Hard sets with short rest intervals have the same issue, after a while your technique starts to decrease, and your tired body is not responding so well.
I wonder if is worth it to scarify technique for endurance or endurance for technique.
The obvious answer: “well, it depends on where you are and your goals”. Please don’t
I think crazy hard endurance with bad technique occasionally is a very good thing, but if you always do it that way you will eventually get use to bad technique, but if you concentrate too much on technique while you suppose to go very fast, you won’t get that extra for muscle.
For example, let’s say this set must be done with very short rest
12 x 25 fly
2 x 200 IM
3 x 100 ***
2 x 200 IM
4 x 75 back
2 x200 IM
My point, Is really hard to keep good technique on those second 200 IMs, but if I’m looking for endurance you have to go fast...
What do you think about adding easy swims?
12 x 25 fly
100 EZ
2 x 200 IM
100 EZ
3 x 100 ***
100 EZ
2 x 200 IM
100 EZ
4 x 75 back
100 EZ
2 x200 IM
It would be much faster (speed), better technique, but…not so “hard” (I’m thinking of endurance), like adding more rest.
You can work on technique or endurance any time, but the key thing while racing is to maintain good technique at high speed during a long period.
How do you deal with endurance vs technique?
You can swim lots of fly, but you have to give yourself enough rest that you don't break down, and you have to be willing to call it a day if you do break down. One time I started swimming 50 flys on 1:00 with no defined end point. I swam most of them in 33 seconds, so my rest-to-swim ratio was almost 1:1. By the 24th 50 I had started breaking down so I stopped. (Hey that's 1200 fly, not a shabby number!) By that time I was also a bit bored...:
This is a good idea, and I did a similar approach when I was training for the 200 fly last year, which was basically a VO2 set:
10x25 on 30
5x50 on 1:00
4x75 on 1:30
2x100 on 2:00
=1k fly
or
10x25 on 30
5x50 on 1:00
4x75 on 1:30
5x50 on 1:00
10x25 on 30
=1,300 fly
I found my fly endurance increase greatly after doing this type of set every weekend (Sat and Sunday morning) for a few weeks getting from the point of taking a minute rest in between each set the first time time around, to doing it continiously within 2 weeks. The goal of each repeat is to keep the same pace and same stroke count per 25 regardless of total distance. So if you take 10 strokes and 17 seconds for the 25s, you should do 20 strokes, 34 seconds for the 50, etc.
You can swim lots of fly, but you have to give yourself enough rest that you don't break down, and you have to be willing to call it a day if you do break down. One time I started swimming 50 flys on 1:00 with no defined end point. I swam most of them in 33 seconds, so my rest-to-swim ratio was almost 1:1. By the 24th 50 I had started breaking down so I stopped. (Hey that's 1200 fly, not a shabby number!) By that time I was also a bit bored...:
This is a good idea, and I did a similar approach when I was training for the 200 fly last year, which was basically a VO2 set:
10x25 on 30
5x50 on 1:00
4x75 on 1:30
2x100 on 2:00
=1k fly
or
10x25 on 30
5x50 on 1:00
4x75 on 1:30
5x50 on 1:00
10x25 on 30
=1,300 fly
I found my fly endurance increase greatly after doing this type of set every weekend (Sat and Sunday morning) for a few weeks getting from the point of taking a minute rest in between each set the first time time around, to doing it continiously within 2 weeks. The goal of each repeat is to keep the same pace and same stroke count per 25 regardless of total distance. So if you take 10 strokes and 17 seconds for the 25s, you should do 20 strokes, 34 seconds for the 50, etc.
