Training for the 1500/1650: Suggestions?

Not familiar with the Sweet Spot training principle. OK. Let me then refer to this nice description here Basically the entire premise of SST is to work hard enough to stress metabolic systems and to encourage your body to adapt but easy enough that you can finish the intervals, sessions and you can keep on track through your weekly schedule and rack up a lot of quality time. Now I'll come back shortly to further explain what it means. While the 400m Free belongs to the Vo2max spectrum, the 1500 belongs almost exclusively to the anaerobic threshold spectrum. It basically means that the more volume you could do at this intensity level, the better it is. That being said, this intensity - which represents the max swim velocity you can hold on a 20-30min duration - is very intense. Depending on your recovering ability, your time spent at this intensity within a workout may be limited. The number of workouts per week having main sets at this target intensity may be limited as well. The Sweet Spot Intensity level represents the best compromise between *being able to book a lot of volume* and *working near threshold intensity level*. With this explained, let me now try to answer your questions: How much aerobic (En1) swimming should I be doing outside of the warm up and warm down? Euh ... if you're referring to basic low level endurance, I'd say none (except for drill and technical work as well as recovery swim between hard sets). The SST intensity should be the lowest intensity level to compose your main sets. An exception to this rule would occur if you really train a lot of hours per week. But if you're limited to say 6-10 hours per week, I'd say save the basic low level endurance for wup/wdown/drill/technical swim/recovery. And how long should the anaerobic threshold (En2) sets be? The minimal duration of a Threshold segment is 10min. It is very hard to imagine being able to stay at this intensity for more than 40min. Remember that it is near some 1500 race pace. Say that you're worth 21 min over 1500 (at the moment), that would could something like 14x200 off 2:55 - try to hold a 2:40-2:45 pace. Feasible but not easy. And when you're worth 20min flat, then this set becomes 15x200 off 2:45 - try to hold 2:35-2:40. Not easy neither. Sweet Spot intensity is far easier to hold, and still contributes a lot to threshold development. This could translate into something like 15x300 off 4:30 - holding a 4:15 (1:25/100m pace). Assuming you're worth 20min over 1500m, this is very reasonable and gives you little over 60min at targeted intensity. So at threshold intensity, 15-30min is a very good set duration. At SST intensity you could double or triple this duration depending on the energy available.

Not familiar with the Sweet Spot training principle. OK. Let me then refer to this nice description here Basically the entire premise of SST is to work hard enough to stress metabolic systems and to encourage your body to adapt but easy enough that you can finish the intervals, sessions and you can keep on track through your weekly schedule and rack up a lot of quality time. Now I'll come back shortly to further explain what it means. While the 400m Free belongs to the Vo2max spectrum, the 1500 belongs almost exclusively to the anaerobic threshold spectrum. It basically means that the more volume you could do at this intensity level, the better it is. That being said, this intensity - which represents the max swim velocity you can hold on a 20-30min duration - is very intense. Depending on your recovering ability, your time spent at this intensity within a workout may be limited. The number of workouts per week having main sets at this target intensity may be limited as well. The Sweet Spot Intensity level represents the best compromise between *being able to book a lot of volume* and *working near threshold intensity level*. With this explained, let me now try to answer your questions: How much aerobic (En1) swimming should I be doing outside of the warm up and warm down? Euh ... if you're referring to basic low level endurance, I'd say none (except for drill and technical work as well as recovery swim between hard sets). The SST intensity should be the lowest intensity level to compose your main sets. An exception to this rule would occur if you really train a lot of hours per week. But if you're limited to say 6-10 hours per week, I'd say save the basic low level endurance for wup/wdown/drill/technical swim/recovery. And how long should the anaerobic threshold (En2) sets be? The minimal duration of a Threshold segment is 10min. It is very hard to imagine being able to stay at this intensity for more than 40min. Remember that it is near some 1500 race pace. Say that you're worth 21 min over 1500 (at the moment), that would could something like 14x200 off 2:55 - try to hold a 2:40-2:45 pace. Feasible but not easy. And when you're worth 20min flat, then this set becomes 15x200 off 2:45 - try to hold 2:35-2:40. Not easy neither. Sweet Spot intensity is far easier to hold, and still contributes a lot to threshold development. This could translate into something like 15x300 off 4:30 - holding a 4:15 (1:25/100m pace). Assuming you're worth 20min over 1500m, this is very reasonable and gives you little over 60min at targeted intensity. So at threshold intensity, 15-30min is a very good set duration. At SST intensity you could double or triple this duration depending on the energy available.