the only thing I care about is how much yardage are you able to do AT OR ABOVE RACE PACE.
This is oversimplifying a bit. I think race-pace training is the MOST important aspect of a training regimen, but not the ONLY important aspect.
Even if you count things like drills or hypoxic work as "recovery," there are still lots of other important things in training besides warming up to do race pace, doing race pace, and recovering from it.
Let's look at Paul's training. What purposes do weights and spinning serve? They are not recovery and they are not race-pace training. He has said that he is not interested in fitness for its own sake, he wants to swim fast. So he must think these things help him do that. (Paul, I don't want to misrepresent you, pls correct me if I'm mistaken.)
As I've said elsewhere, I am a believer in spending time in all the training zones. There are good guides out there, mostly based on heartrate, but my quick and dirty guides are:
Zone 1: warmup, easy recovery
Zone 2: long pace work (eg 1st half of a 10k race), well below lactate threshold.
Zone 3: at or near lactate threshold (maybe a little above, maybe a little below)
Zone 4: well above lactate threshold, very very close to race pace. An example would be a 5 x 100 test set on 4:00 (we did just that set this morning)
Zone 5: all out sprints
In addition, I like to do pace work at target paces. For example, broken 200s with 10-20 seconds rest at each 50, not necessarily (or even primarily) for the conditioning aspect but to get a good sense for what it feels like to swim at the desired speed. This sort of thing can help you take out your races at the appropriate pace.
Too many masters swimmers spend excessive time in zone 3 (or lower) and don't hit the upper zones. Basically, what I'm saying is that I believe a good training program is more than just Zones 1 and 4/5, though obviously different types of swimmers (sprinters, distance types) may choose to allocate their time differently.
There are other, finer distinctions out there (eg dividing each zone into "A" and "B"). There are other terms, too; the U of Richmond coach uses terms like "sprint endurance" and "anaerobic power" and the like. I join his team once a week this summer so he sent me his training plan for a typical week.
Monday a.m. : aerobic endurance and short sprints (15 m)
Monday p.m. : intense aerobic endurance and excessive drills
Tuesday a.m. : anaerobic endurance (this week 4 x )
Tuesday p.m. : lift
Wednesday a.m. : speed (this week: Lauren = 4 x ; Katie = 6 x )
Wednesday p.m. : low intensity aerobic and drills
Thursday a.m. : intense aerobic endurance
Thursday p.m. : lift
Friday a.m. : anaerobic power
Saturday a.m. : Speed, lift, and more
He is an excellent coach -- we have OT qualifiers and all-americans, pretty good for a small school -- and has all his swimmers (a women's team) wear HR monitors, and hits all the zones. A typical morning practice is 5500-6500, depending on the day, so he doesn't kill them with distance.
This is just an example of what I mean, of course, not meant to be a blueprint. And I can't always decipher all his phrases, so don't ask...obviously typical masters won't do doubles like this.
the only thing I care about is how much yardage are you able to do AT OR ABOVE RACE PACE.
This is oversimplifying a bit. I think race-pace training is the MOST important aspect of a training regimen, but not the ONLY important aspect.
Even if you count things like drills or hypoxic work as "recovery," there are still lots of other important things in training besides warming up to do race pace, doing race pace, and recovering from it.
Let's look at Paul's training. What purposes do weights and spinning serve? They are not recovery and they are not race-pace training. He has said that he is not interested in fitness for its own sake, he wants to swim fast. So he must think these things help him do that. (Paul, I don't want to misrepresent you, pls correct me if I'm mistaken.)
As I've said elsewhere, I am a believer in spending time in all the training zones. There are good guides out there, mostly based on heartrate, but my quick and dirty guides are:
Zone 1: warmup, easy recovery
Zone 2: long pace work (eg 1st half of a 10k race), well below lactate threshold.
Zone 3: at or near lactate threshold (maybe a little above, maybe a little below)
Zone 4: well above lactate threshold, very very close to race pace. An example would be a 5 x 100 test set on 4:00 (we did just that set this morning)
Zone 5: all out sprints
In addition, I like to do pace work at target paces. For example, broken 200s with 10-20 seconds rest at each 50, not necessarily (or even primarily) for the conditioning aspect but to get a good sense for what it feels like to swim at the desired speed. This sort of thing can help you take out your races at the appropriate pace.
Too many masters swimmers spend excessive time in zone 3 (or lower) and don't hit the upper zones. Basically, what I'm saying is that I believe a good training program is more than just Zones 1 and 4/5, though obviously different types of swimmers (sprinters, distance types) may choose to allocate their time differently.
There are other, finer distinctions out there (eg dividing each zone into "A" and "B"). There are other terms, too; the U of Richmond coach uses terms like "sprint endurance" and "anaerobic power" and the like. I join his team once a week this summer so he sent me his training plan for a typical week.
Monday a.m. : aerobic endurance and short sprints (15 m)
Monday p.m. : intense aerobic endurance and excessive drills
Tuesday a.m. : anaerobic endurance (this week 4 x )
Tuesday p.m. : lift
Wednesday a.m. : speed (this week: Lauren = 4 x ; Katie = 6 x )
Wednesday p.m. : low intensity aerobic and drills
Thursday a.m. : intense aerobic endurance
Thursday p.m. : lift
Friday a.m. : anaerobic power
Saturday a.m. : Speed, lift, and more
He is an excellent coach -- we have OT qualifiers and all-americans, pretty good for a small school -- and has all his swimmers (a women's team) wear HR monitors, and hits all the zones. A typical morning practice is 5500-6500, depending on the day, so he doesn't kill them with distance.
This is just an example of what I mean, of course, not meant to be a blueprint. And I can't always decipher all his phrases, so don't ask...obviously typical masters won't do doubles like this.
