Endurance

Originally posted by pbsaurus ... Our coach, Tim Sheeper is probably the most positive person I've ever met. ... I remember Tim Sheeper coaching near Stanford, in Palo Alto in a non-standard length pool, when in 1996 I was in good shape and came to a workout there with John Sulzbach. Tim, age 32 then and his wife, were on deck. That Saturday morning, I met during the workout, Olympian Gail Roper and Murray from South Africa. Gail, John and myself we had had breakfast afterwards, and we discussed. I have a memory about details of the past, and I don't expect people to necessarily remember like I do. Regarding the topic of what progress to expect when starting swimming late in life, I also started late, at age 25 by myself in public swim, and at age 28 in organized swimming. This is not as late as Doug here, who started at age 49 and wished it was 9. I am now age 44, so since age 28 that's 16 years of organized swimming in two Senior clubs and afterwards in Masters Swimming clubs. From my experience, developing the swimming specific VO2 Max, different than the running specific VO2 Max, that's the key of progress in swimming: starting swimming past teenage years -during which the body grows naturally and develops best under specific training-, gives anyone a handicap to fight against with regards to reaching one's lifetime potential in VO2 Max for swimming. The principles of developing this swimming-specific VO2 Max are however the same for teenagers and for adults: 1) 'Explosive Speed Training' -unfortunately neglected in Masters workouts- a few repeats at 100 % effort of 5 seconds sprints, 30 seconds rest; 2) 'Sprint Race Training' -also often neglected in Masters workouts- a few repeats at close to 100% effort of 1:00 hard swim, 1:30 rest; 3) 'VO2 Training' -often neglected in Masters workouts- repeats at over 90 % effort of 1 to 1 swim to rest ratio for an hour per week; 4) 'Anaerobic Treshold Training' repeats at 90% effort with 5 seconds rest for two or three hours per week; 5) 'Aerobic Training' repeats at 70% effort, for longtime, most of the week; 6) Blood tests ensuring healthy medical parameters, like red cells carrying oxygen, IGF-1 measuring growth hormone, white cells showing no infections in the body, and many more; 7) Cross training: in water and on dry land, flexibility; 8) Lung and heart capacity tests; 9) A passion and enjoyment for doing 1) through 8). The results of developing this swimming-specific VO2 Max are more modest for adults than for teenagers -who carry their swimming VO2 Max into adulthood even without much training maintenance-. However, within 'modest' they are still noticeable: .) in my case I reached for the 100 yards freestyle a 58.11 in 1994, and a 59.74 in May 2002; a 45 seconds, or a sub 50 seconds for a starter past teenage years, doesn't exist; .) in Doug's case, the 100 yards freestyle is in 1:45 after 10 weeks of training, three times per week; this can go slowly and steadily down by practicing 1) through 9) under professional guidance.

Originally posted by pbsaurus ... Our coach, Tim Sheeper is probably the most positive person I've ever met. ... I remember Tim Sheeper coaching near Stanford, in Palo Alto in a non-standard length pool, when in 1996 I was in good shape and came to a workout there with John Sulzbach. Tim, age 32 then and his wife, were on deck. That Saturday morning, I met during the workout, Olympian Gail Roper and Murray from South Africa. Gail, John and myself we had had breakfast afterwards, and we discussed. I have a memory about details of the past, and I don't expect people to necessarily remember like I do. Regarding the topic of what progress to expect when starting swimming late in life, I also started late, at age 25 by myself in public swim, and at age 28 in organized swimming. This is not as late as Doug here, who started at age 49 and wished it was 9. I am now age 44, so since age 28 that's 16 years of organized swimming in two Senior clubs and afterwards in Masters Swimming clubs. From my experience, developing the swimming specific VO2 Max, different than the running specific VO2 Max, that's the key of progress in swimming: starting swimming past teenage years -during which the body grows naturally and develops best under specific training-, gives anyone a handicap to fight against with regards to reaching one's lifetime potential in VO2 Max for swimming. The principles of developing this swimming-specific VO2 Max are however the same for teenagers and for adults: 1) 'Explosive Speed Training' -unfortunately neglected in Masters workouts- a few repeats at 100 % effort of 5 seconds sprints, 30 seconds rest; 2) 'Sprint Race Training' -also often neglected in Masters workouts- a few repeats at close to 100% effort of 1:00 hard swim, 1:30 rest; 3) 'VO2 Training' -often neglected in Masters workouts- repeats at over 90 % effort of 1 to 1 swim to rest ratio for an hour per week; 4) 'Anaerobic Treshold Training' repeats at 90% effort with 5 seconds rest for two or three hours per week; 5) 'Aerobic Training' repeats at 70% effort, for longtime, most of the week; 6) Blood tests ensuring healthy medical parameters, like red cells carrying oxygen, IGF-1 measuring growth hormone, white cells showing no infections in the body, and many more; 7) Cross training: in water and on dry land, flexibility; 8) Lung and heart capacity tests; 9) A passion and enjoyment for doing 1) through 8). The results of developing this swimming-specific VO2 Max are more modest for adults than for teenagers -who carry their swimming VO2 Max into adulthood even without much training maintenance-. However, within 'modest' they are still noticeable: .) in my case I reached for the 100 yards freestyle a 58.11 in 1994, and a 59.74 in May 2002; a 45 seconds, or a sub 50 seconds for a starter past teenage years, doesn't exist; .) in Doug's case, the 100 yards freestyle is in 1:45 after 10 weeks of training, three times per week; this can go slowly and steadily down by practicing 1) through 9) under professional guidance.