How can one truly know what swimming distances one is best suited for? Can it be possible that somebody is better suited for distance but it is not showing due to low yardage in training? Are there some quick ways to figure this out?
Another way to look at it would be what your recovery is like on hard sets. If you recover quickly and can do the next repeat with very little rest, you are probably better suited to distance swimming. If swimming hard takes a lot out of you and you take a long time to recover in order to put out the same kind of effort on the next repeat, then you do not recover quickly and are probably better at sprinting.
This probably isn't at all accurate unless you're in decent shape to begin with :)
Ultimately, it probably comes down to a couple of things:
1) What do you enjoy most - short or long distance? This one is easy - do what you like to do the best.
2) Are you trying to be competitive? If so, just compare your times in various distances to those times of others in your age group. You can do this via the online calculators, or just by looking at the USMS Nationals qualifying times or results and adjust accordingly.
Another way to look at it would be what your recovery is like on hard sets. If you recover quickly and can do the next repeat with very little rest, you are probably better suited to distance swimming. If swimming hard takes a lot out of you and you take a long time to recover in order to put out the same kind of effort on the next repeat, then you do not recover quickly and are probably better at sprinting.
This probably isn't at all accurate unless you're in decent shape to begin with :)
Ultimately, it probably comes down to a couple of things:
1) What do you enjoy most - short or long distance? This one is easy - do what you like to do the best.
2) Are you trying to be competitive? If so, just compare your times in various distances to those times of others in your age group. You can do this via the online calculators, or just by looking at the USMS Nationals qualifying times or results and adjust accordingly.
