Hypoxic training for Masters?

Chris, your workout swims are pretty dang impressive along with your ability to take 5 or 6 SDKs off each wall on long hard sets. I wuss out too often, need to do a better job at keeping a kick count going in fast 100's & 200's, don't think I've ever made a hard 200 with 6 SDKs off each wall in practice or a meet. Austin Staab says he takes 7 off every wall in practice, no matter the set. Seems to me some swimmers are SDKing further, breathing less, & going faster times. I agree if you want to do something in a meet you need to do it in practice so often that it's a habit. Ande I think what Maglischo was saying was that you can build more lactate by swimming faster, and that generally requires more oxygen. That you do not build as much lactate in hypoxic sets, and so hypoxic sets are not a good way to build up lactate tolerance. But that seems like a pretty dated statement to me. Anyone who thinks that hard underwater kicking doesn't generate as much lactate as surface swimming isn't doing it right, IMO... Of course SDK is about hydrodynamics. And the longer you can stay under (up to 15m), the faster you can go in the race...if you can control your oxygen debt. Hence the hypoxic part. What you and other hypoxic nay-sayings are basically saying is that doing such work in practice doesn't prepare you for race conditions except psychologically (which isn't a small thing, btw). My own view is, why take a chance on training in a way UNLIKE the way I plan to race? And sometimes I'll take more underwater kicks than I plan to do in a race because, let's face it, one can rarely swim as hard in practice as in a race.

Chris, your workout swims are pretty dang impressive along with your ability to take 5 or 6 SDKs off each wall on long hard sets. I wuss out too often, need to do a better job at keeping a kick count going in fast 100's & 200's, don't think I've ever made a hard 200 with 6 SDKs off each wall in practice or a meet. Austin Staab says he takes 7 off every wall in practice, no matter the set. Seems to me some swimmers are SDKing further, breathing less, & going faster times. I agree if you want to do something in a meet you need to do it in practice so often that it's a habit. Ande I think what Maglischo was saying was that you can build more lactate by swimming faster, and that generally requires more oxygen. That you do not build as much lactate in hypoxic sets, and so hypoxic sets are not a good way to build up lactate tolerance. But that seems like a pretty dated statement to me. Anyone who thinks that hard underwater kicking doesn't generate as much lactate as surface swimming isn't doing it right, IMO... Of course SDK is about hydrodynamics. And the longer you can stay under (up to 15m), the faster you can go in the race...if you can control your oxygen debt. Hence the hypoxic part. What you and other hypoxic nay-sayings are basically saying is that doing such work in practice doesn't prepare you for race conditions except psychologically (which isn't a small thing, btw). My own view is, why take a chance on training in a way UNLIKE the way I plan to race? And sometimes I'll take more underwater kicks than I plan to do in a race because, let's face it, one can rarely swim as hard in practice as in a race.