Coaches and Sprinting

I coach in a really small pool, with a huge range of swimmers crammed into two and a half lanes. Distance is hard, because people get run over, but I still do it with them. We also do a lot of stroke. Sprints are hard because not everyone wants to race, and people want to get those yards in. However, I occasionally do sprint sets, but it is hard when for half the lane swimmers get tons of rest, and for the other half of the lane, they are kind of cheated out of really getting to sprint. We only have three practices a week, an hour for each (the limits of our Y). It's hard to find the balance. I'm working on it. One of our previous coaches, much more experienced than I am, regularly would have us do a sprint at the end of practice for time, and regularly had us do what for me was continuous threshold training. Since I am not a sprinter, that helped me with my pace for distance. What is a good amount of rest for a sprint of 100? Of 50? Of 200 (based on my group: most swimmers sprint a 100 free on 1:20 or 1:35, but a few sprint on 1:05 or 1:15? The 1:20, 1:15, and 1:05 sprinters are all in the same lane. The 1:25, 1:30, 1:35 sprinters are all in the next lane. The 1:45, 1:50 sprinters are in the next lane.)? We have an exuberantly enthusiastic team that likes to go to meets, just not superfast swimmers except for a very few. 2:30 for the 100 for the fastest group? 2:45 for the next fastest? 3:00 for the last group? Still learning; appreciate feedback. My coach of the last few years left - and it was a sad day for me. He understood sprinting and lactic production sets. Every Friday the focus of the workout was lactic production. We repeated a 3 week cycle as follows: Week1: 12 x 50 on 2:00 best effort on every one Week2: 6 x 100 on 4:00 best effort..... Week3: 100 free on 4:00 best effort 2 x 50 free on 2:00 best effort 4 x 25 free on 1:00 best effort (repeat one time) These sets will hurt and you will likely die midway through. But you will get faster and your body will adapt to the lactic buildup.

I coach in a really small pool, with a huge range of swimmers crammed into two and a half lanes. Distance is hard, because people get run over, but I still do it with them. We also do a lot of stroke. Sprints are hard because not everyone wants to race, and people want to get those yards in. However, I occasionally do sprint sets, but it is hard when for half the lane swimmers get tons of rest, and for the other half of the lane, they are kind of cheated out of really getting to sprint. We only have three practices a week, an hour for each (the limits of our Y). It's hard to find the balance. I'm working on it. One of our previous coaches, much more experienced than I am, regularly would have us do a sprint at the end of practice for time, and regularly had us do what for me was continuous threshold training. Since I am not a sprinter, that helped me with my pace for distance. What is a good amount of rest for a sprint of 100? Of 50? Of 200 (based on my group: most swimmers sprint a 100 free on 1:20 or 1:35, but a few sprint on 1:05 or 1:15? The 1:20, 1:15, and 1:05 sprinters are all in the same lane. The 1:25, 1:30, 1:35 sprinters are all in the next lane. The 1:45, 1:50 sprinters are in the next lane.)? We have an exuberantly enthusiastic team that likes to go to meets, just not superfast swimmers except for a very few. 2:30 for the 100 for the fastest group? 2:45 for the next fastest? 3:00 for the last group? Still learning; appreciate feedback. My coach of the last few years left - and it was a sad day for me. He understood sprinting and lactic production sets. Every Friday the focus of the workout was lactic production. We repeated a 3 week cycle as follows: Week1: 12 x 50 on 2:00 best effort on every one Week2: 6 x 100 on 4:00 best effort..... Week3: 100 free on 4:00 best effort 2 x 50 free on 2:00 best effort 4 x 25 free on 1:00 best effort (repeat one time) These sets will hurt and you will likely die midway through. But you will get faster and your body will adapt to the lactic buildup.