Hulk,
I don't know about Paul or Erik's specific training habits, but I assume they mean that they do 50s in practice at or above their normal race pace for a 100 or 200 in a meet. Not even Ande can swim his meet times in practice although he seems to get close.
I find this "less is more" discussion interesting because it seems like almost all masters swimmers that are somewhat serious have pretty much the same training patterns - Paul's training doesn't seem unique unless you are comparing him with much younger swimmers. I swim 10 to 14k per week depending on the time of year and it sounds like just most everyone swims between 8 to 15k per week. Ande seems to swim almost every week day so I bet even Ande swims at least 10k per week even though he does a lot more sprints than most of us and he does a lot of weights too. What makes us different is, perhaps, the quality of the yards that we put in during that time. It seems like Paul's training time is probably about average for a masters swimmer especially given how much he does outside the pool. Obviously, he is more fit than most of us given his ability to take a 200 out fast and hold that pace which means he must have genetic attributes that are better than average or he trains with more intensity than average (probably both).
My questions to everyone are -
Does anyone here train substantially more than 15k per week or significantly under 10k per week and why? I am sure there are masters swimmers out there that must swim a lot of yards, but I just haven't run across many. Maybe I just don't know the training habits of many masters swimmers and everyone is doing 20k or more per week.
What percentage of your yards do you spend swimming at a pace that would equal or better your second half splits in a 100 or 200 free?
I think I probably only do 200 to 400 yards per week at a time that I would consider equal to my second 50 in my 100 Free race and probably 400 to 800 yards at or better than my last 100 in my 200 (these yards are almost all 50s). Anyway, I am well under 10% and probably in the 2 to 3% range for quality yards. Sometimes during the year (like now) when my next meet is 6 or more months away these intense yards are very low. I do virtually no work on 25s or 50s trying to get as close to my meet 50 times as I can like Ande does, but I should some. When I first started back in swimming 4 years ago my quality yardage were less than half (maybe zero that first year) of what I currently do and my goal each year is to increase those intense yards and I also increase the intensity as I get closer to a meet (I usually only swim competitively in the spring).
I definitely agree with Erik and Paul that if you can increase your quality yards at 100 and 200 race pace, you will consistently improve your race times. The difficult part is actually doing it. I don't like pain or even mild suffering much.
I am sure Hulk likes pain so you should do all your yardage as close to race pace as possible, but no one expects Hulk to go as fast or faster than your meet times in practice.
Tim
Hulk,
I don't know about Paul or Erik's specific training habits, but I assume they mean that they do 50s in practice at or above their normal race pace for a 100 or 200 in a meet. Not even Ande can swim his meet times in practice although he seems to get close.
I find this "less is more" discussion interesting because it seems like almost all masters swimmers that are somewhat serious have pretty much the same training patterns - Paul's training doesn't seem unique unless you are comparing him with much younger swimmers. I swim 10 to 14k per week depending on the time of year and it sounds like just most everyone swims between 8 to 15k per week. Ande seems to swim almost every week day so I bet even Ande swims at least 10k per week even though he does a lot more sprints than most of us and he does a lot of weights too. What makes us different is, perhaps, the quality of the yards that we put in during that time. It seems like Paul's training time is probably about average for a masters swimmer especially given how much he does outside the pool. Obviously, he is more fit than most of us given his ability to take a 200 out fast and hold that pace which means he must have genetic attributes that are better than average or he trains with more intensity than average (probably both).
My questions to everyone are -
Does anyone here train substantially more than 15k per week or significantly under 10k per week and why? I am sure there are masters swimmers out there that must swim a lot of yards, but I just haven't run across many. Maybe I just don't know the training habits of many masters swimmers and everyone is doing 20k or more per week.
What percentage of your yards do you spend swimming at a pace that would equal or better your second half splits in a 100 or 200 free?
I think I probably only do 200 to 400 yards per week at a time that I would consider equal to my second 50 in my 100 Free race and probably 400 to 800 yards at or better than my last 100 in my 200 (these yards are almost all 50s). Anyway, I am well under 10% and probably in the 2 to 3% range for quality yards. Sometimes during the year (like now) when my next meet is 6 or more months away these intense yards are very low. I do virtually no work on 25s or 50s trying to get as close to my meet 50 times as I can like Ande does, but I should some. When I first started back in swimming 4 years ago my quality yardage were less than half (maybe zero that first year) of what I currently do and my goal each year is to increase those intense yards and I also increase the intensity as I get closer to a meet (I usually only swim competitively in the spring).
I definitely agree with Erik and Paul that if you can increase your quality yards at 100 and 200 race pace, you will consistently improve your race times. The difficult part is actually doing it. I don't like pain or even mild suffering much.
I am sure Hulk likes pain so you should do all your yardage as close to race pace as possible, but no one expects Hulk to go as fast or faster than your meet times in practice.
Tim
