Kristi....as I wrote early on there are far more than most people would ever believe, many train for open water or tri's and not masters meets.
Case in point is Sam & I had the pleasure (that's sarcasm) to train this morning with Sun Devil Masters and we did the following set....at least 3 women made the last round of 100's holdin 1:01/1:02:
5 x 100's @ 1:20
400 pull
5 x 100's @1:15
400 pull
5 x 100's @ 1:10
400 pull
5 x 100's @ 1:05
400 pull
Sam & I blew up that last round and only made 3, but I think he was doing backstroke? :) Needless to say the gals smoked us, we have no pride!!
Hi Paul:
So these women that made the 5 on 1:05 were open water and triathletes? That's pretty impressive. Just a thought, could you imagine doing those straight without the 400 Pull in between. And do you think those women would make it all of the intervals on a set like that?
Mandy & Chris could do them straight.....there animals. Both swam for ASU and now swim OW and/or Tri's pretty much exclusively.
Sam and I could sit on the deck, drink tequilla and WATCH them do it straight! Actaully Sam is kicking butt these days after his back surgery a year ago......if he makes Coral Springs he'll surpise a few people.
Today, swimming with the age groupers, we did the following set:
4x100 @ 1:20
4x50 @ :50
3x100 @ 1:15
4x50 @ :50
2x100 @ 1:10
4x50 @ :50
1x100 @ 1:05 (I went 1:00)
Would like to build up to 4 sets of 4, however I doubt I could do it without the 50s in between.
Originally posted by Paul Smith
Mandy & Chris could do them straight.....there animals. Both swam for ASU and now swim OW and/or Tri's pretty much exclusively.
Sam and I could sit on the deck, drink tequilla and WATCH them do it straight! Actaully Sam is kicking butt these days after his back surgery a year ago......if he makes Coral Springs he'll surpise a few people.
Paul,
You are too kind and sarcastic to say the least. It definitely helps swimming behind Paul's wave (believe me!) and watching these two women kick my butt. Hopefully Coral Springs and/or Stanford are in the cards but alas, work and family tend to have a priority these days. Swimming at SDM for the next few months are going to help a lot.
My goal is to do the Swim With Mike (see this month's Swimming World) www.swimwithmike.org in April and go for 20,000 distance. Mike works at my company and is truly and inspiration as to what he does and has done for disabled athletes.
Oh Tall One,
As I review your posts, a question popped up in my mind about your training program. How much do you and the other Smith train on very fast intervals at your "aerobic threshold" swim pace? Or as Emmett Hines would put it, how much at the fast interval/"cruise pace"? I get the impression from the workouts you have posted in this discussion that more often you do faster swims on longer intervals. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you also observe that you find these more challenging? Please elaborate.
Thanks,
Matt S
While an interesting question, in my opinion doing sets of 100 freestyles on a tight interval has limited carryover into the actual swimming of a 100 freestyle.
The best I ever managed was sets of 100's on the 1:20, and frankly I'm not even sure I could make five. But at the time I did the 100 yards in 51.9. I have a good friend who could hold 100's around the 1:00 interval, and he did a 50+. So there was an enormous workout difference, but less of a race difference. (Granted this fellow could do a 100 breaststroke in about a 1:01, which is way faster than I.)
Mike, you are correct. The set being discussed here is something I swim in the middle of my training cycle....something to build aerobic base and prepare to transition into my quality phase, something I just started last week.
In this next phase the sets to me are much harder as I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread, on Friday it was:
Warm up
8 x 100s @ 15 seconds rest; drill/swim/drill/swim
12 x 25s @ :40; descend in set of 3, one set each stroke
Main (3 times thru):
3 x 75s @ 1:30; drill, build, fast by 25
100 easy
100 for time
200 pull
Whereas on the base building phase the 5 x 100s @ 1:05 was really a challenge to hold 1:03s, however here the emphasis is on the single 100 and trying to go under 50.0
John's right though...Rich is the king of this type of work!
Good call. Those sets look very challenging indeed. I actually one week of hard training left, and then I go into a two week taper period. I am very much a sprinter, and I am even worried that two weeks may be too long. But we'll see!
Matt,
If you want to race you have to practice "racing". Not only to develop your bodies ability to swim thru/with pain but also to nail down the basic of starts, turns, stremlines, etc.
The most common mistake I see masters swimmers make is they rarely get on the blocks or practice quality sets during the season. Rather, they start getting ready two weeks before their meet. I think the opposite works, get on the blocks and practice quality/race sets 1-2 times a week, two weeks before the meet stay OFF the blocks and rest your body.
This all has to come together however in a seasonal program; base building early on, hard interval work, speed work, rest (periodization).
I was talking with evil-smith last week about how the "new" training of high level USS swimmers allows them to swim very fast and multilple meets all year without a full taper/shave. Case in point is Nic Brunelli who just went to the Austin meet and had awesome swims without tapering. Its something that neither John or I have followed but maybe worth trying down the road.
One last thing Chris Carmichael has written extensively about this type of training and more importantly the importance of rest days....even more so as we get older. I see tons of masters swimmers who "bail" on their rest days or don't really understand how long they need to fully taper to nail it.
