How far do you swim every week - AT RACE PACE !

From my meet last Saturday I can tell it is not enough. My body had a difficult time going into "race speed," especially on the short sprints where I really needed it. I am swimming hard during practice but I've noticed that I do tend to hold back just a bit to make it through the set/through the practice. I'm not really into the pain thing, a bit of problem if I want to go fast!

*one of my pet peeves is when someone says "literally" and they mean "figuratively. Me, too. I literally explode when I come across that kind of mistake.;)

I cannot attain race-pace during training. :badday: I thought that was true about myself too but sometimes I wonder if I am just not willing to work hard enough. I do a set of 6 50's at 98% and I literally* want to puke. Who wants to put themselves through that? *one of my pet peeves is when someone says "literally" and they mean "figuratively.

Since most of my races are triathlons, I would say 75-80% of my pool training is above race pace. I also do meets occasionally, and about 25-50% of my pool training is above swim meet race pace (meets have been limited to 50s and 100s thus far). This is mainly due to my use of fins. I like to swim hard with fins and then take them off at the end of a workout to enjoy the resultant foot flexibility for the last set or two. The exception to this rule is breaststroke. I've never hit race pace BR in training, although I have done race intensity. It's a pretty low percentage though, currently none at all. As I get closer to the spring it will probably ramp up to 10-25% race intensity BR, but I need to be careful with that. Too easy to injure the legs with all that kicking. Maybe If I get some of those weird breaststroke fins I can exceed race pace in training. For finless free, my closest 50 to race pace has been around 1.5 seconds off. For a 100 it's way worse, something like 5 seconds. With fins I can go almost 7 seconds faster than race pace on a 50, and 16 seconds faster on a 100. Pretty crazy, I know. BR is another story. My fastest practice 50 was around 4 seconds off race pace, and my fastest 100 was about the same - 3 or 4 seconds. What's up with that? Probably because I rarely kick all out during practice.

I don't think I have come close to "race pace" in practice since I was 13 years old. :cane: I might hurt myself. :afraid:

I know - 200 warm down does nothing to remove lactate. Need to warm-down more - at least 20 minutes, but sometimes I am just too tired. New set yesterday - 10x50 on 2 minutes - 2 less reps, add 30 seconds rest. Best average - or second 50 of 100 pace - sub 24 for me. These sets are somwhat different from my usual race pace sets. I am usually going for 4-6x75 on 6 minutes - or 4 broken 100s. The good thing about the 50s is that I get more reps while swimming almost all of it technically "clean". I can try different things and experiment more. But I don't get the piano effect - we will see how that works out.

My Friday workouts kind of repeat on a 3 week cycle. They are all lactate production sets. Today's was 14 x 50 on 2:00 best effort on each one. First 4 were

12x50 every 90s sec at 100 race pace 200 warm down I had time for another 2500 of kicking / swimming / pulling, but I was so tired, there is no point, except "counting yards"... I am curious about this statement. I am no fan of "counting yards" for yards sake, but I have converted to believing in the importance of recovery swimming. 12x50's at race pace on 90 seconds with only a 200 warm down would cause me kidney failure.

Instead of how far do you swim, what sets do you do to achieve race pace, and is it effective: 1. What's the race distance you are pacing? 2. What's the race leg distance? 3. What's your desired race pace you are trying to achieve? 4. What are some common set you do to achieve it? 5. What are your recent race-pace results? 6. How does that match up to your current personal best? For me: Race pace set 1: 1. Race: 200 *** 2. Leg: Whole race, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 50 3. Goal pace: 34+36+36+36-02*= 2:20 (*1st 50 from a push) 4. Set: 2 to 4x200 on 6:00, broken at the 50, :10 rest between 50s (add up swim time and subtract :02 for a dive to approximate my 200 time) 5. Results: Last Monday: #1: 35+36+37+38-02 = 2:24 #2: 36+37+38+37-02 = 2:26, Average for set 2:25 6. Masters Best: 33+36+38+38 = 2:25 Race-pace set 2: 1. Race: 100 *** 2. Race leg: 2nd 50 3. Goal pace: 33.0 4. Set: 8 to 16x50 on 2:00 5. Results: Last Wednesday: 8x50, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 33, 34 Average for set = 33.1 6. Masters Best: 30.55+34.65=1:05.2 (I may need to shorten the interval) Of course you can,you are just looking at it wrong.I can't swim a 100 in workout nearly as fast as I can swim a 100 at a meet,but I can swim a 50 as fast as the 2nd 50 of a 100,and that's race pace.You want to work on your 200 BR,can you swim a 100 at your 200 pace,if not how about a 50 or even a 25? I swim between 1/2 and 1/4 of each workout at race pace,the rest warm up.cool down and recovery swims.

Of course you can,you are just looking at it wrong.I can't swim a 100 in workout nearly as fast as I can swim a 100 at a meet,but I can swim a 50 as fast as the 2nd 50 of a 100,and that's race pace.You want to work on your 200 BR,can you swim a 100 at your 200 pace,if not how about a 50 or even a 25? I swim between 1/2 and 1/4 of each workout at race pace,the rest warm up.cool down and recovery swims. Well yes I can swim at BR 200 race pace 25's on :40 holding 20. I can't get close to repeats of 100's or 50's of Free at race pace. 2nd half 50 of my 100FR is :33 I'll have to try holding :33 but I think I'll need at least 1:15. I can repeat 100's at 1:40 now though which is 5 secs faster than last year.