Much has been discussed on this topic but i wanted to revisit it after watching the track & field championships and remembering debates about how much pool training time swimmers put in relative to a runner competing in the equivalent event (a 400m runner to 100m swimmer).
What got my attention on this again was a recent article in Men's Fitness about Jeremy Wariner, specifically his training week during mid-season:
M= 200's: 8 x 200's two minutes followed by 40 yd sprints w/20 seconds rest
T= 350m: 2 x 350's followed by 1 x 300, one minute rest then a 100m to simulate the end of the race
W= 450m: 2 x 450's each under 1:00 with 9 minutes rest between each
Th= 90m: Recovery day each run in an "X" pattern
F= 100m: last run of the week is multiple 100m sprints
That's an insanely lower amount of training time than even i put in....Ande & Jazz come to mind.
More of this in an excellent article:
"Elite coaching special - Clyde Hart coach to Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner"
Here's are a couple of excerpt:
Clyde believes the principles of training are the same for many events: "I trained Michael Johnson like I trained a four minute miler. A four minute miler was doing a lot of the same things Michael Johnson was - a lot of the same things in training but more of them.
"The longest workout we have ever done - not counting warm up and warm down - would be under 20min, I think we have never worked more than 20min. That's not counting the Fall phase.”
So here's my challenge...I'm going to pick one of the next seasons (either SCM this fall or SCY in the spring) and try and adapt to this regime...anyone else game?
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Former Member
First of all, let me say I am a distance runner - just getting into swimming now.
This was the workout schedule for JW posted:
M= 200's: 8 x 200's two minutes followed by 40 yd sprints w/20 seconds rest
T= 350m: 2 x 350's followed by 1 x 300, one minute rest then a 100m to simulate the end of the race
W= 450m: 2 x 450's each under 1:00 with 9 minutes rest between each
Th= 90m: Recovery day each run in an "X" pattern
F= 100m: last run of the week is multiple 100m sprints
Keep in mind that according to his coach, this is his mid-season training. He is going to have to balance his training with his races. This is probably some of the least amount of work he does during all of his training. Also, the 400 requires some level of aerobic conditioning. I am pretty sure that he is running some kind of warmup and cooldown, whether it is a quartermile or a mile plus. His coach says that 20 min workouts are the most he does, except for the fall season - which I would guess is sort of his "base" season, where the workouts are somewhat longer and slower.
keep in mind - above is speculation
Now, I have a question: Do swimmers generally have "base" phases? Distance runners (at least thouse following the of Lydiard) usually categorize their training into something along the lines of base phase (where they run more mileage to build aerobic capacity and good economy), then get into a "season" mode where they slightly lower the mileage and do shorter and faster workouts and start mixing in races, and before the goal race one cuts the mileage more and does "sharpening" workouts that are meant to fine-tune you.
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Former Member
First of all, let me say I am a distance runner - just getting into swimming now.
This was the workout schedule for JW posted:
M= 200's: 8 x 200's two minutes followed by 40 yd sprints w/20 seconds rest
T= 350m: 2 x 350's followed by 1 x 300, one minute rest then a 100m to simulate the end of the race
W= 450m: 2 x 450's each under 1:00 with 9 minutes rest between each
Th= 90m: Recovery day each run in an "X" pattern
F= 100m: last run of the week is multiple 100m sprints
Keep in mind that according to his coach, this is his mid-season training. He is going to have to balance his training with his races. This is probably some of the least amount of work he does during all of his training. Also, the 400 requires some level of aerobic conditioning. I am pretty sure that he is running some kind of warmup and cooldown, whether it is a quartermile or a mile plus. His coach says that 20 min workouts are the most he does, except for the fall season - which I would guess is sort of his "base" season, where the workouts are somewhat longer and slower.
keep in mind - above is speculation
Now, I have a question: Do swimmers generally have "base" phases? Distance runners (at least thouse following the of Lydiard) usually categorize their training into something along the lines of base phase (where they run more mileage to build aerobic capacity and good economy), then get into a "season" mode where they slightly lower the mileage and do shorter and faster workouts and start mixing in races, and before the goal race one cuts the mileage more and does "sharpening" workouts that are meant to fine-tune you.
