Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

Allen, Actually, 30 x 25 on :30 is a Rushall set I've done several times. You are supposed to maintain 100 race pace (for me I calculate one half of my second 50 of the race). The object is to go as many as possible at that pace. When you go one slower you sit out the next send off, then resume. At the end you total up the number of the 30 you were able to hold at pace. My best so far is 22. That is I missed four at pace and sat out four. This is a tough set and very aerobic, but you can recover from it much more quickly than a lactate set. I actually think it helps my 200 more than my 100. The main pure speed set of his I like is 6 x 25 on :45 doling an all out 15 meters, then cruising. I do this set four times with an easy 100 between. There is no way I can take a steady diet of this work (mostly from a psychological viewpoint) but, for me, twice a week when I'm preparing for a focus meet is about right. Again, recovery is very quick from this type of training. Thanks.When my shoulder is healed I'll give that a try. I do like sets with all race pace or race pace/recovery.

I don't think that is what Rushall is talking about.That sounds more like a lactic acid tolerance set.A Rushall set could be 25s on the 30,but only the first 12.5 yds would be hard so that you are not engaging the anaerobic system,.When I am doing what I think of as a Rushall set it is 50s on the minute, sprinting the first 12.5.If I was faster/younger I think doing them on the 45 would be reasonable.As I understand it, the idea is to work on the high speed race specific stuff for only about 6-8 seconds each time so that you don't build up much lactic acid,therefore enabling you to do it over and over.It is very hard for me to keep mindful during these sets and if you don't keep mindful you are programming your muscles to swim wrong. I'm trying to find the best way to train this in a 25 meter pool. I don't really wanna stop in the middle D:

I don't stop.I don't have a line at the 1/2 way point in my pool so I go by stroke count.For me swimming BR it is the pullout plus 4 strokes AFAP and then slow down to 200 pace, or recovery pace depending on my energy level, to finish the 50(with a turn of course as it is a 25 yd pool). Alright. Have you seen my big improvements?

I tried it. It's really, really hard to do it self-coached. You will definitely get better at super-short distances (25s!) But to do them on the short intervals with enough consistency for the supposed aerobic conditioning to kick in without a coach or a partner to keep you going is next to impossible. When you're pushing off for that 19th 25 on :30 and you need to blast it to keep it under :13 and you know you have to do it eleven more times after that, you'll give anything to be back doing some long, boring, non-race-specific pull set. Or, you'll find an excuse to stop and go home. At least, that's what I did. In other words, ultra-short is ultra-stressful, and definitely not a shortcut or "easy" way to improve your times. Done properly, it might work better than "traditional" training, at least for 100s. But it's too hard to do it properly solo. For a 400IM? If you've already got a really solid 400IM, I can see the ultra-short being beneficial, in that you can hammer your desired pace into your muscle memory. But you'll still need to keep that conditioning up. If you don't have the conditioning to do it well already, don't even bother. I agree with some of this. I guess it really comes down to how much drive you have. No doubt these are painful, we did something similar in practice, and we were all toasted. Right now I'm just looking for results. Anyway I can.

I tried it. It's really, really hard to do it self-coached. You will definitely get better at super-short distances (25s!) But to do them on the short intervals with enough consistency for the supposed aerobic conditioning to kick in without a coach or a partner to keep you going is next to impossible. When you're pushing off for that 19th 25 on :30 and you need to blast it to keep it under :13 and you know you have to do it eleven more times after that, you'll give anything to be back doing some long, boring, non-race-specific pull set. Or, you'll find an excuse to stop and go home. I don't think that is what Rushall is talking about.That sounds more like a lactic acid tolerance set.A Rushall set could be 25s on the 30,but only the first 12.5 yds would be hard so that you are not engaging the anaerobic system,.When I am doing what I think of as a Rushall set it is 50s on the minute, sprinting the first 12.5.If I was faster/younger I think doing them on the 45 would be reasonable.As I understand it, the idea is to work on the high speed race specific stuff for only about 6-8 seconds each time so that you don't build up much lactic acid,therefore enabling you to do it over and over.It is very hard for me to keep mindful during these sets and if you don't keep mindful you are programming your muscles to swim wrong.

All but 7 of my fast twitch fibers have retired. I need an older approach to my season. Go getum you younguns !!

All but 7 of my fast twitch fibers have retired. I need an older approach to my season. Go getum you younguns !! Lol! So I'm taking it this is an awesome idea, but for those of a certain age?

And this would NOT qualify as UST: way too much rest. Figure Perkins was holding :58-:59 on these.The slightly longer Rushall article said a work:rest ratio of 1:1 or 2:1, so this would be right on the edge. I would think, though, for a 1500, you'd want to be closer to the 2:1 ratio, so the Perkins set (my interpretation) would've been 20 x 100 on 1:30. Am I reading the research correctly?

The slightly longer Rushall article said a work:rest ratio of 1:1 or 2:1, so this would be right on the edge. I would think, though, for a 1500, you'd want to be closer to the 2:1 ratio, so the Perkins set (my interpretation) would've been 20 x 100 on 1:30. Am I reading the research correctly? I think the Rushall article mentioned 1:1 or even 1:2 work/rest ratios in the context of describing current practice (which would in fact be a 1:00/100 pace on a 2:00 interval), but you're right... that's not the kind of practice that he is advocating... which would be closer to 2:1 (or greater) for most sets; according to this paragraph: Ideally, a rest period between each work period should be 20 seconds (Beidaris, Botonis,& Platanou, 2010) in any presentation of ultra-short training. At most 30 seconds mightbe tolerated (Zuniga et al., 2008) although work quality of less-than-maximal intensitymight have to be accommodated (as happens with 1,500 m swimming). Longer restperiods change the energy demands of succeeding repetitions making them unspecific forracing. So, If you were doing 1:00/100 then your interval could be 1:30 according to him, a 2:1 work:rest ratio... and that :30 rest is at the high end of rest per rep. If your target time is 1:10 per 100 (as in the chart in his longer study) then the 1:30 interval gives you only :20 rest between 100s.

So if your L tolerence is very high, a XX x 25 on 0:30 set would qualify as UST?