Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

I use fins to make the pace with 15-20sr and keep the mechanics:D

Glenn: There are really two discussions here: 1. Does USRPT, as laid out by Rushall, work for 100s and 200s with its self-limiting short distance repeats? I say yes and I am not discussing that right now. 2. Does USRPT, as laid out by Rushall, work for 50s with its NON self-limiting short distance repeats? I say maybe not as well as it could. There are no failure criteria laid out for 4x6x12.5 or 10-15 all out turns or any other aspect of 50 training laid out by Rushall. This leads to non-race pace training. I think you are confusing the two types of USRPT.

I ask this of Glenn, Leslie, Rich Abrahams, and THOMMED: As a drop-dead sprinter, and the occasional 200 free/200 *** swimmer, how should my weekly swim workouts look? Need I incorporate HIT and USRPT? Throw in a few broken 200s here and there? I'm swimming only 50s and 100s at Nats but I still relish the thought of developing into a decent 200 free/breaststroker. Any suggestions?:bow: For what it's worth from me, the 50 and the 200 are very different races that require different training. You need to choose what you are going for. But I think you have already done that - you are training for the 50 and 100! If you train HIT or USRPT for those races you will do well. And, you should be able to do a "decent" 200 as well (you need to define decent for yourself). The 200 is about proper energy usage. The 50 is about a great start, break out, breath control, turn over, streamline, turn and finish (and probably a few other things that I don't do). If you train exclusively either HIT or USRPT for 50 & 100, your 200 will benefit as well

??? Does Rushall now endorse kick only sets? He has emphasized the importance of SDK sets from very early on in his USRPT writings. In his last bulletin (47 I think), he did include a kick set in a sample practice near the end of the document (not SDK, with snorkel). The non-SDK set is new to his writings and I still don't know what to make of it.

Truth be told, Dr. Rushall has not shown overwhelming interest in the short sprints, despite Michael Andrew’s success. Rather, he wants to show that swimming can prosper without the chronic exhaustion that comes of miles of wall tag and sadistic sets of lactate tolerance. But aren’t we just begging the question here? What is race pace anyway when you are training to go faster than your fastest? Is it date pace, which is achievable. Or is it goal pace, which may never be achievable in the absence of meet-day excitement? As I recall, Rushall wanted the 4 x (6 x 12.5) done full-bore, with maximum effort toward peak velocity. He did not mention failure, likely because the swimmers he had in mind would not fail (what is a 12.5, anyway, for a top sprinter, five strokes?). For us mortals, I’m sure he would advise sitting one out when we've lost our punch (which drop-dead sprinters can pinpoint in a heartbeat). He said more recently that a 50 should be viewed as a series of skill segments, each of which must be done perfectly. He advised USRPT sets for each segment—not all on the same day, of course. (He dislikes broken 50s because they do not provide serial repetition of each segment). If I were coaching 50s again, I would begin with stroke-only sets. That seems fundamental. Then, when the sprint stroke solidified, I would add the “skill” segments, one at a time, to include the start, streamline, submarine, pull out, break out, etc.

Workouts don't change much during the season except to lower your target time. There is NO taper. You are always ready to race because the workouts are self - limiting, i.e. because you stop a set after 4 failures or two failures in a row, you don't over train. Here's what I am doing now each week: Monday - warm-up, 30 x 50 on :50 holding :32 (400 race pace for me) skip if missed, 200 - 300 EZ + 5 minutes, 30 x 50 on :50 holding :32 skip if missed, warm down Tuesday - warm-up, 40 x 25 on :30 holding :15, 200 - 300 EZ + 5 minutes, 40 x 25 on :30 holding :15, warm down Wednesday - warm-up, 3 x 50 holding :32, 1 x 400 time trial, 300 EZ + 5 minutes, 30 x 50 on :50 holding :32 skip if missed, warm down Thursday - same as Tuesday Friday - Same as Monday NOTES: First, I am training only for the 400 SCM. I am working into this schedule, i.e., I am doing Monday and Friday as written Tuesday and Thursday I am doing the 40 x 25 and a 20 x 25. Several weeks ago I tried to go this entire schedule all at once and was unable to do so. As a result I am easing into it week by week. I also do weights 2 days a week, Tuesday and Friday. Some people find this boring. I love it. I always have a way to measure my progress against what I did last week or last month. I have been battling an infection for the last week or so and my doctor put me on anti-biotics. In Mondays session I never hit my target time of :32. I was going :34s and :36s. What I did was adjust my target time to :34 and esentially did the same number of repeats I usually do in the first round, about 24. I also only did one round. Today I was able to do 22 of the 30 x 50 but was able to hit my target time of :32 on 18 of them. I also only did one round but did a second round of 20 x 25. I don't know if Rushall would approve, but my body approved! I'll go back to the regular schedule next week. And YES, your first tip is right on! It's really very simple, it's all about race pace.

It would be very helpful to see sample workouts. Please post a few. I'd also like to see how workouts change over the course of a season. Especially going into taper, preparation for peak meets. I've done speed training at various times in my life and always had good results. It pretty much boils down to my first tip in Swim Faster Faster. Swim FAST in PRACTICE. shortly after that I added Kick Fast in PRACTICE. (especially SDK) (Fast Swimmers tend to be fast kickers) I'd also throw in, Rest enough before you swim fast, so you can swim really fast. Train to race. Training needs to prepare you to perform your best events. (at a meet: we warm up, rest 20, 30, 40 or 60 min, RACE, then warm down) If you train fast with rest then you're getting your body to adapt to the stress of swimming fast and you're honing your skills for excellent execution at race pace. Anything you do and measure, improves. So time and track your fast efforts. Perfect your technique. What else? one of my favorite sayings is from Rich Abrahams. "Most swimmers swim too fast when they need to be going slow and too slow when they need to be going fast."

Hmmmm ok as an example, I'm really interested in training my 100 Free. I swim 25s on 100 Race pace, going on 25 seconds? Is this fast? What's a good example of a workout trying to get me 100 Free under a minute? I went to a two day workshop last month with Dr. Rushall which was very interesting. A couple of things he addressed were to do your sprint work at the BEGINING of the work out and these do NOT have to be on a race pace interval because when we swim 50's it should be an all out swim from the start - there is NO "pacing" involved. So after a short warm up of 400-500 you can do a assortment of "all-out" swims, such as 25's with a start (and he says to always do a turn) then geting out and walking slowly back to the block, or 50's on the 1:30 working only FAST into and out of the wall or a set of 12.5 sprints. After your sprint work, do another 300-400 easy swim, then start your race pace set. At the end of the first days session we had a pool and could practice a USRP set. I used to break 1:00 for my 100 free but the last two years it has been a :00, so my set was 25's on the :35, holding :15. He is big on :20 rest, but for the sets of 25's would go with :15-:20 rest interval IF your target time is :56 or under, or :14 per 25, which would mean 25's on the :30. You swim the set until you have two consecutive "fails". I did 12, and then hit :16 on my 13th swim, so rested that next :35 interval, then I did 3 more at :15, but :16 on the next, so sat out again. My next one after my rest as a :16, so that was two fails in a row and I stopped the set and warmed down with a 300. I did this set again last week and still had my first "fail" at 13, BUT, swam more after my first rest and after my second rest, so ended up with more TOTAL swims of :15

these do NOT have to be on a race pace interval because when we swim 50's it should be an all out swim from the start - there is NO "pacing" involved. there is pacing in a 50. I Definitely pace 50 LC, and also hold back for 50 yards. At an all out pace I will slow down about 90% of peak speed by 20 the second mark. This is not factoring the peak from the block as my 2nd 25 in a 50 is almost 2 seconds slower than what I can accomplish a 25 from a push. I literally drop dead before the end of a 50

The handout he gave us at the seminar is too large to attach - but I will be happy to email it if you like. He addresses the training of the 50 sprint, relating not to "pacing" but to the other, what he considers more important components. Plus much more additional very insightful information.