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
My team trains about 17,000 meters a week in four practices. That's way too much for me and too much zone 3. I swim 10,000-13,000 yards a week on average (although I don't pay much attention to my yardage or track it). If I'm doing a speed workout, I'm usually around 2500-2700 or so. When I swim a zone 4-5 set, which I do a goodly amount of because I'm not a fan of zone 2-3 so much, I usually use a 1:4 ratio of swim:recovery. I don't mind the pain when doing these quality sets because you get so much rest. Much more fun (for me) than swimming endless laps where I lose count and get bored. Like Jazz, I love fins for speed work.
Does anyone here train substantially more than 15k per week or significantly under 10k per week and why?
I usually shoot for 20K minimum, around 25K max.
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?
Probably 1-2,000 yards/meters. Usually closer to 1,000, but I'd like to do more. Definitely less than 10% of my total yardage.
Chris must be a PhD or something. Much more technically oriented than the rest of us, but I agree that hitting as many zones as you can in the course of training has to be good. Unfortunately, I don't get out of zones 1 to 3 much and I spend as little time as possible in zone 1. Zones 4 and 5 are probably 2 to 5% of my swimming depending on the time of year. No wonder my 200s stink.
Chris, what percentage of your weekly workouts do you spend in each range? Just curious. Thanks for your help.
Tim
I usually shoot for 20K minimum, around 25K max.
I've been up to 20-25k meters these last few weeks, swimming with the OW + Tri crowd up in Boulder. I'm planning on doing the Horsetooth 10k race in August.
Once fall comes around I'm going to drop back down to middle distance work, more in the 10-15k yard range and a lot more fast, broken swimming.
Jazz,
You are right, it isn't very technical. It does seem more systematic approach than me, but I make up my workouts as I am in the water that day. I guess I need to think about my swimming more!
I am impressed by the yardage and quality yardage that some of you put in. I guess my hypothesis about "average" being 10k to 15k might not be correct and I definitely need to increase my zone 4 and 5 swimming.
Tim
I have, if I'm extremely lucky, 1.5 hours a day, five days a week to train. When work or life (two toddlers and an adoring wife) interferes, I get even less. I try to swim 3 days a week, for a total of about 10-12,000 yards. I've decided I'm a scrawny wimp so I've been hitting the weights the other two days. That is hardly an ideal training regimen to be highly competitive outside of masters swimming. But that is the beauty of masters swimming. I agree with Tim L that many of us just don't have the time to do more than this. Fortunately I get to compete against my peers rather than the age-groupers who would just kill me given all the training they do.
There are plenty of masters swimmers who put in more yardage, though. I'm pretty sure those folks serious about open water swimming tend to do more. 10-12,000/week is not going to cut it on those 10K open water marathons (and probably doesn't even cut it for the 2-5k swims). There are obviously those among us focussed on pool competitions as well who train more. Those folks have a significant advantage (beyond the 50s and maybe the 100s) over those of us who can't (or won't) spend more time in the pool. More power to them! I'd probably be joining them if I could. Competing is fun! I'm (so far) glad I've gotten back into it.
I believe that our program is pretty typical--18-20K/week, a mix of En1, En2, and En3, main set averaging 1200-1500 yards, descending to race pace with occasional timed swims.
Now I understand why you moved to TX. You had to flee to a land of pansy workouts. If you ever want to man-up, you are always welcome back in NC. Bring your Starbucks card.
And, I've found that Speedo suits make my butt look quite nice, fegirlie nice.
Chris, what percentage of your weekly workouts do you spend in each range? Just curious. Thanks for your help.
Despite my admitted geekiness, I am actually not anal enough to give you precise numbers. I have never kept a training log until just recently, after being cajoled into it. I like the training philosophy but will not feel compelled to spend an exact amount of time in each zone.
Like Fortress, I dislike zone 2 and probably spend the least amount of time in it. In fact, one reason I like cycling is that, at least when riding on my own, I tend to spend time in zones 2-3, with the occasional hill sprints thrown in. (Riding with the triathletes pushes me into higher zones).
At least 2-3 sets a week are in zone 4. I don't do enough in zone 5, I don't have a sprinter mentality. I usually just hope that doing weights makes up for it to some extent. I use zone 1 a lot, recovering from hard efforts.
I hope that helps.
I am a strong proponent of race pace work and quality over quantity.I know that doesn't work for everyone,whether for physiologic or psychologic reasons.I think(hope) there are somethings we can all agree on,namely that technique,consistency and dedication are important.I suspect almost all Top Ten swimmers take swimming seriously and most study the sport.
