FWIW (from a 40-44 fatty who's just on his way back into shape after a 20+ year lay-off, and who trained 15-20,000/day in college in the early 80s):
I'm a sprint breastroker who can bluff a 50 or 100 free on occasion.
I will alternate "fast" or "lactate" days with aerobic/recovery days. I will typically swim 5-6 days per week. I lift weights in the evenings, every other day. Occasionally I will run (I have run many marathons, half-'thons and 10ks in the past, but now my knees won't hold up) or cycle on a road bike for the variety.
Acknowledging my poor but improving conditioning, I find that I typically swim between 2,500 and 3,500 meters per workout.
On the fast days, this is +/- 1,000 warm-up, then a quality set - could be 6x50 on 2:00 all-out, could be 2-3x broken 100s, etc - and then a recovery or kick set.
On the aerobic/recovery days, this is +/- 800 warm-up, then a main set - could be 5x 5x100 (swim free, pull ***, kick w/ fins, swim ***, etc) with 15-20 sec rest after each 100 - then a warm-down.
Though I try to do my fast swims fast - my effort is certainly 95-100% - I find that I am nowhere near race speed. For example, I am hard-pressed to swim a 50m (SCM) *** in practice faster than 34 (albeit from a push), and I would hope to be 30+ LCM this summer.
I think that as we get older, the key is to maintain our youthful "speed" - anyone with decent shoulders can slog out a postal swim (what we used to call LSD - long slow distance), but it takes a certain type of training to be able to perform at race pace. I think this is why most of the workouts described here are variations on a theme: not too much yardage, ample recovery time, focus on speed and technique.
Of course, YMMV, especially if you want to swim a decent LCM 200...
Just my two cents worth...
FWIW (from a 40-44 fatty who's just on his way back into shape after a 20+ year lay-off, and who trained 15-20,000/day in college in the early 80s):
I'm a sprint breastroker who can bluff a 50 or 100 free on occasion.
I will alternate "fast" or "lactate" days with aerobic/recovery days. I will typically swim 5-6 days per week. I lift weights in the evenings, every other day. Occasionally I will run (I have run many marathons, half-'thons and 10ks in the past, but now my knees won't hold up) or cycle on a road bike for the variety.
Acknowledging my poor but improving conditioning, I find that I typically swim between 2,500 and 3,500 meters per workout.
On the fast days, this is +/- 1,000 warm-up, then a quality set - could be 6x50 on 2:00 all-out, could be 2-3x broken 100s, etc - and then a recovery or kick set.
On the aerobic/recovery days, this is +/- 800 warm-up, then a main set - could be 5x 5x100 (swim free, pull ***, kick w/ fins, swim ***, etc) with 15-20 sec rest after each 100 - then a warm-down.
Though I try to do my fast swims fast - my effort is certainly 95-100% - I find that I am nowhere near race speed. For example, I am hard-pressed to swim a 50m (SCM) *** in practice faster than 34 (albeit from a push), and I would hope to be 30+ LCM this summer.
I think that as we get older, the key is to maintain our youthful "speed" - anyone with decent shoulders can slog out a postal swim (what we used to call LSD - long slow distance), but it takes a certain type of training to be able to perform at race pace. I think this is why most of the workouts described here are variations on a theme: not too much yardage, ample recovery time, focus on speed and technique.
Of course, YMMV, especially if you want to swim a decent LCM 200...
Just my two cents worth...
