So....here's the thing:
I'm actually getting decent at flipturns. I screw a few of them up, but I always know what I did wrong. The ratio of good flips to bad flips keeps going up. But, because there are usually some bad flips along the way, I haven't set any PRs yet when using flips. I'm at 1:25 100m with (some bad) flips, vs 1:22 with decent open-turns. My 50m is hi-39sec vice hi-38sec.
However....
When flipping, of course we are not breathing through the approach, turn, and pushoff. This is not a problem for me in a hard 50m/100m. But in a hard 400m, I'm dying, Man!! The accumulation of not breathing for this period every 25m has me GASPING after 200m. I crave that open-turn breath.
Maybe I will learn to handle this, but I dunno.
Even if you flip well, should you sometimes do open turns because of the oxygen situation?
Ok. Thanks. It's just that....after months of exciting leaps in swimming, I suddenly feel like I have stalled, or gone backwards. This feeling of exhaustion/despair is depressing. :bitching:
This is totally off-topic at this point, but here's my two cents on the overtraining thing.
On one hand, I think old-school, tons of yardage and beatdown into shave and taper training cycles were a breeding ground for overtraining. I think good modern coaches have largely realized this and adapted - you see more and more folks that can put together good swims across the season and year and not just once a season for a big shave and taper is good evidence of this. I think the renewed focus you see from good modern coaches on dryland/power/GPP and technique work even for elite swimmers is more proof of the idea that varied stimuli (and general physical robustness) is better than just a beatdown in the pool twice a day, every day.
On the other hand, I think the diagnosis of "overtraining" is used way too much. Most people can take a lot more work volume than they think they can, especially if they aren't already conditioned to ignore fatigue signs.
Kind of back on subject a little, I wouldn't think that Skuj is overtrained. Just maybe a little overzealous in expectations of improvement curve. As I said, it's really hard for an adult with a fully formed, mature nervous system to pick up different physical skills with such a different proprioceptive (is that even a word?) world as swimming.
Ok. Thanks. It's just that....after months of exciting leaps in swimming, I suddenly feel like I have stalled, or gone backwards. This feeling of exhaustion/despair is depressing. :bitching:The sudden plateau in performance just means you’re graduating to the next level of performance, as well as conditioning, and just need to figure out what’s holding ya back . It is definitely nothing to get discouraged about man. Study the basics of stroke fundamentals. Sometimes video can help, quite a lot
Yes, I'll stick with this. I'll manage it better. Trying flipturns every 50m (deep-end) is something that I will concentrate on today.
I really don't think I can be accused of overtraining. I typically swim 4-5x per week, 6-8km total per week.
Yes, I'll stick with this. I'll manage it better. Trying flipturns every 50m (deep-end) is something that I will concentrate on today.
I really don't think I can be accused of overtraining. I typically swim 4-5x per week, 6-8km total per week.
Honestly, I have no idea if you've overtraining or not. I didn't mean to accuse.
Your main swimming goal seems like a reasonable one to me, given your stated times but if you're 19, they aren't very aggressive and if you are 90, they are likely way too much. So "7 k a week" by itself doesn't mean much either way.
I'm 66. If I ramped up from, say, a mile a week to 6-8 km per week over 3 months? That would be overtraining. For a 30 year old? Probably not.
Where I'm coming from:
In my 50's, I discovered that training days-in-a-row hindered rather than helped a ramp-up for an open water swim. I felt lazy doing 3 days a week instead of 4 or 5, but I couldn't argue with the results. The same might not be true for a 20-something.
When I turned 60, I blew out a shoulder doing 50's as hard as possible and I'm just getting back from that overtraining injury.
In 2015, I read a SI article on Phelps that said he agreed to come back for 2016 only if his coach let him train 50K a week instead of 80k. I became fascinated (and still am) with the idea that overtraining might be endemic in swimming. I took Phelp's 5 golds and a silver in 2016 as an affirmation for that idea.
But I've never done serious training so this is all theoretical to me.
Ok. Thanks. It's just that....after months of exciting leaps in swimming, I suddenly feel like I have stalled, or gone backwards. This feeling of exhaustion/despair is depressing. :bitching:
That feeling of exhaustion/depression is a serious sign of overtraining. I'm not joking.
I appreciate this slight diversion on overtraining - thanks MickYoung and JPEnge for your thoughts.
For the record I am 57, and I started swimming on Feb 21st, 2019. :)
Now.....here's a little story:
I had a FANTASTIC session today. I felt WONDERFUL. Most of my flip-turns were done reasonably well. I'm thrilled. So what happened? I did flip-turns only at the deep-end, and open turns at the shallow-end.
I cannot count how many times I have read that, once you figure out how to do a flip-turn, "DO IT ALWAYS"...ie at every wall, in every swim.
I think that advice is wrong for some/many people. Flip-turns every 25m clearly put me over the red-line, even on a warmup swim. It makes a huge difference if I try it every 50m at this time.
In the future I will introduce more and more swimming where I'm trying it every 25m, but for now, I'm obviously not ready for that.
As an aside, my easy/cooldown 400m today was 7:15....which was race-pace for 400m back in March. :)
That feeling of exhaustion/depression is a serious sign of overtraining. I'm not joking.
Hey, I feel that way after my first rep of every butterly set!
