In this thread Fortress said:
Interesting Race Club thread. There was one post concluding that lactate tolerance was the key for the last 15 meters of a 100, not aerobic capacity.
Which leads to something I've been thinking about lately. I'm sure we've all had races where you try to give it everything you've got at the end and you absolutely turn to jello. I assume this is the lactic acid kicking in. When it hits you slow down very quickly. So how can we train to improve that tolerance?
Here's an article by Genadijus Sokolovas on the USA Swimming website: www.usaswimming.org/.../ViewMiscArticle.aspx
In it he talks about lactate tolerance type sets:
Anaerobic Metabolism (Anaerobic-Glycolitic) is the non-oxidative process of recycling of ATP from glycogen. Glycogen is stored in the muscle cells. Glycogen fairly rapidly recycles ATP, but it is slower than from CP. Anaerobic metabolism produces lactate. It is the main energy system for exercise bouts of 30 sec until 3 min. When distances are longer, aerobic metabolism predominates. Anaerobic metabolism has high power, middle capacity, and low efficiency.
Examples of swimming sets and distances that develop anaerobic metabolism: distances of 50 to 300 M/Y, high intensity swimming sets with a short rest interval (i.e., 6-16 x 25 M/Y, 4-8 x 50 M/Y, 2-4 x 100 M/Y, 2 x 200 M/Y with rest interval 20-30 sec etc.).
Anyway, I'm finally getting to my point here. The standard way to do this is using fixed sets like this, but has anyone tried something like swimming absolutely all-out until you hit that lactate "jello" feel where you feel yourself slowing down? At that point maybe do some very slow "active rest" swimming then repeat, etc. The goal being to build up the time/distance you can keep up that all-out speed. It seems like actually confronting that lactate wall like this would be a great way to help with lactate tolerance in races.
Chris,
Good set. I think I'll do it today. What were the 150s recovery on?
Chris
I believe part of his point was that everything was on 2:15, including the recovery swims. (for his lane)
Chris,
Good set. I think I'll do it today. What were the 150s recovery on?
Chris
Same time as the 200s. It turns out that we also did them today, after I wrote it up. Maybe my coach is a forum lurker...
My lane did them all on 2:15, the next two lanes on 2:30.
How much rest did those intervals give you on the 200s?
A little over 20 seconds; I held 1:53s. But others in my lane got much less, going in the 2:05-2:10 range. Again, the idea is to get most of your rest while swimming the 150s -- which were EASY -- and not on the wall.
The first four 150s were not hard but not quite easy, either: get your stroke and rhythm going, prepare your body to go fast. But once you do the first 200, the 150s should all be very easy, to recover.
Kirk,
I am not an exercise physiologist, so this is a non-expert opinion, but I feel like any set above the lactate threshold (which is most sets in my experience) helps develop some "lactate tolerance."
HOWEVER, the levels in most sets also do not approach the high levels that exist at the end of a race. Therefore, I think the body also needs to experience such levels in practice (ie, mimic that feeling you get at the end of the race).
There are probably many ways to do it. My coach prefers to do repeats at race pace with several minutes recovery in between (off the blocks: 5 x 100 on 4:00, 5 x 200 on 7:00, you get the idea). Except for early and late in the season, we do such sets about once every week or two and record the times. The key is to really do race pace, within a whisker of what you would do if you were swimming at a meet at that time of the year.
Like I said, there are other ways too: for example, do shorter distances with little recovery time and push until you cannot go anymore, recover and repeat. Somewhat similar to broken swims but make sure you go to failure. Heck, you can do it with cross-training too (eg, hill sprints).
Another possibility is to use "active rest" more, and this might be appropriate for you as more of a distance type. Here is one set that we did where my lactate levels were pretty darn high by the end. All intervals were 2:15 in my lane; other lanes adjusted as necessary. Everthing was from a push. The idea was not to spend very much time on the wall, to recover while swimming.
4 x 150 cruise: feel stroke, get ready to swim fast
1 x 200 FAST
3 x 150 recover, just make interval
1 x 200 FAST
2 x 150 recover
1 x 200 FAST
1 x 150 recover
1 x 200 FAST
Ideally, the last and first 200 are not that different (much easier said than done) and are within about 10 seconds of your best (rested) 200 time. It kiind of reproduces what a longer race feels like.
Along those lines, sometimes our coach has us do broken swims with decreasing rest: eg a 200 broken into 50s with 10, 7, then 4 seconds rest.
These are just ideas, hopefully they help. All of them really hurt...but that's what it feels like at the end of a race too, and I guess that's the point. You shouldn't do it too often.
Lactate tolerance stuff is my favorite.
It seems that with the shorter rest, I am driven even more to go faster to earn more rest. As the lactate builds up, it seems the only way to get it out, is to keep going faster.... which works for the first part of the swim, but by the end of the swim it is worse that the one before. It takes a lot of focus to maintain tempo and technique when hitting the wall, but becoming familiar with this "zone" really builds my confidence for the real deal in competition. (like 3x3x200, descend 1-3 on 2:20; My times from last Feb were about 2:08, 2:05, 2:02, 2:05, 2:02, 1:59, 2:03, 2:00, 1:57).
When I'm done with these monsterously painful sets, I like to do active recovery like 12x50s on :40, trying to get down to the same speed as on the main set, but it depends on what the coach has in mind. I am usually 15 sec/100 faster on the recovery set than others around me. I'm usually washed out for the day, but I'm ready to go the next day and rarely need a recovery day after those sets. Speed sets are what kills me and I always need a recovery day afterwards.... anymore.
Kirk,
4 x 150 cruise: feel stroke, get ready to swim fast
1 x 200 FAST
3 x 150 recover, just make interval
1 x 200 FAST
2 x 150 recover
1 x 200 FAST
1 x 150 recover
1 x 200 FAST
Chris,
Good set. I think I'll do it today. What were the 150s recovery on?
Chris
