Training for the 1500/1650: Suggestions?

Hmmm, these are actually very good results, fairly consistent (so far) with our calculations (CSS model is very strong and reliable. It is derived from the well known Critical Power Model applied to Cycling). In fact, you could have done them on 4:25 instead. In case you fear of swimming on x.25, or x.05, these are the best possible intervals you can think of (in term of managing the number of reps). Because you can use the interval to count the number of reps. First rep starts at .25, second .50 third .15 4th .40 and so on. The pyramid might have been fun to. In fact, you'd probably have a ball trying it. It has a challenging flavor to it. 4 on 4:30 / 3 on 4:25 / 2 on 4:20 / the last one try to touch the wall faster than 4:15. In order to succeed in it though, it would be safer to touch 4:20 (instead of 4:07) for the first 4(off 4:30), between 4:15 and 4:20 for the other 3(off 4:25), little under 4:15 for the following 2(off 4:20) and as hard as possible for the last one. That being said, the set you did was perfect. Rest was little longer than 20s but shorter than 30s which is good. At this point, it's worth remembering that the choice of interval should be (in part) driven by the exact pace you want to maintain. In the case of a 3000m long segment, we remember that your CSS target pace was 1:25.7 Putting you on a set of 100s off 1:30 may not be challenging enough, a set of 200 off 2:55 (which is equivalent to a set of 100s off 1:27.5) may by too hard. The choice of 300m as an interval distance is much better in this case. Putting 'em on a 4:25 interval is equivalent to performing a set of 100m interval off 1:28.2 (which would be impossible to manage of course). Conclusion, any interval duration works for En2 training. 50 and over. The idea is to find an interval duration that gets you closer to the overall average pace you want to maintain over the total duration of the set. Well done!

Hmmm, these are actually very good results, fairly consistent (so far) with our calculations (CSS model is very strong and reliable. It is derived from the well known Critical Power Model applied to Cycling). In fact, you could have done them on 4:25 instead. In case you fear of swimming on x.25, or x.05, these are the best possible intervals you can think of (in term of managing the number of reps). Because you can use the interval to count the number of reps. First rep starts at .25, second .50 third .15 4th .40 and so on. The pyramid might have been fun to. In fact, you'd probably have a ball trying it. It has a challenging flavor to it. 4 on 4:30 / 3 on 4:25 / 2 on 4:20 / the last one try to touch the wall faster than 4:15. In order to succeed in it though, it would be safer to touch 4:20 (instead of 4:07) for the first 4(off 4:30), between 4:15 and 4:20 for the other 3(off 4:25), little under 4:15 for the following 2(off 4:20) and as hard as possible for the last one. That being said, the set you did was perfect. Rest was little longer than 20s but shorter than 30s which is good. At this point, it's worth remembering that the choice of interval should be (in part) driven by the exact pace you want to maintain. In the case of a 3000m long segment, we remember that your CSS target pace was 1:25.7 Putting you on a set of 100s off 1:30 may not be challenging enough, a set of 200 off 2:55 (which is equivalent to a set of 100s off 1:27.5) may by too hard. The choice of 300m as an interval distance is much better in this case. Putting 'em on a 4:25 interval is equivalent to performing a set of 100m interval off 1:28.2 (which would be impossible to manage of course). Conclusion, any interval duration works for En2 training. 50 and over. The idea is to find an interval duration that gets you closer to the overall average pace you want to maintain over the total duration of the set. Well done!