More interesting food for thoughts. Alex Simmon is one of my facebook friends. I thought about dropping him a PM today. Here's my message:
Charles Couturier June 16 at 11:30am
Hi Alex,
I was wondering about a few questions for which you may have a few answers, if you have time of course.
I'm wondering about how you approach planning for a Kilo specialist.
1. Do you use periodization at all?
2. Do you get these folks to build a Base, Grow their CTL in other words
3. If so, would the CTL requirement be pretty much the same for all Kilo specialists
4. Do you address L6 (anaerobic capacity) development all year round?
5. How many hours per week would an Elite train to become good at it?
6. Do you use weight resistance training at all?
If you already posted answers to these on your blog then maybe just point me toward the right articles. I'd like to draw a parallel between Cycling Training for the Kilo and Swim Training for the 100.
Thanks a lot!!!!!
Charles
His answers
1. yes
2. it depends, dedicated specialist kilo riders are pretty rare, so usually training covers more than just this one event, so for most riders then the answer is yes. you still need excellent aerobic condition for a kilo
3. no, everyone is different in the training load they can sustain and the rate at which training load increase can be tolerated
4. L6/7 (anerobic capacity / neuromuscular power) is done all the time, it's a matter of how much and how intensive and the type
5. 15+ but hard to specifically quantify training time when doing anaerobic efforts. they are short with a lot of recovery, so depends what you are counting, plus if any off bike training time is included
6. For kilo, yes but the nature of that depends a lot. Much better off with more explosive type actions than pure strength work. Strength is needed for the starting pedal stroke. Once a rider has a basic level of strength (e.g. a free squat 2-2.5 times body mass for males), then more is a waste and just adds mass and aero resistance - one simply cannot apply the forces at the speeds necessary.
For the record, I humbly consider Alex as having a huge edge over me on pretty much all aspects. He's been using Assisted Performance Modeling from day1, he is in the *knows* and he works full time as a coach, mostly specializing in training and racing on track (events similar in duration as swimming).
So 15 hours of training. Aerobic is important. All that carefully monitored using scientifically accepted means. Imagine for a swimmer, which has to deal with an incredibility higher level of complexity, just to optimize propulsion. Swimmer is half way in between the cyclist and the pianist. Got to train race pace, sure, but got to work on those scales at slower speed too (pianist). High elbow (EVF) in freestyle and butterfly, Fly arm entry that make no splash. And wow. The breaststroker. Why do you think we fall asleep during a BS event? Cause their race space stroke specifics is very close to their low base endurance stroke specifics anyway. For them, they can kick real hard, pull real hard even when swimming at slower pace. Targets same muscle fibers, involve nervous system the same way. And during the prolonged glide, they improve efficiency. 2 for the price of one for these folks. And what about this delicate waving action, the breaststroke dolphin kick. For me? A no brainer for breaststrokers.
In order to see benefits of slow endurance swimming on sprint race pace, gotta think outside the box. And there's a lot to think about. These benefits are even greater if most of this endurance volume is done at your best stroke, the one you're actually getting prepared for. And even more greater if you're performing this base mileage on a stroke count diet.
The lower the rate, the higher the torque. The higher the torque, the more you involve Fast Twitch Type IIa in the process. The higher the power on each stroke, the longer the glide, the longer the glide, therefore more time to remain aware about body position thus improving Economy. That's why it's fair to state that some of the gains made on distance per stroke at slower speed, will remain at race pace. Descending time sets in order to gradually increase the rate and hopefully the speed. But the Base, where dps is being developed, is at slow speed.
Then most kicking done at say, threshold pace, well it contributes to improve your leg muscle endurance. This burning sensation. Pull paddle work will undoubtedly overload upper body muscles without the need of increasing turnover as much. No leg so not much glyco wasted nor lactate increase. How many of us can claim having a solid back-to-*** turn? That can be worked in a 25back/25breast set, slow speed there again. That list just goes on and on. All aerobic.
Swimming is a heavily aerobic discipline. The contribution of this energy system goes well over the specifics of the event you're preparing for.
More interesting food for thoughts. Alex Simmon is one of my facebook friends. I thought about dropping him a PM today. Here's my message:
Charles Couturier June 16 at 11:30am
Hi Alex,
I was wondering about a few questions for which you may have a few answers, if you have time of course.
I'm wondering about how you approach planning for a Kilo specialist.
1. Do you use periodization at all?
2. Do you get these folks to build a Base, Grow their CTL in other words
3. If so, would the CTL requirement be pretty much the same for all Kilo specialists
4. Do you address L6 (anaerobic capacity) development all year round?
5. How many hours per week would an Elite train to become good at it?
6. Do you use weight resistance training at all?
If you already posted answers to these on your blog then maybe just point me toward the right articles. I'd like to draw a parallel between Cycling Training for the Kilo and Swim Training for the 100.
Thanks a lot!!!!!
Charles
His answers
1. yes
2. it depends, dedicated specialist kilo riders are pretty rare, so usually training covers more than just this one event, so for most riders then the answer is yes. you still need excellent aerobic condition for a kilo
3. no, everyone is different in the training load they can sustain and the rate at which training load increase can be tolerated
4. L6/7 (anerobic capacity / neuromuscular power) is done all the time, it's a matter of how much and how intensive and the type
5. 15+ but hard to specifically quantify training time when doing anaerobic efforts. they are short with a lot of recovery, so depends what you are counting, plus if any off bike training time is included
6. For kilo, yes but the nature of that depends a lot. Much better off with more explosive type actions than pure strength work. Strength is needed for the starting pedal stroke. Once a rider has a basic level of strength (e.g. a free squat 2-2.5 times body mass for males), then more is a waste and just adds mass and aero resistance - one simply cannot apply the forces at the speeds necessary.
For the record, I humbly consider Alex as having a huge edge over me on pretty much all aspects. He's been using Assisted Performance Modeling from day1, he is in the *knows* and he works full time as a coach, mostly specializing in training and racing on track (events similar in duration as swimming).
So 15 hours of training. Aerobic is important. All that carefully monitored using scientifically accepted means. Imagine for a swimmer, which has to deal with an incredibility higher level of complexity, just to optimize propulsion. Swimmer is half way in between the cyclist and the pianist. Got to train race pace, sure, but got to work on those scales at slower speed too (pianist). High elbow (EVF) in freestyle and butterfly, Fly arm entry that make no splash. And wow. The breaststroker. Why do you think we fall asleep during a BS event? Cause their race space stroke specifics is very close to their low base endurance stroke specifics anyway. For them, they can kick real hard, pull real hard even when swimming at slower pace. Targets same muscle fibers, involve nervous system the same way. And during the prolonged glide, they improve efficiency. 2 for the price of one for these folks. And what about this delicate waving action, the breaststroke dolphin kick. For me? A no brainer for breaststrokers.
In order to see benefits of slow endurance swimming on sprint race pace, gotta think outside the box. And there's a lot to think about. These benefits are even greater if most of this endurance volume is done at your best stroke, the one you're actually getting prepared for. And even more greater if you're performing this base mileage on a stroke count diet.
The lower the rate, the higher the torque. The higher the torque, the more you involve Fast Twitch Type IIa in the process. The higher the power on each stroke, the longer the glide, the longer the glide, therefore more time to remain aware about body position thus improving Economy. That's why it's fair to state that some of the gains made on distance per stroke at slower speed, will remain at race pace. Descending time sets in order to gradually increase the rate and hopefully the speed. But the Base, where dps is being developed, is at slow speed.
Then most kicking done at say, threshold pace, well it contributes to improve your leg muscle endurance. This burning sensation. Pull paddle work will undoubtedly overload upper body muscles without the need of increasing turnover as much. No leg so not much glyco wasted nor lactate increase. How many of us can claim having a solid back-to-*** turn? That can be worked in a 25back/25breast set, slow speed there again. That list just goes on and on. All aerobic.
Swimming is a heavily aerobic discipline. The contribution of this energy system goes well over the specifics of the event you're preparing for.
