Can speed practice alone help long distance endurance?
Former Member
If I only practice to improve the speed in short distance, will it help increase the endurance needed for long distance? In other words, say I have trained for several months for (only) speed, could I, one day, suddenly find myself swimming long distance without feeling tired?
(Obviously the opposite is not true: simply being able to swim slow long distance doesn't help improve the speed.)
Parents
Former Member
I might be a good case study of this. I have not swam anything longer than 100M in the winter or under 1 mile in the summer for the past year. So far I have found that distance training had little positive impact on my sprint races - I was tenths of a second better in my first meet this fall and had modest improvement in my 2nd after a couple of months of training for shorter distance.
I do feel fairly confident that I could improve my distance times significantly now but I will find out this summer. I think I have developed some "easy speed" - but at the same time I might need even just minimum training of a couple weeks to produce it.
I might be a good case study of this. I have not swam anything longer than 100M in the winter or under 1 mile in the summer for the past year. So far I have found that distance training had little positive impact on my sprint races - I was tenths of a second better in my first meet this fall and had modest improvement in my 2nd after a couple of months of training for shorter distance.
I do feel fairly confident that I could improve my distance times significantly now but I will find out this summer. I think I have developed some "easy speed" - but at the same time I might need even just minimum training of a couple weeks to produce it.
