Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

People seem to be getting hung up on the failure part. Instead of thinking of the failure, think of the wonderful feeling of success you will have when you push to get that number 7 at your target time!! For me it is more about being denied the satisfaction of completing a set or completing the intended distance I had planned for a workout. I derive a certain amount of satisfaction from knowing I completed x amount of meters or a particularly challenging set that might not be considered USRPT. I do realize that USRPT has its own challenges and that one can derive the same satisfaction, if not more, from achieving them. I guess it is just a case of old habits dying hard. It is also a case of altering one's perspective on what constitutes a goal. As a masters swimmer who trains on my own and really only swims 50, 100, 200 M Free and 50 M Fly my approach to training is thus: a warm up of about 500 to 600 M, a focus set (here I choose a distance for the day and descend my times in the set until the final one is an all out, no holds barred, lung busting, 100% effort for time). I don't time the rests between repeats and go when I am ready. Sometimes I use an active recovery, sometimes a bit of both. For the final all out attempt, I psyche myself up, doing deep breathing etc and sometimes even ask a lifeguard if they wouldn't mind timing me. For me this way is the only way I have of knowing whether I am improving or not. Everyday has a focus set like this but I change between the distances, so if today is 50's, tomorrow is 100's and the next 200's. I do the butterfly when I feel like it as it isn't really my best event but I am growing to like it more and more. After the focus set, I will do something like 10 x 100 on 1:45 or 40 x 25 on 30 alternating fly free to exhaust myself a bit. Occasionally, I include a bit of paddles or drill work or kicking but for the most part it is straight swimming. Of all of that, I realise that the most important part is the focus set and the most important part of that is the repeat where I go all out. That is where I gauge how far I have progressed, find areas that I can improve on and tax my body exactly like I would tax it in a meet. This has worked pretty well for me so far and my concern with doing solely USRPT sets is that I won't be able to do my focus sets. That would probably be okay for the 50 and the 100, but I don't think it will work for the 200. The 200 is such a difficult race (for me anyway) that the only way to train for it is to race it regularly. I can't see how repeats of 50's even if they are race pace are going to help me with this aspect of the race. Having said that, I am always game for something new and do like variety and am certainly going to give it a try. I may have to reserve one day a week for my old way of training evening if it is only for specifically 200 practice.

People seem to be getting hung up on the failure part. Instead of thinking of the failure, think of the wonderful feeling of success you will have when you push to get that number 7 at your target time!! For me it is more about being denied the satisfaction of completing a set or completing the intended distance I had planned for a workout. I derive a certain amount of satisfaction from knowing I completed x amount of meters or a particularly challenging set that might not be considered USRPT. I do realize that USRPT has its own challenges and that one can derive the same satisfaction, if not more, from achieving them. I guess it is just a case of old habits dying hard. It is also a case of altering one's perspective on what constitutes a goal. As a masters swimmer who trains on my own and really only swims 50, 100, 200 M Free and 50 M Fly my approach to training is thus: a warm up of about 500 to 600 M, a focus set (here I choose a distance for the day and descend my times in the set until the final one is an all out, no holds barred, lung busting, 100% effort for time). I don't time the rests between repeats and go when I am ready. Sometimes I use an active recovery, sometimes a bit of both. For the final all out attempt, I psyche myself up, doing deep breathing etc and sometimes even ask a lifeguard if they wouldn't mind timing me. For me this way is the only way I have of knowing whether I am improving or not. Everyday has a focus set like this but I change between the distances, so if today is 50's, tomorrow is 100's and the next 200's. I do the butterfly when I feel like it as it isn't really my best event but I am growing to like it more and more. After the focus set, I will do something like 10 x 100 on 1:45 or 40 x 25 on 30 alternating fly free to exhaust myself a bit. Occasionally, I include a bit of paddles or drill work or kicking but for the most part it is straight swimming. Of all of that, I realise that the most important part is the focus set and the most important part of that is the repeat where I go all out. That is where I gauge how far I have progressed, find areas that I can improve on and tax my body exactly like I would tax it in a meet. This has worked pretty well for me so far and my concern with doing solely USRPT sets is that I won't be able to do my focus sets. That would probably be okay for the 50 and the 100, but I don't think it will work for the 200. The 200 is such a difficult race (for me anyway) that the only way to train for it is to race it regularly. I can't see how repeats of 50's even if they are race pace are going to help me with this aspect of the race. Having said that, I am always game for something new and do like variety and am certainly going to give it a try. I may have to reserve one day a week for my old way of training evening if it is only for specifically 200 practice.