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The Need for SPEED !

Erik Hochstein

I have been swimming for 50 years - highly competitive at all levels of swimming - and yet I have never ever done a real SPRINT workout. What am I trying to say when I say Sprint workout ? Its actually very simple - first of all it has to be an actual workout - not a taper session - resting and taper is different than a sprint workout - why ? Because in a workout you are building sth - in taper you are resting your body to recover from all the work you did building...

Imagine you are a sprint coach for runners and you have to give a workout for a 100/ 200 dash runner - swimming and running I always use 4x for distance vs time - 50 Free = 200 dash run..

Proper warm-up - for a runner - we do need to warm up -- but can you imagine the look of the runners if you give them an "easy 4k" warm up run ? Then have them do the preset of another 3-5k running -- or 10 sets of 50 jumps compare to kicking. Then the main "speed" set is 200 max speed run with 800 easy run in between - do that 8 times. And then the warm down is another easy 4k jog ... 

So what would I consider a real sprint workout ? Here are my rules: 

Rule 1 - Fast twitch VS Slow Twitch. Your body and muscles - fast twitch and slow twitch are different !!  We all have both and many muscle fibers that can be recruited or are in between - often people have different levels - but all training will influence both groups and they don't "like" each other.

Rule 2 - never ever count total workout yardage if you want to get FAST !!!  BUT do count how much yardage of max speed you do. 

Rule 3 - Max speed ain't easy and you can only keep it for 6-8 seconds everything else is less than max !!

Rule 4 - It takes real rest to be ready for maximum speed. Swimming or running or cycling for 1, 2, or 5 or 10 minutes at an easy pace does not give you rest. 

Rule 5 - "toys" only when you are ready for them ... paddles, pull cords, parachutes, fins ... 

Rule 6 - SPEED yes but slow increase in intensity and volume is better... this is where endurance experience does work.

So - how why am I thinking this - and maybe challenging the current system ? We don't use things... we lose them and I don't think its a good idea to lose strength, power and ability to have max performance. Sure - be cautious and all but have a reason to be cautious which means do challenge your body.  I can't reach much above 150 max Heart rate right now - why ? Because I didn't use it for 14 years - and just plain health and longevity - we need to give our body challenges - you don't use it you lose it.

Besides posting this - I am also doing this in the pool - will it work ? Too early to tell ... I am using Rule 6 -- since I have never trained like this - how fast can I get ?

Life time best in 50y Free - funny thing and part of my new belief - I was a 200 swimmer and I never did a 50 Free for "real" ... I think about 21.0 in college ... early 40s - my second round of swimming -- had some assistance from the full body suits for sure 50 Free 21.0 ... interesting - able to match my college time in 50 Free when I was 40 years old ....hmm - so how close can I get to that now ? I give myself one more year to get to full ability and hopefully my body will keep up but part of my approach is also that there isn't a rush to get there...  One year to what ? My goal is to reach the leveling field - where I workout for 3 months and my speed stays about the same ...

  • I graduated from college in 1971. I was not satisfied with my swimming performance my senior year. I knew I had more to gain in swimming. I started medical school and didn’t really have much time to swim, but I knew I had to swim to keep my sanity. I hated doing distances in work out so I was basically doing 25 as fast as I could in the time that I had, not caring how far I swam. In 1974 I turned 25 which at the time was the minimum age to swim masters and started swimming masters. I discovered my hundreds were faster than they were in college  And not being a freestyler I had never done 50s for time before. With some variations and adding some longer swims I’ve basically been doing that kind of workout ever since and love it and it worked out pretty well for me. 

  • Erik, isn’t it just more fun to swim fast? Aside from the boredom I experienced during long sets, I just like the way the water feels against my body when I’m doing sprints or hundred pace. for me it’s just more fun

  • Also, thank you for starting these threads, there just hasn’t been enough activity on the forum and I really like some thing that is worth thinking about

  • in reply to Allen Stark

    It is more fun !! But not easy to find a group doing this ... I will learn to work around it but all Masters workouts ain't anywhere close to this -- I have learned soooo much for myself ... will keep adding things - thanks

  • Not funny -lol -  POOLS ARE TOO COLD - yes I smile as I am writing this but its also very true - one of the lessons I got from this journey ... pools are toooooo cold to do sprint work. You need to rest - not 200 yards easy - actual rest ... getting out and dry is an option but not so easy either. I found a shallow 85 degree pool - I LOVE IT - workouts are much better for speed work in that pool. 

  • in reply to Erik Hochstein

    not sure what you consider too cold for a pool.  I've been in "cold" pools kept at 79 or 80 for elite club training - which happens to be the USA Swim race pool temp and I've been in "therapeutic" pools kept at 88 or so.  I much prefer the 80 degree pool - but will admit it takes me a full 500-600 yard warm up before the work out set so maybe you need a longer and structured warm up before sprint sets.   Many rec center pools are kept in the 84-85 degree range which makes for a nice compromise between getting right into your sprint set or doing a full warm up set.

  • in reply to E59WM

    Nice - pretty simple -- if you want to focus on speed work - you should not "have" to move to stay warm. I get the pool temp that's standard - I have done my share of yardage to say the least ... but just had an interesting experiment - did set of 8x25 -- every 6min -- did this on Monday and Wed and Friday --- Monday was ok temp pool and warm sunlight - did first 4 in 12.5 --- same as I did today in warm shallow pool 85 degree pool ... 12.5s 

    But on Wed 'cold pool" we have - 78 degrees and it was cold day - did warm up and all but very difficult to stay warm unless you go somewhat fast which is opposite of rest ... 13.0 on the 25s !!! Thats a big difference ... so the need for heat lol -- something ... I know weird but numbers are numbers at least for me ... again this is for super sprint work ...  also - even with this much rest number 5-8 get about 0.2s slower - speed ain't easy 

  • As someone who is focused on 50 distance racing, I very much agree that you HAVE to SPRINT regularly to be successful.  The energy systems, neurological systems, breathing patterns, kicking intensity are all different at 50 than even the 100 much less longer distances.  It is no accident that the Olympic finalists in the Mens' 50 were all different than the finalists of the 100.    

    From an energy system perspective, the phospho-creatine (PC) system is the first one the body uses.  It goes for about 10-15 seconds and then anaerobic glucose metabolism comes into play.  As times get above 30 seconds or so, the percentage contribution of aerobic metabolism grows quickly.

    The PC system takes several minutes to reload after use.  To get maximal intensity and use of that energy system, you must take several minutes between efforts.  So doing 25 repeats on a minute won't be training this system.  That is a set far more appropriate for a 100 or 200 swimmer.  It is aerobic and anaerobic based.  It is not a maximal effort set.

    Training for the 50 also has implications for dry land training.  Doing sets of 8-12 reps aren't targeting power and explosion.  Those traits are targeted with 3-5 reps with maximal intensity.  Each rep in that 3-5 range should be an explosive movement ideally.  And as with the water sprinting, there should be at least 3 minutes between sets to allow the body to be ready to maximally exert again.

  • in reply to RobH

    Got a lot of the same beliefs - the strength part problem is that I was "off" for so long - just need the clean 6-10 reps to build - totally agree with power being soooo much different and more important than just strength - but gotta build the base first a little bit - means probably a year slowly adding the power focus. Simple bench press is still one of my big lessons -- got into shape I thought - did some basic support strength 2-3x a week - pool sprints and all - tried a bench press one day max - could not do 135lbs - did about 190-200 back in day ... not a lot but all makes sense in a way but still ... getting it back just takes a year - I will be stronger than in college - not that hard but its not a 3 months comeback ...