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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Former Member
Here's what I wonder about using bicycling or spinning for aerobic capacity. A lot of the physiological adaptations happen on the level of the muscles. Maglischo's book goes into this in a lot of detail, and I don't remember the specifics. What I do recall is that much of the aerobic conditioning effect is specific to the working muscles. So if you are biking, that's not going to do anything for the conditioning of upper body swimming muscles.
Brian,
I do the cross training because it's fun. If it happens to help my swimming, or not, no biggie. BTW, I had my biggest swimming breakthrough at age 53 after not swimming for about 4 years due to shoulder problems. I did, however, get totally addicted to mountain biking during that break. Probably just a coincidence.
Rich
Here's what I wonder about using bicycling or spinning for aerobic capacity. A lot of the physiological adaptations happen on the level of the muscles. Maglischo's book goes into this in a lot of detail, and I don't remember the specifics. What I do recall is that much of the aerobic conditioning effect is specific to the working muscles. So if you are biking, that's not going to do anything for the conditioning of upper body swimming muscles.
Brian,
I do the cross training because it's fun. If it happens to help my swimming, or not, no biggie. BTW, I had my biggest swimming breakthrough at age 53 after not swimming for about 4 years due to shoulder problems. I did, however, get totally addicted to mountain biking during that break. Probably just a coincidence.
Rich
