How do you determine whether you would be better off training and racing sprints or distance events?
I'm back into competitive training this winter after ~2 decades since high school. I used to coach age group, and I've been hitting some master's practices, so I'm not without direction for what I should be doing to get back in shape. I am, however, clueless about distance swimming.
I have no exposure to distance racing or training so I am starting to read up on it (Maglischo). In high school, with the longest event being the 500 free, everyone was a "sprinter" whether they were suited to it or not.
Since I'm basically rebuilding myself from the ground up, I am wondering whether I might give distance a try? What sorts of physiology, technique or psychology lend themselves to doing distance as opposed to sprinting? Or does this not really matter for a nearly 40-year-old masters swimmer that's been out of the pool for nearly forever?
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Well, since the vast majority of my workouts are with a USMS team, they are closer to that than to the USAS group I occasionally work out with.
But you did make me curious, so I used my FLOG entries to calculate that in the 108 days since I started swimming after summer nationals, I have averaged a shade under 3800y per workout, and swam an average of 5.25 days per week. Yardage/volume doesn't tell the whole story, but I don't think those numbers are very far outside the norm for masters swimmers.
Fair enough, if you want to discount the fact that your workouts are predominately fly/back at a sub 1:20/100 pace and Mark probably isn't your typical USMS coach.
I admit I was wrong, and Chris Stevenson trains more like a master than an age grouper. Your yardage is closer to the typical USMS practice than it is to the typical USAS practice and you don't swim doubles.
Well, since the vast majority of my workouts are with a USMS team, they are closer to that than to the USAS group I occasionally work out with.
But you did make me curious, so I used my FLOG entries to calculate that in the 108 days since I started swimming after summer nationals, I have averaged a shade under 3800y per workout, and swam an average of 5.25 days per week. Yardage/volume doesn't tell the whole story, but I don't think those numbers are very far outside the norm for masters swimmers.
Fair enough, if you want to discount the fact that your workouts are predominately fly/back at a sub 1:20/100 pace and Mark probably isn't your typical USMS coach.
I admit I was wrong, and Chris Stevenson trains more like a master than an age grouper. Your yardage is closer to the typical USMS practice than it is to the typical USAS practice and you don't swim doubles.
