I wonder if anyone can help me. Thank you in advance!
My goal is to improve my 400 meter freestyle. My time right now is 5:45. I am almost 44 years old.
Coming off six weeks of doing only long, slow swims (2-3 miles) at 125 HR or lower, I performed a 3000 meter freestyle at maximum in an effort to discover my lactate threshold. My time was 47:29.
Right afterwards my HR was 164, so I estimate it was probably around 170 during the actual swim. Average pace was as follows:
1:35 per 100
3:10 per 200
6:20 per 400
My first 400 was, to my surprise, a 6:02. So you can see I got slower later on.
Is this a reasonable approximation if my lactate threshold?
Should I start by training below this pace, say at 140 HR, then build to eventually holding 400 meter pace?
Thank you for any advice you care to give. God bless!
Mike,
A word of encouragement. Your lactate threshhold is not a static point. The more you train at a higher heart rate, the higher your lactate threshold will become. When I was your age, my goal was to keep my heart rate at least 160 for the majority of my practice 5,000/day. You can do this by keeping a rest interval of 15-20 sec between repeats. You will also want to add 100% effort swims on a much longer interval - a couple of times per week (50s, 100s, broken 200s).
Keep in mind that muscle memory is heart rate and effort dependent. Long slow swims (125 hr) yield a different muscle memory than training at 160+. For your goal in either the 400 or the 2 mile swim, you need to practice at your race pace goal.
Too many masters swimmers believe that you get better by swimming on a shorter rest interval. try 20-30 sec rest intervals and bump the intensity up as high as you can tolerate. Your body will adapt and you will get better.
Good Luck.
Paul
Mike,
A word of encouragement. Your lactate threshhold is not a static point. The more you train at a higher heart rate, the higher your lactate threshold will become. When I was your age, my goal was to keep my heart rate at least 160 for the majority of my practice 5,000/day. You can do this by keeping a rest interval of 15-20 sec between repeats. You will also want to add 100% effort swims on a much longer interval - a couple of times per week (50s, 100s, broken 200s).
Keep in mind that muscle memory is heart rate and effort dependent. Long slow swims (125 hr) yield a different muscle memory than training at 160+. For your goal in either the 400 or the 2 mile swim, you need to practice at your race pace goal.
Too many masters swimmers believe that you get better by swimming on a shorter rest interval. try 20-30 sec rest intervals and bump the intensity up as high as you can tolerate. Your body will adapt and you will get better.
Good Luck.
Paul
