Fortress' impressive three world record performance over the weekend made me think of this topic. Obviously the things she's doing are working well for the events she likes to swim. She concentrates on SDKs, fast swimming with lots of rest and drylands to aid in explosiveness. Long aerobic sets just aren't a part of her training regime, from what I've seen.
Almost every organized training group I've swum with, on the other hand, focuses on long aerobic sets, short rest, not a whole lot of fast stuff, etc. Basically the polar opposite of how Fortress trains. In my opinion this probably works pretty well for those who swim longer events, but really does very little for sprinters. The sprint events are almost always the most popular events at meets, so why do people choose to train aerobically? I think there are a number of factors at play. There's the much maligned triathletes. There's those who don't compete and "just want to get their yardage in." There's a historical precedent of lots of yardage being the way to go.
So what do you all think? How does you or your team train? I know lots of regular bloggers here DO train differently than my perception of the norm. Examples include Ande, Chris S. and Speedo. Are too many masters teams stuck in a training regime that is not at all what many of their swimmers need to get faster?
I think Leslie's WRs can be attributed to many things, including: dedication and discipline. That being said I did wonder the same thing, "What is Leslie doing that the rest of us aren't?"
Thank you for the kind words, Karen. I've been able to train a lot more as my kids have gotten older. Your time will come!
As for the "what is she doing?" -- it's no secret! It's all on my USMS blog for the stealin'.
In general, I think I tend to do things many masters dislike such as loads of kicking, nasty lactate sets, drylands and many hours of hot yoga and stretching. And I basically train 50/50, 50% in the pool and 50% on land. Personally, I like this sprinter regimen because the mega yardage/garbage yardage model led to burnout and shoulder problems in my age group days.
As to Kirk's point, I agree that many masters who want to compete and swim fast may be training incorrectly for that purpose by omitting sufficient anaerobic training. Aside from the speed benefits, moreover, anaerobic training can actually lead to improved aerobic conditioning. If you want to race, you need to do race pace work. And that is not limited to us sprinters.
I think Leslie's WRs can be attributed to many things, including: dedication and discipline. That being said I did wonder the same thing, "What is Leslie doing that the rest of us aren't?"
Thank you for the kind words, Karen. I've been able to train a lot more as my kids have gotten older. Your time will come!
As for the "what is she doing?" -- it's no secret! It's all on my USMS blog for the stealin'.
In general, I think I tend to do things many masters dislike such as loads of kicking, nasty lactate sets, drylands and many hours of hot yoga and stretching. And I basically train 50/50, 50% in the pool and 50% on land. Personally, I like this sprinter regimen because the mega yardage/garbage yardage model led to burnout and shoulder problems in my age group days.
As to Kirk's point, I agree that many masters who want to compete and swim fast may be training incorrectly for that purpose by omitting sufficient anaerobic training. Aside from the speed benefits, moreover, anaerobic training can actually lead to improved aerobic conditioning. If you want to race, you need to do race pace work. And that is not limited to us sprinters.
