Sprint training methods used by Rich Abrahams

Now seems like a better time than most to start thinking about training. For those of you who have read your recent SWIMMER, there was an article on Rich Abrahams that went into a little detail about his training in preparation for 2010 SCY Nationals and how his goal over a year out was to do 15,000 yards of race effort before Nationals. From talking to Rich and talking with other people who have talked to Rich about his training, I have put together an overview of his plan. Rich is focused on the 50s and 100s for this plan and said if he was a mid distance guy he would substitute in another hard aerobic day in place of 1 of his speed days. His inspiration for this plan was an article by Popov's coach and some posts on sprint training by ehoch. I think I have read both of these and if I can track them down I will post them. High Level (weekly): - 2 gym workouts focusing core (one hard, one moderate) - 2 speed work pool workout - 1 lactate pool workout - 1 ez aerobic pool workout - 1 hard aerobic pool workout - 1 day of complete rest - 3 stretching sessions SCY Nationals 2010 Goal: 15,000 yard Race Effort - Race Effort includes -- Actual Races -- Time Trials in Practice -- 10 breakouts on 2:00 would count as 150yards of Race Effort -- NOT 32x25 on :45 he considers this speed work - very little counts towards Race Effort that isn't climbing up on the blocks for a real race - his goal works out to about 1000 yards race effort / month Gym workouts - Rich doesn't not do typical lifts (bench press, squats, etc) - he does use weights for his workouts - he expects to be sore the next day after the hard gym workout - he has been supplementing his swimming with gym workouts for a long time (20+ years or since his 20s, I don't remember exactly) - examples exercises -- laying on the ground face up, holding a medicine ball with straight arms directly above the shoulders and legs off the ground, he will pop his shoulders off the ground, hold and relax using just his core. -- with a heavy kettleball or dumbbell in one hand, walk about 200M with perfect posture. Switch hands and walk back. -- there is a youtube video of him playing something like handball with a medicine able on a squash/racketball court. 30 minute EZ Swim - I am going to quote what he emailed me. It is too detailed to and complicated to easily summarize. Re my easy swims: this was a result of some testing done in a flume last Dec. conducted by the director of the Exercise and Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Colorado Hospital. I’ve been known to espouse the dictum re masters swimming too fast when they swim slow and too slow when they swim fast….Well, let me tell you that perceived effort can be misleading. During my warm-up swim for the test (4 minutes easy) my HR was 138 and my blood lactate was 2.95. I thought I was going easy, but I wasn’t. I should have been around 125 for HR and under 2.0 for lactate. Also, the tests showed that my lactate clearance times were not fast enough to enable effective intense training sessions. I had to improve my lower level capacity to build to lactate transporter enzymes. This in itself would not improve my racing, but it would enable my training at higher intensities, which would translate to better anaerobic endurance. My “prescription” was to swim at a Z2 level (for me HR of 120-128) 1 or 2 times a week. To quote my report “it is important to be patient at that intensity until lactate oxidation improves.” It is worth mentioning that Rich is not one of the forumites who checks the forums every few minutes, or even daily, so if there is a question asked that seems directed toward Rich that someone else can answer, please answer it.