So I have decided to focus on the 1500/1650, partly because I seem to have misplaced the three fast twitch fibers I once owned, and partly because guys named Smith are now swimming the 500 and even the 1000. 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?
Parents
Former Member
It finally hit me around 900, and by then I had passed the point of no return physically. Yeah I know what you mean here.
This is why I think that your issue is more one of breathing strategy than pacing.
Let me clarify. Very simple. I am a triathlon coach (not a swimming coach). In triathlon, like you know, threshold is the most important component. We know from coaching in cycling and running that even at MAXLASS (highest threshold level one may reach) the **bottleneck** to performance is more muscle related than breathing related. A large majority of athletes routinely complain about the fact that they have hard time getting out of breath. Muscles scream first, well before the lungs.
How does this translate? Say you start a cycling threshold set too fast, before running out of breath you gradually slow down the pace. Nothing to bring you to a point where you'd feel like giving up on the remaining of the set though. You just slow down and it pisses you off but nothing to throw away to whole set.
So when I read from your post that everything was running relatively smoothly until you rapidly got to a point where you felt like quitting the set I thought that the **bottleneck** you experimented isn't related to some limitation in your Threshold as much as an accumulated o2 deficit that prevented you from fully exploiting this Threshold.
If I was you, I would be very careful with this SDK you give after every flip turn as well as breathing frequency. Otherwise, you may sometimes hit a wall during the event that is not related to a Threshold limitation.
The air you breathe is pure fuel (you already know this). If you have the choice between using more or less fuel, always favor more fuel for longish events. If you ever get to a point where you can nail a 1500 all out and never run out of breath (meaning you don't use all the fuel available) then you'll have the option of using a more restrictive breathing strategy, but I doubt you'll ever reach this point though. And even if you did, the other option would be to add more kick which would burn this extra fuel.
Reply
Former Member
It finally hit me around 900, and by then I had passed the point of no return physically. Yeah I know what you mean here.
This is why I think that your issue is more one of breathing strategy than pacing.
Let me clarify. Very simple. I am a triathlon coach (not a swimming coach). In triathlon, like you know, threshold is the most important component. We know from coaching in cycling and running that even at MAXLASS (highest threshold level one may reach) the **bottleneck** to performance is more muscle related than breathing related. A large majority of athletes routinely complain about the fact that they have hard time getting out of breath. Muscles scream first, well before the lungs.
How does this translate? Say you start a cycling threshold set too fast, before running out of breath you gradually slow down the pace. Nothing to bring you to a point where you'd feel like giving up on the remaining of the set though. You just slow down and it pisses you off but nothing to throw away to whole set.
So when I read from your post that everything was running relatively smoothly until you rapidly got to a point where you felt like quitting the set I thought that the **bottleneck** you experimented isn't related to some limitation in your Threshold as much as an accumulated o2 deficit that prevented you from fully exploiting this Threshold.
If I was you, I would be very careful with this SDK you give after every flip turn as well as breathing frequency. Otherwise, you may sometimes hit a wall during the event that is not related to a Threshold limitation.
The air you breathe is pure fuel (you already know this). If you have the choice between using more or less fuel, always favor more fuel for longish events. If you ever get to a point where you can nail a 1500 all out and never run out of breath (meaning you don't use all the fuel available) then you'll have the option of using a more restrictive breathing strategy, but I doubt you'll ever reach this point though. And even if you did, the other option would be to add more kick which would burn this extra fuel.
