Hi all,
I'm the Slow Swimmer in Residence at my swim practices, and this often means that I'm maybe halfway done with a set when people are moving on to the next one. Usually, I have the slow lane to myself, which widens my options somewhat (if I don't, I do whatever the others are doing, even if it means moving on to the next set before I'm done with the previous one).
Since I almost NEVER finish my sets the same time as the others (unless I get to the practice earlier... that allows me to come out even with the others at least on the first set), would I benefit more from (a), (b) or (c)?:
(a) jump to the sets that others are doing even if not finished with all the repeats (ex.: 10x100; others have moved on to 250s. I have done 5-6 100s... following this option, I'd stop doing the 100s and move ahead to the 250s).
(b) finish the set I'm doing, then start on whatever set others are doing, even if they're, let's say, two or more sets ahead of me.
(c) finish the set I'm doing, then move on to the next one in the order the coach listed, only skipping ahead if the time allotted for the workout is drawing to a close and I need the warmdown.
Underlying all this, I guess what I am asking is whether it's better to do fewer repetitions but more of the sets that everyone's doing or all the repetitions but finish fewer sets.
Some might say I should retire to the open lap swim, but I'm not ready to do that. ;)
Thanks for your help!
One of my pet peeves (yes.....there are many!), is siwmming with teams that don't train more as a "team". Often I see coaches give a set and differant lanes take off at differant times.....
My preferance is having a coach give a set that has options on the distance that each "level" of lane may have.....but have all lanes on the same interval.
For example if the set is 10 x 100's @ 1:20 for the "fast" lane, you may have another lane doing 75's on that interval our even 50's.....
The problem I see with this is that the slower lanes aren't getting in quite the same type or yardage ... we do all sorts of things at practice sometimes we all have the same interval and different distances other times one lane does 12 x 100 on 1:20 the next lane does 10 x 100 on 1:35 and another lane does 7 x 100 on 2:00 ...
My team has a HUGE range in ability ... we have a few very fast people that can hold around 1:15 for 100s and we have a few swimmers who can barely swim a 100 straight ... (and perhaps they can't)
A few of our coaches also customize workouts .. Giving the sprinters more sprint work and the distance swimmers more of that horrific distance training ...
One of my pet peeves (yes.....there are many!), is siwmming with teams that don't train more as a "team". Often I see coaches give a set and differant lanes take off at differant times.....
My preferance is having a coach give a set that has options on the distance that each "level" of lane may have.....but have all lanes on the same interval.
For example if the set is 10 x 100's @ 1:20 for the "fast" lane, you may have another lane doing 75's on that interval our even 50's.....
The problem I see with this is that the slower lanes aren't getting in quite the same type or yardage ... we do all sorts of things at practice sometimes we all have the same interval and different distances other times one lane does 12 x 100 on 1:20 the next lane does 10 x 100 on 1:35 and another lane does 7 x 100 on 2:00 ...
My team has a HUGE range in ability ... we have a few very fast people that can hold around 1:15 for 100s and we have a few swimmers who can barely swim a 100 straight ... (and perhaps they can't)
A few of our coaches also customize workouts .. Giving the sprinters more sprint work and the distance swimmers more of that horrific distance training ...
