In threads where training philosophy comes up, discussions of TRIMPS and TSS and other training models occasionally intrude. These models are not very well known, and even more poorly understood, so probably SolarEnergy, qbrain and I are just talking to each other and killing threads in those conversations. In any case, I figured I would present a brief overview of what it is that we're talking about when this terminology starts showing up.
Best case, this will introduce these models to the subset of swimmers (or coaches) who would be interested enough to use them, but didn't previously know enough to do so.
Plus, even if you're not the type to be interested in quantifying your training, it can be useful to think about workouts in this general framework.
And, at the very least, this might serve as a place to discuss some of the details without worrying about driving those other threads too far off-topic.
I don't believe the difference between back and fly is linear if you were to try to model the total energy.
I have been keeping up with Q points for a week or so and the big problem for me comes with fly. The amount of energy needed for me to do more fly seems to increase geometrically. In the example that Chris gave, I would be very hard pressed to do a 400 fly, but I could do a 400 back. To me, the problem comes from how you would increase the multiplier based on fly distance. It is much easier for me to do 10 X 50 fly than 5 X 100 fly. Also, fly seems to have a cumulative effect on me during a workout. For me, energy would increase based on the distance of the repeats and on the total distance of fly in a workout.
I don't believe the difference between back and fly is linear if you were to try to model the total energy.
I have been keeping up with Q points for a week or so and the big problem for me comes with fly. The amount of energy needed for me to do more fly seems to increase geometrically. In the example that Chris gave, I would be very hard pressed to do a 400 fly, but I could do a 400 back. To me, the problem comes from how you would increase the multiplier based on fly distance. It is much easier for me to do 10 X 50 fly than 5 X 100 fly. Also, fly seems to have a cumulative effect on me during a workout. For me, energy would increase based on the distance of the repeats and on the total distance of fly in a workout.
