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 meant to add one thing. I have recently started using a Finis Tempo Trainer, and I find it invaluable. When I do my own sets, it is sometimes hard to come up with motivation to push hard. With the tempo trainer, I just set the tempo and try to stay with it. As a result I have doubled the amount of fast yardage I do in a workout. It is much easier to just try to stay with the beep (it fits under a swim cap near your ear and beeps at whatever rate you set) than it is to keep that pace without the beep. It's kind of like having a coach directing intervals -- you don't need to think, you're just reacting. I find my mental exhaustion actually peaks before my physical exhaustion does, and this takes the mental part out of the picture. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to improve their times.
I meant to add one thing. I have recently started using a Finis Tempo Trainer, and I find it invaluable. When I do my own sets, it is sometimes hard to come up with motivation to push hard. With the tempo trainer, I just set the tempo and try to stay with it. As a result I have doubled the amount of fast yardage I do in a workout. It is much easier to just try to stay with the beep (it fits under a swim cap near your ear and beeps at whatever rate you set) than it is to keep that pace without the beep. It's kind of like having a coach directing intervals -- you don't need to think, you're just reacting. I find my mental exhaustion actually peaks before my physical exhaustion does, and this takes the mental part out of the picture. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to improve their times.
