USPRT Workouts?

Glenn, I train USRPT a few times during my 6/wk training sessions; however, I find that it wears me down too much if I train those sets on successive days for the same stroke. Having said that, I am curious how youwould recommend setting up a week of training, limiting daily sessions to 2,500 yards, and targeting these race events (in order of priority): 50 ***, 200 ***, 200 fly, 400 IM, 100 fly and 200 IM. I would like to take your USRPT recommendations, Allen Stark's recommended breaststroke sets, and PWB's recommended 400 IM sets, combine them in a perfectly balanced recipe for my physical limitations, and bake to perfection! My goal meet is the National Senior Games this June. Two weeks ago, my race times from the first day of a two-day meet were faster (or off by .05) than meet times from 2017, so I am in good shape so far. Elaine, Let me say that for the first time, I understand what you are saying about successive days! I have been doing USRPT 5 days a week for 5 years with no ill effects whatsoever. Over the last 8 months or so, I have been fatigued much more than ever. I finally figured out, (duh), that a few short months from age 70, I could not sustain that high a level of training. This past week I trained Mon, Wed and Fri only. I did the same sets each day and by Friday, with Tuesday and Thursday off, I felt great and had my best in-pool day of the week, and was able to work in the garden too (which I have not had the strength to do). Moral of the story..."rest is your friend". Thank you Leslie Livingston. As for your training using USRPT for the races you mentioned, you need not worry about too much yardage. I do not and have never, since starting USRPT, counted yardage. Why? Because a USRPT set is over when you can no longer hold your target time regardless of how many you have done. I have spoken with Dr. Rushall about his suggested sets whereby he says 20 x 50 or 30 x 50 etc. He and I both wish now that he had never attached numbers to those suggested sets. Too many people take those numbers as gospel and subsequently do sets of 20 x 50 etc. the "rule" is, once you can do repeats at your target race pace, you want to do as many as you can until you have failed (or missed) your target time for a third time in the set regardless of how many you have done. If you can only do 3 or 4 before first fail, that is probably too hard a target time or if you can do 28 or 35 before first fail that is likely much too easy a target time for you. So first choose a target time that is a challenge, but not too hard or too easy (especially when first starting). Your target races are a 50, several 200's and a 400. That sounds like a lot to me! When I was training to break the 400 record, I trained only for the 400, knowing that there would be a certain amount of "spillover" for the other races, plus all of my races were freestyle. Right now I am training only for the 100 so I am doing 12 1/2s, 25s and a few (very few) 50s. If you want to train for all of those distances and races you might start your workout with race pace 25s for your 50 target race, and follow it with 50s at 200 pace and finally 50s at 400 IM pace with each 50 being two of the strokes in the IM so that you get the transition turn practice on each one. I suggest starting from the faster pace repeats (25s) and ending with the slower pace repeats (50s at 400IM pace). I was doing that for a while a few months ago and I found I could actually get in three sets total ech day since each successive set was at a slower target race pace time. All of that said, you may want to consider training only for one race. There are not many Michael Phelp's out there who can train for and be very good at many different races. Look at Anthony Ervin, Olympic Champion in the 50...that is all he needed to work on at practice. You have a very big menu on your hands.

Glenn, I train USRPT a few times during my 6/wk training sessions; however, I find that it wears me down too much if I train those sets on successive days for the same stroke. Having said that, I am curious how youwould recommend setting up a week of training, limiting daily sessions to 2,500 yards, and targeting these race events (in order of priority): 50 ***, 200 ***, 200 fly, 400 IM, 100 fly and 200 IM. I would like to take your USRPT recommendations, Allen Stark's recommended breaststroke sets, and PWB's recommended 400 IM sets, combine them in a perfectly balanced recipe for my physical limitations, and bake to perfection! My goal meet is the National Senior Games this June. Two weeks ago, my race times from the first day of a two-day meet were faster (or off by .05) than meet times from 2017, so I am in good shape so far. Elaine, Let me say that for the first time, I understand what you are saying about successive days! I have been doing USRPT 5 days a week for 5 years with no ill effects whatsoever. Over the last 8 months or so, I have been fatigued much more than ever. I finally figured out, (duh), that a few short months from age 70, I could not sustain that high a level of training. This past week I trained Mon, Wed and Fri only. I did the same sets each day and by Friday, with Tuesday and Thursday off, I felt great and had my best in-pool day of the week, and was able to work in the garden too (which I have not had the strength to do). Moral of the story..."rest is your friend". Thank you Leslie Livingston. As for your training using USRPT for the races you mentioned, you need not worry about too much yardage. I do not and have never, since starting USRPT, counted yardage. Why? Because a USRPT set is over when you can no longer hold your target time regardless of how many you have done. I have spoken with Dr. Rushall about his suggested sets whereby he says 20 x 50 or 30 x 50 etc. He and I both wish now that he had never attached numbers to those suggested sets. Too many people take those numbers as gospel and subsequently do sets of 20 x 50 etc. the "rule" is, once you can do repeats at your target race pace, you want to do as many as you can until you have failed (or missed) your target time for a third time in the set regardless of how many you have done. If you can only do 3 or 4 before first fail, that is probably too hard a target time or if you can do 28 or 35 before first fail that is likely much too easy a target time for you. So first choose a target time that is a challenge, but not too hard or too easy (especially when first starting). Your target races are a 50, several 200's and a 400. That sounds like a lot to me! When I was training to break the 400 record, I trained only for the 400, knowing that there would be a certain amount of "spillover" for the other races, plus all of my races were freestyle. Right now I am training only for the 100 so I am doing 12 1/2s, 25s and a few (very few) 50s. If you want to train for all of those distances and races you might start your workout with race pace 25s for your 50 target race, and follow it with 50s at 200 pace and finally 50s at 400 IM pace with each 50 being two of the strokes in the IM so that you get the transition turn practice on each one. I suggest starting from the faster pace repeats (25s) and ending with the slower pace repeats (50s at 400IM pace). I was doing that for a while a few months ago and I found I could actually get in three sets total ech day since each successive set was at a slower target race pace time. All of that said, you may want to consider training only for one race. There are not many Michael Phelp's out there who can train for and be very good at many different races. Look at Anthony Ervin, Olympic Champion in the 50...that is all he needed to work on at practice. You have a very big menu on your hands.