Apologies if this has been asked before, but I can't find it if it has.
I'm trying to create workouts and can't find an answer to this. If you are doing your set of repeat 50's, how does your body determine the difference between swimming at 100, 200, 400? It's all just 50's some of which could be at a 30 sec target time (for 100's) or at 35 sec target time for 400's for example. For instance, am I "detraining" my 100 speed by swimming the same repeat distance at a slower 400m pace?
Thanks.
...how does your body determine the difference between swimming at 100, 200, 400?
When you dive in the water for a race, you know in your mind that if it is a 50 race you go all out from beginning to the end. If it is a 100 race if you do the same thing as you did in the 50 you will be toast at the end. So in a 100 you need to dial it back just a bit. A 200 needs to be paced as well and you need to start with "easy speed". 400 the same, go out "easy" and hold the pace.
Practicing the different race paces 100's of times gets you used to the feel of a 50 holding :30 and a 50 holding :32 and a 50 holding :34 etc. Pretty soon you will be able to predict your time before you even look at the clock after each repeat 50.
To answer your question, no, you will not be detraining. Part of the reason is you will be doing more 50 repeats at 400 pace for your 400 practices and many fewer 50s for your 200 pace sets.
Unfortunately much of the USRPT literature suggests "X" number of 50s for 200 training or "Y" number of repeats for 400 training. The best thing you can do is determine your target race pace and hold that time for as long as you can until failure. Forget about any suggested numbers of repeats. Dr. Rushall and I have discussed this on several occasions.
The other very important thing you should do once you determine your target race and target pace is to add 3 or 4 seconds to that target time so that you can get used to doing a USRPT set. If you start doing these sets with the actual target time you set, you will find that it is too hard to do. It is easy to get discouraged in the beginning. It took me more than 4 months of doing USRPT sets 5 times a week before I understood that it was "working". Oh, and start with only one set a day. You will probably feel like you are not doing enough but remember, in Traditional Training on any given day there may be a grand total of 100 yards or meters at race pace whereas in USRPT if you complete 13 x 50 in a set at race pace with three fails, you have done 500 yards or meters at race pace...five times the race pace yardage as in Traditional Training.
...how does your body determine the difference between swimming at 100, 200, 400?
When you dive in the water for a race, you know in your mind that if it is a 50 race you go all out from beginning to the end. If it is a 100 race if you do the same thing as you did in the 50 you will be toast at the end. So in a 100 you need to dial it back just a bit. A 200 needs to be paced as well and you need to start with "easy speed". 400 the same, go out "easy" and hold the pace.
Practicing the different race paces 100's of times gets you used to the feel of a 50 holding :30 and a 50 holding :32 and a 50 holding :34 etc. Pretty soon you will be able to predict your time before you even look at the clock after each repeat 50.
To answer your question, no, you will not be detraining. Part of the reason is you will be doing more 50 repeats at 400 pace for your 400 practices and many fewer 50s for your 200 pace sets.
Unfortunately much of the USRPT literature suggests "X" number of 50s for 200 training or "Y" number of repeats for 400 training. The best thing you can do is determine your target race pace and hold that time for as long as you can until failure. Forget about any suggested numbers of repeats. Dr. Rushall and I have discussed this on several occasions.
The other very important thing you should do once you determine your target race and target pace is to add 3 or 4 seconds to that target time so that you can get used to doing a USRPT set. If you start doing these sets with the actual target time you set, you will find that it is too hard to do. It is easy to get discouraged in the beginning. It took me more than 4 months of doing USRPT sets 5 times a week before I understood that it was "working". Oh, and start with only one set a day. You will probably feel like you are not doing enough but remember, in Traditional Training on any given day there may be a grand total of 100 yards or meters at race pace whereas in USRPT if you complete 13 x 50 in a set at race pace with three fails, you have done 500 yards or meters at race pace...five times the race pace yardage as in Traditional Training.
