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?
If not, just suck it up.
Ew. Not how I want to spend much of my training time. This is a D concept. "Sucking it up" helps D swimmers and hurts sprinters (unless doing a nasty lactate set).
There are great benefits to training with a team, especially one like yours. But if you're "sucking it up" too much, you're probably back to garbage yards. In general, I think sprinters have to train alone at least some of the time -- which many do. Or get a like indeed training partner -- which many do. Most teams just don't have workouts for sprinters because they're catering to too many other different specialities -- tris, OW, mid-D, D, etc. -- who want more yardage and less rest.
When I train with my team, I will sometimes alter the assigned sets. Keeping out of my lanemates way, of course. I don't think this should be a big deal.
If not, just suck it up.
Ew. Not how I want to spend much of my training time. This is a D concept. "Sucking it up" helps D swimmers and hurts sprinters (unless doing a nasty lactate set).
There are great benefits to training with a team, especially one like yours. But if you're "sucking it up" too much, you're probably back to garbage yards. In general, I think sprinters have to train alone at least some of the time -- which many do. Or get a like indeed training partner -- which many do. Most teams just don't have workouts for sprinters because they're catering to too many other different specialities -- tris, OW, mid-D, D, etc. -- who want more yardage and less rest.
When I train with my team, I will sometimes alter the assigned sets. Keeping out of my lanemates way, of course. I don't think this should be a big deal.
