Poll,Race Pace vs distance

I was wondering the other day if there was any merit to pure LSD practices in swimming at all. (In terms of performance enhancement, not waistline diminishment.) If you periodize your training, the rule of thumb is that you move from the most general to most race-specific training as your training program progresses. (This is also true in Lydiard-type training.) So there is value per Chris' reasons in some LSD work for anyone. In general, the focus of the type and intensity of training is related to the race (a.k.a. the principle of training specificity), so if you are a sprinter, you won't do too much of this as compared to a distance swimmer. When I was training for MIMS, I did lots of longer LSD swims since the ability to go for a long time at a lower intensity was specific to the race. (I was just trying to finish; not win anything.) For example, 12,000+ yards in a straight 3 hour swim (with a quick drink every 30 minutes) focusing on my technique and relaxing. That's 45 secs/50yards average - not exactly blazing - but very close to the effort that I felt I wanted to sustain. It worked like a charm - I got buried in the first part of the race, started hauling people back at the whirlpool (2-ish hours in), and was just about to move into the top 10 at the GW bridge (5+ hours in) when I had to DNF due to (non-swimming) health issues. I was totally relaxed and felt like I could swim forever. In fact, I was starting to think about putting the hammer down for the last few hours, I felt so strong. If you do it right there is no such thing as "junk yardage" in swimming, regardless of the pace. -LBJ

I was wondering the other day if there was any merit to pure LSD practices in swimming at all. (In terms of performance enhancement, not waistline diminishment.) If you periodize your training, the rule of thumb is that you move from the most general to most race-specific training as your training program progresses. (This is also true in Lydiard-type training.) So there is value per Chris' reasons in some LSD work for anyone. In general, the focus of the type and intensity of training is related to the race (a.k.a. the principle of training specificity), so if you are a sprinter, you won't do too much of this as compared to a distance swimmer. When I was training for MIMS, I did lots of longer LSD swims since the ability to go for a long time at a lower intensity was specific to the race. (I was just trying to finish; not win anything.) For example, 12,000+ yards in a straight 3 hour swim (with a quick drink every 30 minutes) focusing on my technique and relaxing. That's 45 secs/50yards average - not exactly blazing - but very close to the effort that I felt I wanted to sustain. It worked like a charm - I got buried in the first part of the race, started hauling people back at the whirlpool (2-ish hours in), and was just about to move into the top 10 at the GW bridge (5+ hours in) when I had to DNF due to (non-swimming) health issues. I was totally relaxed and felt like I could swim forever. In fact, I was starting to think about putting the hammer down for the last few hours, I felt so strong. If you do it right there is no such thing as "junk yardage" in swimming, regardless of the pace. -LBJ