Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

Curious about the successes and/or disappointments of those who used USRPT this season and competed in the SCY Masters Nationals. Here is my experience so far. I starting playing around with USRPT at the end of Jan. In Feb, I committed to 2 times a week (plus one more swim a week but not doing USRPT), only doing sets of 25s, and not going to 4 failures or 30 reps, but limited sets of 12-16 intervals (not swims, intervals). I swam Y-nats in mid-April. I had a pretty successful USMS nationals in 2012, then got pregnant and had a baby in Feb 2013. I was back swimming a few times a week for around 9 months prior to starting the USRPT in January, but had absolutely no speed and had completely forgotten how to race. I am not getting continuous sleep (3-4 hour blocks) and still nursing. Additionally, in 2012 I was lifting heavily 2x a week and I havent lifted in over 1.5 years at this point. Needless to say, I wasnt expecting much out of the SCY season. My times: 2012 (40 yo)/ 2014 (42 yo) 50 free - :25.2 / :25.8 100 free - :55.3 / :56.5 50 fly - :27.1 / :28.4 100 fly - 1:03.0 / 1:05.1 I was definitely lacking endurance in my 100s and my fly in general is just off, but overall I was pretty surprised and happy with my swims. For me, USRPT - even in the very limited way I followed it, seemed to get me close to back to speed in a short time even with the many barriers to good physical performance I faced. Most importantly, I found the workouts very motivating because I always had a way to judge improvement and conversely had little room for slacking off else I wouldnt make my times. Caveat for me, I found a few people to train USRPT with and that has been awesome. Im not sure I could keep doing it all by myself. Im plan to keep at the USRPT thing. Since the meet I am doing it 3x a week and added in some 50s sets and am working on increasing the number of 25 repeats. Im looking forward to a more rested and energetic SCM season.

Curious about the successes and/or disappointments of those who used USRPT this season and competed in the SCY Masters Nationals. Here is my experience so far. I starting playing around with USRPT at the end of Jan. In Feb, I committed to 2 times a week (plus one more swim a week but not doing USRPT), only doing sets of 25s, and not going to 4 failures or 30 reps, but limited sets of 12-16 intervals (not swims, intervals). I swam Y-nats in mid-April. I had a pretty successful USMS nationals in 2012, then got pregnant and had a baby in Feb 2013. I was back swimming a few times a week for around 9 months prior to starting the USRPT in January, but had absolutely no speed and had completely forgotten how to race. I am not getting continuous sleep (3-4 hour blocks) and still nursing. Additionally, in 2012 I was lifting heavily 2x a week and I havent lifted in over 1.5 years at this point. Needless to say, I wasnt expecting much out of the SCY season. My times: 2012 (40 yo)/ 2014 (42 yo) 50 free - :25.2 / :25.8 100 free - :55.3 / :56.5 50 fly - :27.1 / :28.4 100 fly - 1:03.0 / 1:05.1 I was definitely lacking endurance in my 100s and my fly in general is just off, but overall I was pretty surprised and happy with my swims. For me, USRPT - even in the very limited way I followed it, seemed to get me close to back to speed in a short time even with the many barriers to good physical performance I faced. Most importantly, I found the workouts very motivating because I always had a way to judge improvement and conversely had little room for slacking off else I wouldnt make my times. Caveat for me, I found a few people to train USRPT with and that has been awesome. Im not sure I could keep doing it all by myself. Im plan to keep at the USRPT thing. Since the meet I am doing it 3x a week and added in some 50s sets and am working on increasing the number of 25 repeats. Im looking forward to a more rested and energetic SCM season.