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.
Wow! So many good tips and comments to think about. O.k. I took my best times from the last five years and used the calculator that Chris referenced. I got 89.4 for my 50 and 88.1 for my 500. These times were done doing about 10,000 yards a week.
If I really want to see what I am capable of doing in the 500, how much should I be doing? This is not an event I have done very often and I have never done anything more than a 500 in a meet before. Is it worth it for me to train for the 1650?
I would use a three step process:
1) have them swim 8 x 25m all out with fins for time on a long interval
2) have them swim 20 minutes for distance
3) ignoring any numbers from steps 1 and 2, ask them which one they enjoyed doing more.
:D
O.k. I took my best times from the last five years and used the calculator that Chris referenced. I got 89.4 for my 50 and 88.1 for my 500. These times were done doing about 10,000 yards a week.
There you have it. You're both!
If I really want to see what I am capable of doing in the 500, how much should I be doing?
Probably more than 10,000. Based on your score with that little training you could probably do very well in the distance events if you trained for them. Four workouts per week of 5,000 gets you 20,000.
There you have it. You're both!
Probably more than 10,000. Based on your score with that little training you could probably do very well in the distance events if you trained for them. Four workouts per week of 5,000 gets you 20,000.
Thanks, Kirk. Would you share some of your favorite sets for training distance? This is not an area that I have tons of experience in.
This one is very hard to determine.. one crude way is in the weight room which the original poster can try. Find your 1RM (one rep max, i.e. the heaviest weight you can lift just once) and then see how many times you can lift 80% of it. If you rep under 7, that usually means that muscle group has more fast twitch than slow, if you rep 12 or more, it means the muscle group is more slow twitch than fast. In between is, well, in between
Muscle fiber too...generally you are either fast twitch or slow twitch.
There's no way anyone would ever think I'm a sprinter, but according to USA Swimming's Power Point Calculator I'm slightly better in the 50 free than I am in the 1500 free! I like to run my times through for comparison and found out my relay leadoff 50 free time in Portland scored 594 points while my 1500 free was worth 583.
Michael Phelps' 200 free is worth 1114 points, by the way :bow:
According to that calculator I should give up!
