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?
That's precisely why I do 60-80 reps in the weight room using medium-light weight, all swimming specific exercises.
Jonathan, this is not a criticism because I think there are a number of good ways to train. This dryland program is clearly challenging.
My own view of weight training is that it should complement what I do in the water. You almost seem to be trying to reproduce it; I feel like I can get the same kind of benefits (and be even more "swimming specific") by doing fast swims in the water.
In the weight room my own approach is to cycle between sets with relatively high reps (12-15, with less recovery time between sets) for a couple weeks and then sets with decreasing number of reps (more weight and more recovery time) for a couple weeks, recover for a week with light (or no) lifting, then repeat.
Again, I'm not saying this is better than your methods, just offeing my own take. Maybe one year I'll try it with more reps and less weight. (I'm a believer in changing training around to keep from getting stale...or bored...).
Of course, there is always Super Slow lifting. (Has anyone tried this?)
Another question to people who do weights: 2X a week or 3X a week? I have been doing 3X a week but I'm toying with the idea of going to 2X a week so I can do other cross-training (ie, one extra bike ride a week).
That's precisely why I do 60-80 reps in the weight room using medium-light weight, all swimming specific exercises.
Jonathan, this is not a criticism because I think there are a number of good ways to train. This dryland program is clearly challenging.
My own view of weight training is that it should complement what I do in the water. You almost seem to be trying to reproduce it; I feel like I can get the same kind of benefits (and be even more "swimming specific") by doing fast swims in the water.
In the weight room my own approach is to cycle between sets with relatively high reps (12-15, with less recovery time between sets) for a couple weeks and then sets with decreasing number of reps (more weight and more recovery time) for a couple weeks, recover for a week with light (or no) lifting, then repeat.
Again, I'm not saying this is better than your methods, just offeing my own take. Maybe one year I'll try it with more reps and less weight. (I'm a believer in changing training around to keep from getting stale...or bored...).
Of course, there is always Super Slow lifting. (Has anyone tried this?)
Another question to people who do weights: 2X a week or 3X a week? I have been doing 3X a week but I'm toying with the idea of going to 2X a week so I can do other cross-training (ie, one extra bike ride a week).
