Training for the 1500/1650: Suggestions?

Geek suggested that I build my endurance with dryland work, but unlike him I have a job and limited time to train, and I don't really want to give up pool time. Any suggestions? I already have a huge endurance base built dryland, it just does not transfer to swimming. So I'd probably suggest - if like you're training time is limited - to avoid taking this path. My cycling / cross-training endurance level is such that if it was transferring to swimming, I'd expect a 1500 well under 20m. Trust me, I don't get anywhere near this at the moment. Your question is simple and calls for a simple answer. The main fitness component involved in performing the 1500 is anaerobic threshold. This component, as you already know, is best developed when training at threshold pace. For me, intervals should be favored but they have to be designed in a way that favors threshold development. And for this, you just need to make sure that the rest periods are short enough so that your body can't really notice that you actually stop. Half life of several physiological processes involved in maintaining threshold pace is ~30s. If you make your rest periods equal or shorter than let's say 20sec you should be ok. Then the rule is simple: the avg intensity including the rest has to match the threshold level. If so, you're working at threshold. Now, for determining the intensity, I would strongly suggest that you use swim pace instead of HR. It is much easier to monitor and is also much more reliable. The scientific literature often recommend simple endurance tests to establish what your target threshold pace should be. It ranges from T1000 to T3000. Personally, I don't pay much attention to these standards. Any distance that belongs to the threshold spectrum is fine. As a reminder, there's this good old Critical Swim Speed concept that would allow you to build smart sets. Based on two inputs, it can guide you in determining what target pace should be for any (longish) distance. For instance, you supply the 200 and the 400, you get the 3000. So you can tune a set of 15x200 on precise pace using this old principle. And if you really want to get scientific, you may try to compute Skiba's Swim Scores. That allows for the whole season to be monitored the same way you'd do with TRIMPS. I am currently putting an Excel Spreadsheet to compute these as I intend to use this concept this year. - - - Ref www.pponline.co.uk/.../0162.htm explanation of the concept www.swimsmooth.com/training.html calculator (in the middle of the page) www.physfarm.com/swimscore.pdf Skiba's Swim Score

Geek suggested that I build my endurance with dryland work, but unlike him I have a job and limited time to train, and I don't really want to give up pool time. Any suggestions? I already have a huge endurance base built dryland, it just does not transfer to swimming. So I'd probably suggest - if like you're training time is limited - to avoid taking this path. My cycling / cross-training endurance level is such that if it was transferring to swimming, I'd expect a 1500 well under 20m. Trust me, I don't get anywhere near this at the moment. Your question is simple and calls for a simple answer. The main fitness component involved in performing the 1500 is anaerobic threshold. This component, as you already know, is best developed when training at threshold pace. For me, intervals should be favored but they have to be designed in a way that favors threshold development. And for this, you just need to make sure that the rest periods are short enough so that your body can't really notice that you actually stop. Half life of several physiological processes involved in maintaining threshold pace is ~30s. If you make your rest periods equal or shorter than let's say 20sec you should be ok. Then the rule is simple: the avg intensity including the rest has to match the threshold level. If so, you're working at threshold. Now, for determining the intensity, I would strongly suggest that you use swim pace instead of HR. It is much easier to monitor and is also much more reliable. The scientific literature often recommend simple endurance tests to establish what your target threshold pace should be. It ranges from T1000 to T3000. Personally, I don't pay much attention to these standards. Any distance that belongs to the threshold spectrum is fine. As a reminder, there's this good old Critical Swim Speed concept that would allow you to build smart sets. Based on two inputs, it can guide you in determining what target pace should be for any (longish) distance. For instance, you supply the 200 and the 400, you get the 3000. So you can tune a set of 15x200 on precise pace using this old principle. And if you really want to get scientific, you may try to compute Skiba's Swim Scores. That allows for the whole season to be monitored the same way you'd do with TRIMPS. I am currently putting an Excel Spreadsheet to compute these as I intend to use this concept this year. - - - Ref www.pponline.co.uk/.../0162.htm explanation of the concept www.swimsmooth.com/training.html calculator (in the middle of the page) www.physfarm.com/swimscore.pdf Skiba's Swim Score