2 weeks I completely eliminate any sets causing building lactate in my muscles and focus on all out short sprints with significant amount of active rest (very easy freestyle). This glycolysys system preparation boosts my times and I feel refreshed when I approach to the race. The race itself also goes smoothly and the split is more even.
This approach works for me. It requires some time spent for planning, significant focus while working on glycolysys system to maintain good technique and persistence to follow the plan to the end. At certain point there's a significant mental battle, because you feel tired and it seems that you are not reaching your goal but if everything is done correctly during the taper the feeling is that you are a superman.
