I'm curious how people go about deciding which events they will train for and enter in meets. Do people pick events they enjoy swimming or events they do well at or events they think they can improve at or...? Is there any way to determine which events you are likely to be best at? I've always thought of myself as a distance person, mostly because I've never been particularly fast, but as my technique improves I seem to be getting faster in the shorter distances more than the longer distances, even though I am training for distance! After doing some timed sprints this week my coach told me he thought he could reduce my 50fr time by 3-5 seconds if I wanted to train for that. Naturally that idea appeals to me but I had never considered concentrating on free sprints before. There seem to be several ways I could go that look promising and I'm not sure what to concentrate on, or even on what basis to choose!
I'm also curious to what extent people train specifically for their specialty events. A lot of the people in our club only swim during the club workouts and so don't really tailor their training for specific events, at least to the extent that those of us who also train on our own have the opportunity to do.
I try to swim every event over the season also, but I usually pick my events according to when they're scheduled. One early, one late each day for Nationals. Maybe every 3rd event in a local meet.
Two of the 5 events I swim are the same in all meets, but the other 3 events I select are varied. The choice of others usually depends on what the meet order is.
Two events I always swim I try to train for. The others are "fun" events. My selections are based on both criteria you ask about: the ones I am good at and ones I like to swim ( ie. which I stink at.)
Our coaching program usually allows some individual choice of stroke to concentrate on during regular workouts , and we have designated distance lanes one workout a week (which you will never find me in). But I still try to have one workout on my own during the week to concentrate on what I want to.
I try to swim every event, over the course of a season. For the meets, I try to pick ones where I will do well (either because I'm faster, or there are fewer entries ;) ) I know another swimmer (probable top 10 nationally) who only swims 50/100 free, 50 fly. Every meet, no variation.
At the last state meet, I noticed that there are many people with the same evil mind as me, in my age group. There were more people signed up for the 400 IM than there were for the 50 back. :cool:
I've been swimming since I was 8. When I was 12 I showed some promise in distance events. So my coach started putting me in those and I did well. That pretty much takes me through college. So that's what I normally swim. But next season (can't really train this summer to do time conflicts) I'm thinking I'm going to train more for sprint/strokes. As I've never really trained for those, I think it'll be a fun change of pace.
As for what I've entered in masters meets in the past, I'd usually choose a distance event (or two if offered). Then what ever other events I could get in that'd leave a good amount of rest in between them.
Originally posted by gull80
I always wanted to be a sprinter but I just don't seem to have enough fast twitch muscle fibers.
Doctor, heal thyself! I'd think you'd prescribe an extra hefty dose of V02Max to increase fast twitch muscle fiber.
Great question. I think training needs to be event specific (see Maglischo, among others). I'm currently training for the 500/400 free (mainly because as a middle distance swimmer this seems to be my best event) but will swim longer and shorter distances in meets to make it worthwhile to go. I have found that my times reflect what I've trained for (not much improvement in sprints). I probably need to do more sprinting in practice but time is limited.
Originally posted by gull80
Swampthing, you've been sleeping in class again. VO2max correlates with performance in endurance events, not sprints.
I dunno. The local VO2 "expert" was using sprinters as examples of how to grow more blood vessels, or something like that. (I wasn't sleeping. I was concentrating with my eyes closed.)
Hey Craig, I'm curious how you came to view yourself as a middle distance swimmer. Did you get there by somehow determining that was your strength or did you decide that is what you wanted to do and subsequently train for it?
I think I have been thinking of myself as a distance swimmer as a combined result of the fact I used to do triathlons, and last summer I got into open water swimming, and when I started looking at what to enter in meets the distance events gave me a better chance to place, although more due to fewer competitors than talent on my part. :) But as I said, with training I seem to be improving more in the shorter distances making me wonder if I have more potential there. Right now I'm starting to think of myself as a middle distance swimmer, but I'm not sure I'm not just moving through that on my way to shorter distances...
I've also taken up butterfly, again partly motivated by the fact there are less competitors and partly purely for the challenge and learning experience.
I always wanted to be a sprinter but I just don't seem to have enough fast twitch muscle fibers. Some days I don't think I have any. I guess I arrived at middle distance by default (and trial and error). In Masters, there seems to be less competition in the longer distances, maybe because of the training required. In college I swam the 500 and the 1000 but preferred the 500, which I seem to split more evenly.
Originally posted by aquageek
Doctor, heal thyself! I'd think you'd prescribe an extra hefty dose of V02Max to increase fast twitch muscle fiber.
Swampthing, you've been sleeping in class again. VO2max correlates with performance in endurance events, not sprints. I'm afraid you're going to need to stay after school.
