Two swimmers test their blood lactate and they are at the same level. One swimmer holds a 60 sec/100 pace and the other holds 75 sec/100 pace, is it fair to say swimmer one is swimming more efficiently, or are there other factors such as physiology at play? Can the swimmer with higher lactate still actually be swimming more efficiently, yet be generating the higher lactate numbers?
How do you pinpoint where a swimmer's physiology is limiting their performance and not their technique?
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Former Member
Do you ever compare heart rate and heart rate recovery with your lanemates during a workout? What would your peak heart rate be and how quickly does it recover. I would assume the higher the heart rate the better and the quicker the recovery the better.
Your weaknesses can't be determined by comparing to others. Weaknesses worth working on are the ones that pay off when you give them attention. You can't really know in advance if your aerobic capacity needs improvement unless you know that, for example, you had better recovery or lactate stats previously when you were doing more aerobic training.
For example, I'm very fast-twitch dominant (just a guess). I get tired easily even when I'm in top shape. When I was a teenager on a USS club, we did "heart rate goal/go" sets, in which send-offs were based on heart rate coming back down to a certain baseline. I would be sitting on the walls for minutes while my lanemates were taking 30 seconds rest. I didn't bother me, because I knew that I made more power and I needed more recovery than most swimmers.
Do you ever compare heart rate and heart rate recovery with your lanemates during a workout? What would your peak heart rate be and how quickly does it recover. I would assume the higher the heart rate the better and the quicker the recovery the better.
Your weaknesses can't be determined by comparing to others. Weaknesses worth working on are the ones that pay off when you give them attention. You can't really know in advance if your aerobic capacity needs improvement unless you know that, for example, you had better recovery or lactate stats previously when you were doing more aerobic training.
For example, I'm very fast-twitch dominant (just a guess). I get tired easily even when I'm in top shape. When I was a teenager on a USS club, we did "heart rate goal/go" sets, in which send-offs were based on heart rate coming back down to a certain baseline. I would be sitting on the walls for minutes while my lanemates were taking 30 seconds rest. I didn't bother me, because I knew that I made more power and I needed more recovery than most swimmers.
