As I crawled back into the pool today fat and out of shape, I wondered: Don't sprinters need some minimal aerobic work? I see that Ande is doing none whatsoever and Paul advises not "fighting fat" in the pool. I do a lot of race pace training and cross training. But still, is just a little aerobic work called for? I can tell I don't need any for 50s, but my 100s could use a little something. I don't think I have the substantial swimming aerobic base that people like Ande have because I was out of the pool for so many years .. So I'm either taking my 100s out too slow for fear of dying or actually dying. Does aerobic work help counter this? Or do I need more lactate work such as doing 100s with huge amounts of rest?
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You didn't do any aerobic training in college? I'm skeptical about this. And if you did do aerobic training in college perhaps that's why you were "way faster."
We did SOME aerobic training, but minimal. The sprinters work more off strength, so with the combo of a lot of lifting and dryland, we did a lot of race-pace stuff. Minimal aerobic. The most aerobic I did was with my club team.
Since I was in the sprint group in college, we did a lot of fast swims, but lots of rest. It's about training your body for speed. Fast twitch. You can't expect to swim 70-80% for most of practice and expect to swim fast in a meet. You body hasn't been training for that. A classic AM practice (after warmups, drills, minimal aerobic set (15x50 :50) or (8x100 1:15).... main set would be something like 6x50 5:00, from blocks, choice of stroke, racing speed. Our yardage was low (around 3-5k, depending on length of workout). But we were always swimming for time.
Now, the mid-distance groups and distance groups did a lot more yardage than the sprinters. They would easily hit 5,000 in a short practice. They were doing LOTS of aerobic stuff all the time. But that's the difference. You can't take a person that has been training for distance to be thrown into a 50 or 100 event and expect to succeed. Or vice versa. Their muscles haven't been training for that.
Thank goodness the school of thought on swim training has changed. "Garbage yardage" AKA swim yardage just to get yardage, is out the window. Why swim 8x200 or more with 15-20 rest? That's garbage! Especially if you're a sprinter. Now, if you're training for that, and descending the set, doing speed play, negative splitting, have a specific pace to hold, it's not AS much as garbage, but it still is a bit excessive.
The reason I was "way faster" in college?? I lifted multiple times a week and swam 2x a day. Now I swim, at the most, 1-2 times a week, when I have the time to go.
My philosophy of training: swim smarter, not farther. And I think that movement in coaching is really picking up.
You didn't do any aerobic training in college? I'm skeptical about this. And if you did do aerobic training in college perhaps that's why you were "way faster."
We did SOME aerobic training, but minimal. The sprinters work more off strength, so with the combo of a lot of lifting and dryland, we did a lot of race-pace stuff. Minimal aerobic. The most aerobic I did was with my club team.
Since I was in the sprint group in college, we did a lot of fast swims, but lots of rest. It's about training your body for speed. Fast twitch. You can't expect to swim 70-80% for most of practice and expect to swim fast in a meet. You body hasn't been training for that. A classic AM practice (after warmups, drills, minimal aerobic set (15x50 :50) or (8x100 1:15).... main set would be something like 6x50 5:00, from blocks, choice of stroke, racing speed. Our yardage was low (around 3-5k, depending on length of workout). But we were always swimming for time.
Now, the mid-distance groups and distance groups did a lot more yardage than the sprinters. They would easily hit 5,000 in a short practice. They were doing LOTS of aerobic stuff all the time. But that's the difference. You can't take a person that has been training for distance to be thrown into a 50 or 100 event and expect to succeed. Or vice versa. Their muscles haven't been training for that.
Thank goodness the school of thought on swim training has changed. "Garbage yardage" AKA swim yardage just to get yardage, is out the window. Why swim 8x200 or more with 15-20 rest? That's garbage! Especially if you're a sprinter. Now, if you're training for that, and descending the set, doing speed play, negative splitting, have a specific pace to hold, it's not AS much as garbage, but it still is a bit excessive.
The reason I was "way faster" in college?? I lifted multiple times a week and swam 2x a day. Now I swim, at the most, 1-2 times a week, when I have the time to go.
My philosophy of training: swim smarter, not farther. And I think that movement in coaching is really picking up.
