First I will introduce myself, for I am new here. I am from Poland and practice for long distance swimming. I want to participate in masters competition in winter (it is going to be my third time):)
This morning when I was already after my workout the lifeguard came up to me and he started talking about training, nutrition itp. I told him that I am practicing for long distance, like 400 and 800 and he gave me some nutrition tips. He said that long distance swimmers need mostly fat and little carbs, because their effort is aerobic.
Here I was quite puzzled. I know that you burn fat in case of prolonged effort at low intensity level. But this is not what the long distance swimmer is doing! When I do my 2x800 or 4x400m sets I try to do it at relatively good pace (though, of course, not at the sprint level ). And if I have had a meal rich in fat and low in carbs I feel week during workout. Especially when my volume is 3.500-4000m per session.
What do you think about it?
Your lifeguard friend is a little off base. It is true that at lower exertions you will burn higher relative proportions of fat. However, at any swimming velocity you are burning substantial amounts of glycogen form your stores. Those stores need to be full for you to perform your best.
There's a pretty good book out called "Advanced Sports Nutrition" published here in the states by Human Kinetics. He covers the state of the art in nutrition research pretty thoroughly and you will definitely find good info and a good background on nutrition for distance swimming.
As for monitoring heart rate, heart rate is a very important measure in running and to some degree for cycling because the same speeds can mean very different efforts. However, in a pool of constant distance and without substantial waves, the energy required to swim at a given speed is very reproducible form day to do.
Swimming 10 seconds under your threshold pace on tuesday requires the same amount of energy it required on wednesday.
Your lifeguard friend is a little off base. It is true that at lower exertions you will burn higher relative proportions of fat. However, at any swimming velocity you are burning substantial amounts of glycogen form your stores. Those stores need to be full for you to perform your best.
There's a pretty good book out called "Advanced Sports Nutrition" published here in the states by Human Kinetics. He covers the state of the art in nutrition research pretty thoroughly and you will definitely find good info and a good background on nutrition for distance swimming.
As for monitoring heart rate, heart rate is a very important measure in running and to some degree for cycling because the same speeds can mean very different efforts. However, in a pool of constant distance and without substantial waves, the energy required to swim at a given speed is very reproducible form day to do.
Swimming 10 seconds under your threshold pace on tuesday requires the same amount of energy it required on wednesday.
