I have heard that some Masters coaches are more interested in general fitness than speed.What is your experience? Do you feel that your coach prepares you to swim 50s and 100s?Is sprinting a regular part of practice at least once a week and if so do you do it as a main set or as an add on at the end?Do you do lactic acid sets?How much do you work on starts and turns?
But I disagree very strongly with the notion that speed-work -- maybe "high intensity" work is more apt -- is not appropriate for fitness-focused swimmers. Most spinning classes, for example, will vary the tempo and intensity during the course of the exercise. Why shouldn't swim practices do the same?
I strongly agree w/ above statement, and perhaps even to the point of desiring a moratorium on putting "fitness" in front of "swimming." Fitness applies across the spectrum of swimmers. Calling one group "fitness swimmers" and the others not is a distractor.
For what it's worth, here is a really challenging sprint-ish/middle distancy training set that works pretty well with a range of swimmers. The ones who want to sprint get a good lactate training session; those who don't still get a good fitness workout.
First, take your 200 freestyle race time and divide it in 4 to get your average 50 pace. For example, if you can swim the 200 in exactly 2:00, your pace will be :30.
You then swim 5 sets of 8 x 50 on 1:00. Within each set, the odds are easy active rest, the evens faster.
Set 1: odds easy, evens 200 pace +2 seconds (in above example, hold :32s)
Set 2. " ; evens +1 (e.g. 31s)
Set 3. " ; evens +0 (30)
Set 4. " ; evens -1 (29)
Set 5. " ; evens - 2 (28)
It looks easy, but if you really try, it get brutal by the end. You can rest a minute between the sets.
This looks good. I think it has come up before (likely in a blog or an online coaching session). I'm going to try it.
:)
But I disagree very strongly with the notion that speed-work -- maybe "high intensity" work is more apt -- is not appropriate for fitness-focused swimmers. Most spinning classes, for example, will vary the tempo and intensity during the course of the exercise. Why shouldn't swim practices do the same?
I strongly agree w/ above statement, and perhaps even to the point of desiring a moratorium on putting "fitness" in front of "swimming." Fitness applies across the spectrum of swimmers. Calling one group "fitness swimmers" and the others not is a distractor.
For what it's worth, here is a really challenging sprint-ish/middle distancy training set that works pretty well with a range of swimmers. The ones who want to sprint get a good lactate training session; those who don't still get a good fitness workout.
First, take your 200 freestyle race time and divide it in 4 to get your average 50 pace. For example, if you can swim the 200 in exactly 2:00, your pace will be :30.
You then swim 5 sets of 8 x 50 on 1:00. Within each set, the odds are easy active rest, the evens faster.
Set 1: odds easy, evens 200 pace +2 seconds (in above example, hold :32s)
Set 2. " ; evens +1 (e.g. 31s)
Set 3. " ; evens +0 (30)
Set 4. " ; evens -1 (29)
Set 5. " ; evens - 2 (28)
It looks easy, but if you really try, it get brutal by the end. You can rest a minute between the sets.
This looks good. I think it has come up before (likely in a blog or an online coaching session). I'm going to try it.
:)
