Speed and endurance-question about practice pattens
Former Member
I have a question about practicing for speed and endurance. Consider two practice patterns:
a. You focus on improving speed in 25m swims; i.e. you don't swim consecutive laps, but pause for seconds/minutes after each length. After some months you will have increased your speed for very short distance (25m), but you don't know your speed for longer distance.
b. You focus on endurance by swimming non-stop for as long as you can, without regard to speed. So after some months, you will be able to swim some 1000s, in moderate or low speed.
What I am interested to know is, which practice pattern will likely help achieve the other practice goal more? In other words, will (a) help improve endurance more, or will (b) help improve speed more?
Maybe the fact that I think I would drown trying to complete a 1000 pushes me towards the 25s. :drown:
I remember reading an interesting comment in a cycling magazine. Someone observed that we always seem to spend the most time on things we are very good at (in the context of cycling, for example, it might be climbing or time-trialing) and not very much time on things that actually need improvement.
In reality -- according to the author -- it should be the other way around: spend enough time on our strengths to maintain them, and spend more time improving on our weaknesses.
I know I am guilty of that. Like Geek, I find 25s (even UW ones) quite boring, and I don't work on my raw speed enough even though I know I would benefit.
Of course, that isn't to say I will ever work much on breaststroke. A man has to have standards.
Maybe the fact that I think I would drown trying to complete a 1000 pushes me towards the 25s. :drown:
I remember reading an interesting comment in a cycling magazine. Someone observed that we always seem to spend the most time on things we are very good at (in the context of cycling, for example, it might be climbing or time-trialing) and not very much time on things that actually need improvement.
In reality -- according to the author -- it should be the other way around: spend enough time on our strengths to maintain them, and spend more time improving on our weaknesses.
I know I am guilty of that. Like Geek, I find 25s (even UW ones) quite boring, and I don't work on my raw speed enough even though I know I would benefit.
Of course, that isn't to say I will ever work much on breaststroke. A man has to have standards.
