USPRT Workouts?

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. Well, you were very fortunate to make it to nearly 70 before coming to that realization! (My husband will be 70 on August 1, and he has been grappling with the same issues in the gym.) I inherited my father's genes, his bad skeleton, and a lifetime of repetitive stress injuries. I am finding more and more that during my 6x/wk swim sessions, I have to back off my 2,500-yd plan and do a Leslie Livingston "float" around the pool. Those days turn into drill days of anywhere from 800-2,000 yards depending on how bad I feel after warm-up, and where I'm hurting. Regarding my six target races, I swam all of those in a very quick one-day meet to qualify for the National Senior Games! That's not unusual for me. I have done an "Ironman Triathlon" in Rob Copeland's pentathlon meet: 200's of each stroke plus the 400 IM, all in about two hours or so. Of course, each race time suffers; however, due to my middle-of-the-pack rankings, the only way I will ever swim my way to a Top Ten is to outlive my competition! Instead, I go for high points as a goal to shoot for at a meet. The National Senior Games will be spread out over three days for my individual events, so that's nothin' compared to the 5+ events I usually race in a few hours! I have been doing USRPT 50's for my 200 *** and 200 fly, so I have nailed down my target times and intervals pretty well. I do it as you describe; quit on the 3rd fail. I would like to try USRPT for my 50 ***, rather than doing 8 all-out 25's on 1 min. intervals like I have been doing. I LIKE your 400 IM USRPT idea! I currently do one of Laurie Hug's old workouts that incorporates 75's in IM order; however, I would like to give your idea a try now. Do you rest (more than 1 minute) after failure in between the different-paced sets or go straight into the next one? As for training for just one race, my body won't let me train that much breaststroke! My poor frog legs (and hips) would be toast! When I just raced breaststroke, I ran into a lot of problems. Since adding fly and IM into my training and racing, my body (and mind!) have been so much happier with the variety! It's worth the slower race times to avoid injury, enjoy my workouts more, and have a better chance of outliving my competition! :D Thanks for the advice on those sets. I will give it a try and make adaptations where needed.

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. Well, you were very fortunate to make it to nearly 70 before coming to that realization! (My husband will be 70 on August 1, and he has been grappling with the same issues in the gym.) I inherited my father's genes, his bad skeleton, and a lifetime of repetitive stress injuries. I am finding more and more that during my 6x/wk swim sessions, I have to back off my 2,500-yd plan and do a Leslie Livingston "float" around the pool. Those days turn into drill days of anywhere from 800-2,000 yards depending on how bad I feel after warm-up, and where I'm hurting. Regarding my six target races, I swam all of those in a very quick one-day meet to qualify for the National Senior Games! That's not unusual for me. I have done an "Ironman Triathlon" in Rob Copeland's pentathlon meet: 200's of each stroke plus the 400 IM, all in about two hours or so. Of course, each race time suffers; however, due to my middle-of-the-pack rankings, the only way I will ever swim my way to a Top Ten is to outlive my competition! Instead, I go for high points as a goal to shoot for at a meet. The National Senior Games will be spread out over three days for my individual events, so that's nothin' compared to the 5+ events I usually race in a few hours! I have been doing USRPT 50's for my 200 *** and 200 fly, so I have nailed down my target times and intervals pretty well. I do it as you describe; quit on the 3rd fail. I would like to try USRPT for my 50 ***, rather than doing 8 all-out 25's on 1 min. intervals like I have been doing. I LIKE your 400 IM USRPT idea! I currently do one of Laurie Hug's old workouts that incorporates 75's in IM order; however, I would like to give your idea a try now. Do you rest (more than 1 minute) after failure in between the different-paced sets or go straight into the next one? As for training for just one race, my body won't let me train that much breaststroke! My poor frog legs (and hips) would be toast! When I just raced breaststroke, I ran into a lot of problems. Since adding fly and IM into my training and racing, my body (and mind!) have been so much happier with the variety! It's worth the slower race times to avoid injury, enjoy my workouts more, and have a better chance of outliving my competition! :D Thanks for the advice on those sets. I will give it a try and make adaptations where needed.