Just to give everyone an idea how delusional I really can be: at 47 years of age I keep on thinking to myself, that with just a bit more training and technical improvements, I can start catching the age group swimmers that train at the same time as I do in the early morning. Here I am, just passed the half way point in my life and I am still catching myself doing the "next year is my break-out year" thing. Crazy.
Anyway here is a couple of questions to the great crew here with regards to training:
Anybody out there in the 45 to 50 zone who keeps a training log and would be willing to share it with me? I have absolutely no idea what other guys my age are logging per work-out and week and what would be considered decent pace times. I am currently training mostly short-course meters, but I will be training long-course yards (bizarre old out-door pool) for the next two months. I can manage to hold 1:15 repeats for up to 10 by 100 right now, but my goal is to get that down to 1:10 or 1:05 by summer's end. I want to go like I did when I was eighteen just for a few moments.
How about underwater training? I have really poor anaerobic tolerance; I practically have to breath every stroke (versus the common every second or third). An old acquaintance of mine told me of a Navy Seals session he watched years ago where the SEALS had spent an entire 90 minute session swimming lengths under water to build up endurance. Any value for a swimmer? My lack of tolerance probably explains why I was originally a backstroke specialist when I was a kid.
Sprints. I have taken several member's advice and added numerous sprint sessions to my work-outs now. I am doing them sproradically now since I do not have any meets on the horizon, but I intend to ramp up the speed work as the fall competitive season approaches. One person suggested I keep everything down to 25 meter full out efforts while another suggested that I needed to get my 100 meter repeats down under 1:10 if I was going to meet my 400 meter goal of sub 5 minutes. Do I mix and match? Where do I put my emphasis?
BTW: this site is fantastic.
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Former Member
Not a 55 yard pool like at UBC then?
You mean Empire Games Pool? That ego buster? Its just a bit longer than 50 meters and that always puts training times just a bit out. You don't want to slow down your rep times, but it costs you about 1 to 2 seconds on the hundred. I grew up about fifteen minutes from that pool. Great training pool.
It looks like youre well on your way - but why so much pull? Youre not going to be using paddles/pullbuoy in a race, and it seems to be racing that youre interested in, yeah? Just a thought.
I love pull. I always have. Even back in the late seventies as an age grouper, but that was pretty common back then: coaches were pushing us to keep up with the Soviet Red Army and they were logging 20 to 30 K per day. One way to do that is to fry the shoulders and log the meters doing front-crawl pull. I even custom made my own paddles back then.
I have come to my senses now: pull is rarely more than 25% of any session. Dropping the pull did nothing but improve my swimming.
And dont feel bad that you got your ass handed to you by Welechuk at provincials - he does that to everyone - does it to me all the time!
Still, the guy is knocking off times that I could not meet when I was nineteen and at my peak. Heck, he pulled off a low 58 for the 100 meter back; my best time ever was 59.3 short course meters at the 1981 NAIA Championships, when SFU were still Savage's Raiders. I would love to know how he trains and how he juggles the rest of his life as well.
Granted, the day he handed me my suit, he was gunning for the World record of somewhere in the mid 56 zone. He was dead on track up to about 85 meters too, and then his legs gave out.
One thing though: it may be all grey, but I have more hair than him.:D
Not a 55 yard pool like at UBC then?
You mean Empire Games Pool? That ego buster? Its just a bit longer than 50 meters and that always puts training times just a bit out. You don't want to slow down your rep times, but it costs you about 1 to 2 seconds on the hundred. I grew up about fifteen minutes from that pool. Great training pool.
It looks like youre well on your way - but why so much pull? Youre not going to be using paddles/pullbuoy in a race, and it seems to be racing that youre interested in, yeah? Just a thought.
I love pull. I always have. Even back in the late seventies as an age grouper, but that was pretty common back then: coaches were pushing us to keep up with the Soviet Red Army and they were logging 20 to 30 K per day. One way to do that is to fry the shoulders and log the meters doing front-crawl pull. I even custom made my own paddles back then.
I have come to my senses now: pull is rarely more than 25% of any session. Dropping the pull did nothing but improve my swimming.
And dont feel bad that you got your ass handed to you by Welechuk at provincials - he does that to everyone - does it to me all the time!
Still, the guy is knocking off times that I could not meet when I was nineteen and at my peak. Heck, he pulled off a low 58 for the 100 meter back; my best time ever was 59.3 short course meters at the 1981 NAIA Championships, when SFU were still Savage's Raiders. I would love to know how he trains and how he juggles the rest of his life as well.
Granted, the day he handed me my suit, he was gunning for the World record of somewhere in the mid 56 zone. He was dead on track up to about 85 meters too, and then his legs gave out.
One thing though: it may be all grey, but I have more hair than him.:D
