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?
along with now debunked notions such as ... "eating a box of powdered Jell-O before a race will help you swim faster."
Wait, what? I missed the memo!
Lots of good advice here. To briefly address the thread question: I don't have a good sense of how "most masters teams" train, so I am not sure of the answer. High intensity training is good, both for racing and for general health/fitness. Recovery is also good, that's when you get faster/fitter; this can be long/slow/aerobic work for "active" recovery. I like to hit all the HR/intensity training zones; too much time in any one zone is not good, the right mix will depend on the person and the purpose of the training.
I also generally feel more confident when I've spent more training time in the water; I'll admit there may be a psychological component to this, it may not just be physiological. Of course, too much can hurt you if you don't recover from it.
along with now debunked notions such as ... "eating a box of powdered Jell-O before a race will help you swim faster."
Wait, what? I missed the memo!
Lots of good advice here. To briefly address the thread question: I don't have a good sense of how "most masters teams" train, so I am not sure of the answer. High intensity training is good, both for racing and for general health/fitness. Recovery is also good, that's when you get faster/fitter; this can be long/slow/aerobic work for "active" recovery. I like to hit all the HR/intensity training zones; too much time in any one zone is not good, the right mix will depend on the person and the purpose of the training.
I also generally feel more confident when I've spent more training time in the water; I'll admit there may be a psychological component to this, it may not just be physiological. Of course, too much can hurt you if you don't recover from it.
