Need suggestions for improving my 500 free.
A little background: 52 year old male. been swimming again for about a year. up to 3500-4000 6 times a week. 5'10", 172 lbs (down from 195 when starting:)). Went to first masters meet last weekend. happy with times except 500. wanted to go 1:15,1:20,1:20,1:20,1:15. Went a 6:52 instead. 1:13, 1:26, 1:26, 1:27, 1:20. so about 43's per 50. swam the 1650 and went 44.5's per 50. (24:14). 50 free was 28secs. Even after swimming a year, pulls are faster than swims.
Usual workout is 1650 warmup, 5x100s on 2 pull (~1:11s), 5x100s on 2 swim (~1:13s), 1x500 kick, 12x50's IM on 1:15, 10x25's no breathers free/fly. breath every 2 in the 500. breath 2/3 on the 1650 (no legs hardly). high exertion difference for only 1.5 second difference per 50.
personal bests were 49 100 free, 4:59 500 free at age 20.
worried a bit about heart rate max. even though 52 no problem hitting 180 on tough sets (if I shorten rest on 100s). Is that too high for 52? I thought 220-age should be about max.
started swimming with a masters group 2 weeks ago but can only go on Saturdays.
I'm guessing shorter rest on the 100's.
(all distances are SCY)
Thanks
Thanks for the info. A couple questions if you don't mind.
1. how many strokes per length do you take, and how far off the wall to you get on the turns? to the flags or more?
2. do you use any UDK's on the turn?
3. do you watch heart rate at all on the hard sets? I get to 190 pretty quick on the short intervals. It does recover better than a year ago in 10-15 seconds.
4. I used to do a lot of 100s on 2:00, sub goal 500 pace. Maybe I should mix that in once a week again.A few thoughts for comparison:
1) When racing, I'm probably 13 SPL (strokes per length) on 25 yards, but the first ~150-200 might be at 11-12 SPL and the last 100 might be at 14-15 (I count each arm as one). However, I am 6'4"
2) 1-2 SDKs ... too many more and I'd be sacrificing oxygen
3) I do a heart rate test set periodically from Dave Salo that is awesome for conditioning check. If you Google "Salo Pulse Plot," you'll find an excerpt from his excellent book, "Complete Conditioning for Swimming"
4) If you're going to do 100s and try to simulate your race pace, aim for an interval that gives you about 10-15 seconds of rest. So, when I'm trying to get sub 5:00, I'll aim to do 5 x 100 on 1:15 and hold as close to 1:00 as possible. If you're doing more than 5, you can increase the rest interval, but I wouldn't do more than 20 seconds rest. Otherwise, there's just too much recovery time and it stops simulating the fatigue of a race.
Thanks for the info. A couple questions if you don't mind.
1. how many strokes per length do you take, and how far off the wall to you get on the turns? to the flags or more?
2. do you use any UDK's on the turn?
3. do you watch heart rate at all on the hard sets? I get to 190 pretty quick on the short intervals. It does recover better than a year ago in 10-15 seconds.
4. I used to do a lot of 100s on 2:00, sub goal 500 pace. Maybe I should mix that in once a week again.A few thoughts for comparison:
1) When racing, I'm probably 13 SPL (strokes per length) on 25 yards, but the first ~150-200 might be at 11-12 SPL and the last 100 might be at 14-15 (I count each arm as one). However, I am 6'4"
2) 1-2 SDKs ... too many more and I'd be sacrificing oxygen
3) I do a heart rate test set periodically from Dave Salo that is awesome for conditioning check. If you Google "Salo Pulse Plot," you'll find an excerpt from his excellent book, "Complete Conditioning for Swimming"
4) If you're going to do 100s and try to simulate your race pace, aim for an interval that gives you about 10-15 seconds of rest. So, when I'm trying to get sub 5:00, I'll aim to do 5 x 100 on 1:15 and hold as close to 1:00 as possible. If you're doing more than 5, you can increase the rest interval, but I wouldn't do more than 20 seconds rest. Otherwise, there's just too much recovery time and it stops simulating the fatigue of a race.
