Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

Glenn, first of all, congratulations on your outstanding performances last weekend. How exciting to be so close to Tom’s record in the 400 when you age up in a few days. (need to find a SCM meet soon!). Your other swims were great as well. I’ve been toying around with Ultra Short for about 18 months, but doing nothing consistent. The two workouts I do with some regularity are the 4 sets of breakouts on the :45 and the 30 X 25 on the :30 (the first for 50 race pace and the second for 100's). Yesterday I tried the 30 X 50 on :50 but, as per my wont, I morphed it for 200 race pace. In a 20 meter pool I did 30 X 40 on 1:00 (the little extra rest for age and altitude). I now know why I’ll never be a long distance swimmer. Although I’m quite used to intense lactate pain, I was totally daunted by that dull ache in the pit of your belly associated with maintaining a relatively hard effort for an extended period. My goal was to keep my efforts under 27.5 which translates to about a 2:18 200 meters. A buddy on deck was timing with a stop watch. I was able to keep all but two between 26.0 and 27.3. My two failures – at 16 and 24 - were in the high 27’s. Man, that was tough! Needless to say, I didn’t attempt the second set. Looking at your weekly training, I think I’m most impressed with your mental toughness in, although it may be more viewing it from my perspective of wimpyness. A few questions: Do you have a specific goal meet in mind or do you intend to train like this indefinitely? Do you do any of the burst 12.5’s to work on pure speed? Do you use a digital or analog clock in workout? If you see a 32 on the clock when you come in, does that count as a 32 even if the clock changes to 33 a tenth later? Do you ever train with a partner or in a team setting? Rich, p.s. regards to Sharon

Glenn, first of all, congratulations on your outstanding performances last weekend. How exciting to be so close to Tom’s record in the 400 when you age up in a few days. (need to find a SCM meet soon!). Your other swims were great as well. I’ve been toying around with Ultra Short for about 18 months, but doing nothing consistent. The two workouts I do with some regularity are the 4 sets of breakouts on the :45 and the 30 X 25 on the :30 (the first for 50 race pace and the second for 100's). Yesterday I tried the 30 X 50 on :50 but, as per my wont, I morphed it for 200 race pace. In a 20 meter pool I did 30 X 40 on 1:00 (the little extra rest for age and altitude). I now know why I’ll never be a long distance swimmer. Although I’m quite used to intense lactate pain, I was totally daunted by that dull ache in the pit of your belly associated with maintaining a relatively hard effort for an extended period. My goal was to keep my efforts under 27.5 which translates to about a 2:18 200 meters. A buddy on deck was timing with a stop watch. I was able to keep all but two between 26.0 and 27.3. My two failures – at 16 and 24 - were in the high 27’s. Man, that was tough! Needless to say, I didn’t attempt the second set. Looking at your weekly training, I think I’m most impressed with your mental toughness in, although it may be more viewing it from my perspective of wimpyness. A few questions: Do you have a specific goal meet in mind or do you intend to train like this indefinitely? Do you do any of the burst 12.5’s to work on pure speed? Do you use a digital or analog clock in workout? If you see a 32 on the clock when you come in, does that count as a 32 even if the clock changes to 33 a tenth later? Do you ever train with a partner or in a team setting? Rich, p.s. regards to Sharon