How many here are sprinters and how many long distance swimmers?

Alex - It looks like the peripheral blood responded pretty quickly - the samples were taken within about 30 seconds of the swim and definitely corresponded to the effort of the most recent swim. In one case that I got a peak at, a 'distance' swimmer's lactate went from 8 mmole after her last swim to 1 mmole, 5 minutes of rest later. I can't say mine cleared out so rapidly. gull80 - Well, maybe it is 1650 of pain, but if it is true that distance swimmers spend most of their time at threshold, then the swims are relatively pleasant. At least, that is my impression of my relatively little time spent swimming at *my* threshold. Peter - I don't know if you are a sprinter or a distance swimmer. Actually, I think you are a *swimmer.* (and an animal, be sure to let your wife know! ;) ) For those of you who are ignorant, Peter has a long list of amazing swimming accomplishments, from swimming every event, all courses, to 1650 flys, to remarkable February distances every year (and he is still married!). I have never seen anyone go through swim suits or hair faster than Peter. :p Splash - The testing was arranged by our team, and it cost $40. Looking through the paperwork that we got, the only blurb I can find is "The human peroformance team at SMI has recently been named the US Swimming High Performance Clinic for Northern California. These test are incorporated into Stanford and Berkeley Swim programs. Please feel free to call me with questions you may have." But there is no number! I will check with the coach. Also, it sounds like you might find some information at the US Swimming website. Cynthia - there has been some debate on which swimmers are 'smarter' - freestylers, breastrokers, etc. In *my* opinion swimmers of 200 events are the smartest. You need to be very clever to swim an event that is neither a sprint nor a distance event.

So that's why I like the 200s. I chose 'grey matter' instead of 'fast twitch' muscles.... Anyway I'd trade a kidney for your ankle flexibility Phil. BTW, Phil did the 1650 Fly too in 2002 and he came in with what was it, a 22 something? Now that we know you're a sprinter that feat is even more phenomenal.

I've been a sprinter all my life, not only a sprinter, but a drop-dead sprinter. I would always be hanging on for dear life at the end of a 100. I've always done way better in meets than in practice. In workouts there is very little recovery time, often only 5 or 10 seconds, and there's no way that I can sprint for 45 minutes straight. Trying to repeat 200's or 400's in workout is a major chore and I feel as if every muscle group is shutting down. I'm not really getting out of breath because I can't move my arms fast enough. Now that I am in the 50-54 age group (and going up a group in September) I seem to have lost my raw speed. The only solution is to take it out a little slower which is against all my instincts. But it does seem to be working. Now it looks like my best chances are in the 200. There are still a lot of big guys who can blast out a 50 or a 100. I'll just have to swim smarter than them in the 200. When I was in college I could swim a hundred in 51, but the best I did in a 200 was 2:02. Pretty embarrasing. This year I have swum two 200's in competition. One was split 28.5, 34.5, 34.5, 33.5 and one was 32, 33, 33, 33. The second one was a lot easier than the other. I'm going to try to go out in 30 at nationals and see if I can keep the rest at 33, maybe even get the last one under 33. Wish me luck.

I'm a true blue sprinter and proud of it! When I was younger I trained hard enough to overcome my "slow twitch" muscle shortage and could actually compete in the 500 and the mile. Now I don't have the time or energy to train 4-5 hours a day!!! I LOVE SPRINTING! I've decided my longest "distance" swim is a 200! Why fight mother nature? I admire long distance swimmers. BUT I'm tired of them saying they work harder than sprinters. Sprinters' muscles can contract faster, therefore their muscles fatigue quicker! Lets try to appreciate each others talents! I don't think I have EVER negative split a race. I don't think I could! I admire those swimmers that can.

Middle Distance! What happened to an option for middle distance? Liver Glycogen? I think that is a by product from my Mom's "famous" liver and onions...

Where do "Liver Glycogens" (SP?) fit into all of this? I've been told that dist swimming taps into this....any comments....?

This reply is in response to an earlier post about Tom Dolan. He is a great guy, an unbelievably competitive workout swimmer (saw him go under 9 minutes in practice for a 1000), and one of the all-time greats. But Tom NEVER, and I mean NEVER, would consider himself anything remotely close to a sprinter. The thing is, if you can go a 1:33 in the 200 free, then you can split a 19 on a relay by default. I would guess that there are 1000 people who could beat tom in a 50 if not more and he certainly never recorded on of the fastest times ever. We sprinters have to protect out turf! Oh, and keep in mind, if there is a little kid drowning in the pool - the mother doesn't stand up and say, "quick, someone swim 66 laps and then save my poor child!" Or even worse, "Quick, someone swim breaststroke out to my drowing kid!" In your time of need, you want a sprinter - you NEED a sprinter. All in good fun of course (unless your drowning that is!).

Lefty, You're absolutely right about Tom being a hardcore distance guy. The fact of the matter is that he happened to have split his hundreds on the five hundred and thousand much faster than many people can go all out for the same lengths. Most any 47+ hundred swimmer would crash and burn if they had to keep that pace up for another sixteen laps. So the real question is/was....can super humans like Tom sprint? Absolutely. But the statistics may show that most distance people don't have the explosive sprinting ability as you've mentioned. And P.S.... I think you're right on about having a sprinter in the lifeguard tower. But I am sure there are many who would argue this point to the contrary.:cool:

You probably want a Life Guard with SOME indurance if the "pool" is actually the ocean or a lake : )

I believe A lot of the older swimmers, are the distant swimmers . And the younger swimmers are the short swimmers or speed swimers. but never the less I thought your survey was good.