Dara Torres-Amazing

the majority of competitive masters swimmers overtrain and focus to much time on volume and not enough in quality race prep training... Starts is probably the most neglected thing....people wait to practice them the week before a meet rather than do them at every practice then STOP doing them a week before the meet to rest the legs. I would encourage everyone who is interested in competition to really change things up for one 5-6 month training cycle and see what happens. If you can overcome the mental side of reducing Additionally and trusting your training and REALLY resting you might be surprised at the results. Hi Paul, Sorry to get off topic for a moment...but I have a question... Since most masters swimmers get in around 4 days a week, how do you see the training schedule being set up in terms of aerobic versus speed work? Does one do mostly base training during the first two months of the season...and then stick with high intensity sets for the duration of the year (another 4 months)? If everything is done at race pace, does that work well for someone gearing up for anything beyond the sprint distances? I agree with you on the race preparation. As the saying goes, failure to prepare, is preparing for failure. Taking a dive off the blocks after every practice is the only way to get good at them. And simulated races once a week is very helpful. I appreciate your thoughts given how well your short course season went a couple of years ago.

the majority of competitive masters swimmers overtrain and focus to much time on volume and not enough in quality race prep training... Starts is probably the most neglected thing....people wait to practice them the week before a meet rather than do them at every practice then STOP doing them a week before the meet to rest the legs. I would encourage everyone who is interested in competition to really change things up for one 5-6 month training cycle and see what happens. If you can overcome the mental side of reducing Additionally and trusting your training and REALLY resting you might be surprised at the results. Hi Paul, Sorry to get off topic for a moment...but I have a question... Since most masters swimmers get in around 4 days a week, how do you see the training schedule being set up in terms of aerobic versus speed work? Does one do mostly base training during the first two months of the season...and then stick with high intensity sets for the duration of the year (another 4 months)? If everything is done at race pace, does that work well for someone gearing up for anything beyond the sprint distances? I agree with you on the race preparation. As the saying goes, failure to prepare, is preparing for failure. Taking a dive off the blocks after every practice is the only way to get good at them. And simulated races once a week is very helpful. I appreciate your thoughts given how well your short course season went a couple of years ago.