Ultra Short Training At Race Pace

So temps are slowly starting to climb and thoughts turn to summer...and long course. So I have a question for any of the USTRP experts here about using the system in LCM pools. Looking at the USTRP table I posted earlier, as a mid-D swimmer I am really mostly interested in the three middle columns: 100, 200 and 400. Certainly I dabble in 50s and the 1500 occasionally so I might do those types of USTRP for a little bit of variety from time to time, but my focus will be in the middle columns. Looking at them, there are 3 possible repeat distances: 25s, 50s and 75s. Are the 25s and 75s supposed to be done in short course pools only? Because starting in the middle of a LCM pool would really play havoc with any attempt to maintain race pace. That leaves only 3 possible USTRP sets for me in a LCM pool, and honestly only two of them are viable sets. (20 x 50 LCM on 0:50 at 100 race pace? No, I don't think so.) I can see the point of doing sets of 25s in the short course pool (ideally SCM I suppose, though that's not going to happen around here) in preparing for LCM meets. But doing sets of 75s seems to violate the principle of specificity in training, because short-course 75s are nothing at all like LCM 75s. So bottom line: how is USTRP supposed to be adapted (if at all) for long course training? I haven't read everything on USTRP by any means, but if I came across this point I didn't pay attention to it at the time. This is from Dr. Rushall: "Ultra-short work is very difficult in 50 m pools. The pools are too long and take the swimmers away from the coach as well as reducing the number of race-specific turns that are done. Although swimmers can swim 25 m and then cruise into the end, it is difficult to get precise times for the race-pace work and the easy swimming in the second half is active recovery but does not allow the amount of reflection on swimming that occurs in a 25 m pool while standing at the end in the 15- or 20-second recovery." So it seems that the answer is "no".

My problem is 100 pace. Doing 25s at 100 pace is OK,but either I don't get turn work,or I can't(yet) get any repeatability on the time if I finish with a turn. We do a lot of broken or split swims on my team. What we do on these is come into the wall and then hold that position with your hands on the wall and your legs behind you (kicking enough to keep them on the surface) until it's time to start the next segment. It's not exactly like your turn if you hadn't stopped at all, but it's pretty darn close.

I think 25s on the 0:30 would be quite demanding for anyone. That would be multiple 10 sec 25's, from a push! The fins would on

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.

This is from Dr. Rushall: "Ultra-short work is very difficult in 50 m pools. The pools are too long and take the swimmers away from the coach as well as reducing the number of race-specific turns that are done. Although swimmers can swim 25 m and then cruise into the end, it is difficult to get precise times for the race-pace work and the easy swimming in the second half is active recovery but does not allow the amount of reflection on swimming that occurs in a 25 m pool while standing at the end in the 15- or 20-second recovery." So it seems that the answer is "no". I know that it's not 'pure', but why not do 25s / 75s long course. Every second one could be done from the middle to the wall, so you would have to adjust your times - but you could do a max test to establish a target?

Allen, Rushall suggests 25s for training for the 100. I wasn't having much success with the 75s at race pace for my 400 so he suggested I use that day, Wednesday, to do 25s at 100 race pace. I'll try that this week. He also suggests that on 25s to do it to a foot touch. Easier when doing a flip turn, but on ***, I don't know, do the pullout and as soon as your head pops up look at the clock. Or do the turn and rather than a pullout, just look at the clock. I'm am not sure on this one as I am very BR handicapped! We know that doing 50s with 20s rest at 100 pace will stimulate lactic production. That's the issue. I reckon you could do a good set in blocks of 3 or 4 with a recovery swim between each block. I know that's not USRPT.. ..but I don't think that you have to be a purist about these things.

I think USRPT is clearly better than non-race pace training(which is what most Masters and USA-S workouts seem to be.) My question is about comparing it to HIT, like Leslie was posting in her thread on HIT training,especially for 50& 100 swimmers. I am basically training for the 50,100,and 200 BR. Doing 50s at 200 race pace on 20 sec rest is mostly doable for me for up to about 10 before failure,on a very good day. 4x(6X12.5) on the 30 is also doable and I like it,except that it is hard figure how to work in pullouts. My problem is 100 pace. Doing 25s at 100 pace is OK,but either I don't get turn work,or I can't(yet) get any repeatability on the time if I finish with a turn.Also,I do think that lactic acid tolerance is important( I know Rushall doesn't,but I think the data to support that is scant.)I really like doing 50s at 100 pace,but I can't do more than 3 with 20 sec rest before failure.My prior solution was to give myself enough rest to keep 50s at race pace. Are there any Masters swimmers over age 50(I'm 65,like Glenn) having success with 100 race pace with USRPT? Are any of them BR or Fly swimmers?(I find repeats are much easier free than BR or fly.) The last month I've been experimenting with usrpt. For example, in a 3000 yard workout, I would do the first 2000 with the group and the last 1000 as a usrpt set (i.e. 12-16 25s *** on 40 (100 pace), 6-10 50s on 1:20 (200 pace)). I know this isn't close to being a purist but like you I'm a *** stroker and I'll be 63 in April. To give you an idea of my level of swimming I did a 1:27 lcm last year. Today I did 12x25s on 40 race pace(100), 6 @ 17+, 6 @18+, 6x50s on 1:20 (200 pace) (39,38,38,38,37,37). When I tried 4x50s on 1:00 (39,39,41,xx) I simply ran out of oxygen to complete the set. In my opinion holding race pace in freestyle is much easier than breaststroke, I believe the breaststroke kick depletes you of oxygen faster. Also, 20 second rest for race pace for 50s is for the younger freestyle swimmer, for a 1:1 swim rest ratio the more realistic rest for 50s *** is 30-40 seconds.

Actually, one area where I have some serious doubts about USRPT is about training for underwater kicks in a race, at least for someone who really goes out to 10-15 m on each wall. I'm a big believer that you should plan out your kicks as part of your race strategy. For example, in a 100 back I might have a goal to go 11 kicks off every wall (but fewer off the start so I won't get DQ's), while in the 200 back I might want to go 7 kicks for the first 100 and 6 on the 2nd 100 (though I've been toying with the idea of reversing this). I firmly believe you need to train to do something like this, and doing short repeats, even at race pace, simply does not come close to duplicating what it feels like to do that many kicks at the end of a race, much less do them well (my pie-in-the-sky goal would be to pull a Phelps-like blast-off on the last wall of the 200). So I worry that USRPT by itself will not fully stimulate the necessary physical adaptations. If one wants to do USRPT but include working on underwaters, one possibility that occurred to me is to do "shooter" style USRPT kick sets with increased rest. By "shooter" I mean that you go well beyond the 15m mark, maybe out to the far flags (i.e. roughly 20y or 20m out) on every lap of a 25 or 50, and maybe almost as far on 75s. You'd need to adjust USRPT intervals to give you more rest, but I think that's justified under Rushall's principles since his 20-sec rule seems to be based on the assumption that you are breathing while swimming at race pace, and obviously that's not the case when doing underwater kicking. Then again, perhaps there is no way to do "shooter" style repeats without building up lactic acid, which is anathema to the USRPT approach. In any event, I don't think USRPT really addresses this issue well. No, it doesn't. It doesn't simulate a race, and :20 is not nearly enough rest to work on UWs with that number of repeats (at least for me). This is clearly a weakness of Michael Andrew -- his UWs are not nearly as good as elite swimmers. Allen, I can't and don't do any USRPT 50s sets. There's no way I can repeat 100 pace 50s on short rest. I do occasionally do 20-30 x 25 @ 100 pace, but I use a :40 interval. Rushall has indicated that drop dead masters sprinters may need up to :30 rest. I also kick some of these, which I know Rushall dislikes. And even Rushall has admitted that you can't really do AFAP sprints very effectively on short rest. That's why he has Michael Andrew doing sprints on max rest before his USRPT sets. Personally, I think the best thing to do (at least for sprinters) is to combine USRPT and HIT training. Then you have actual race simulation training and can work on UWs, starts, turns etc.

The last month I've been experimenting with usrpt. For example, in a 3000 yard workout, I would do the first 2000 with the group and the last 1000 as a usrpt set (i.e. 12-16 25s *** on 40 (100 pace), 6-10 50s on 1:20 (200 pace)). I know this isn't close to being a purist but like you I'm a *** stroker and I'll be 63 in April. To give you an idea of my level of swimming I did a 1:27 lcm last year. Today I did 12x25s on 40 race pace(100), 6 @ 17+, 6 @18+, 6x50s on 1:20 (200 pace) (39,38,38,38,37,37). When I tried 4x50s on 1:00 (39,39,41,xx) I simply ran out of oxygen to complete the set. In my opinion holding race pace in freestyle is much easier than breaststroke, I believe the breaststroke kick depletes you of oxygen faster. Also, 20 second rest for race pace for 50s is for the younger freestyle swimmer, for a 1:1 swim rest ratio the more realistic rest for 50s *** is 30-40 seconds. Thanks,I tried the 50s on the 1:20 at 200 pace and found that doable,challenging and fun.

No, it doesn't. It doesn't simulate a race, and :20 is not nearly enough rest to work on UWs with that number of repeats (at least for me). This is clearly a weakness of Michael Andrew -- his UWs are not nearly as good as elite swimmers. Allen, I can't and don't do any USRPT 50s sets. There's no way I can repeat 100 pace 50s on short rest. I do occasionally do 20-30 x 25 @ 100 pace, but I use a :40 interval. Rushall has indicated that drop dead masters sprinters may need up to :30 rest. I also kick some of these, which I know Rushall dislikes. And even Rushall has admitted that you can't really do AFAP sprints very effectively on short rest. That's why he has Michael Andrew doing sprints on max rest before his USRPT sets. Personally, I think the best thing to do (at least for sprinters) is to combine USRPT and HIT training. Then you have actual race simulation training and can work on UWs, starts, turns etc. Thanks,but wow 20X25 on 40 at 100 pace seems pretty awesome(awful?) to me.Beyond what I can do now.