Looking at one-hour results, and just finishing New England Masters SCY Championships at Harvard, how is it that older swimmers are getting faster and faster, and pretty much everyone is getting faster and faster compared to a few years ago when there seemed to be more mortal swimmers?
What are older (45+ women; at this point 65+ men) swimmers doing that keeps them at such elite levels? Weights? Extensive training? How much of both? How do they have jobs and families and train? The field of fast swimmers is getting deeper and deeper. Anyone have idea as to why?
I want to know the secrets. Are the people who race now self-selecting more and more as elite swimmers? Has everyone swum all their lives? I know to swim hard you have to train hard, but I am baffled by sudden increase in amazing fast times and so many records getting broken.
3-6 weeks out in particular but all season long sparingly use fins for full blown sprint work (swim sets not kick sets). This will help keep the feel of race pace even when your are veery broken down...if your shoulders can handle it use the smaller paddles with fins for "power" sprints, here's an example of the sprint circuit we'll do 2x a week:
- warm up of 400-600 fartlek
- 2 sets of variables; 1 set is 4 x 50's as follows, #1 easy to fast (to the feet), #2 fast to easy (to the feet), #3 all easy (to the feet), #4 all fast (hand touch)
- Station #1: 4 x 25's power kick @ :50 (under water kick as far/as fast as you can ideally the full length, if not surface and swim easy free to the wall).
- Station #2: 4 x 25's w/Powercord using fins & paddles @ 1:00
- Station #3: 4 x 50's cruise w/max of 1 breath per lap @ 1:30
- Station #4: 4 x 25's with fins/paddles 15yd "blast"/20 yard cruise
- Station #5: 4 x 25's from a dive all out, no gear, no interval
- Station #6: 4 x running dive from pool edge into full speed turns, no interval
3-6 weeks out in particular but all season long sparingly use fins for full blown sprint work (swim sets not kick sets). This will help keep the feel of race pace even when your are veery broken down...if your shoulders can handle it use the smaller paddles with fins for "power" sprints, here's an example of the sprint circuit we'll do 2x a week:
- warm up of 400-600 fartlek
- 2 sets of variables; 1 set is 4 x 50's as follows, #1 easy to fast (to the feet), #2 fast to easy (to the feet), #3 all easy (to the feet), #4 all fast (hand touch)
- Station #1: 4 x 25's power kick @ :50 (under water kick as far/as fast as you can ideally the full length, if not surface and swim easy free to the wall).
- Station #2: 4 x 25's w/Powercord using fins & paddles @ 1:00
- Station #3: 4 x 50's cruise w/max of 1 breath per lap @ 1:30
- Station #4: 4 x 25's with fins/paddles 15yd "blast"/20 yard cruise
- Station #5: 4 x 25's from a dive all out, no gear, no interval
- Station #6: 4 x running dive from pool edge into full speed turns, no interval
