USPRT Workouts?

Glenn, how many days per week do you train? Did you find that your body had to adjust to training so frequently at high intensity? I find that my sleep is HORRIBLE following a session of USRPT (especially more than one set in a session). The same goes for any day where I do multiple practice races or a swim meet day. Even when I keep the yardage low (less than 2,500), my body doesn't deal well with the demands of high intensity training or racing. Did you ever have that problem? I have tried USRPT before, and I had the same problem. I tried it again throughout last week, and it wiped me out. To avoid repetitive stress injuries, I never did sets of the same stroke two days in a row; however, it was still tough on my body. My body is telling me to back off, and I'm guessing that other swimmers in the AARP set have the same experience. Done properly, USRPT is very much harder than traditional training. That is why many people go into it and after a few sessions say,"this is too hard" and they quit. If you are going to train with USRPT here is what you should do when beginning: 1. Do only one set each time. This is NOT like Traditional Training. You do not need mega yardage, you need quality yardage. 2. When you calculate your target time, add two or three seconds to the time in the beginning. That way you can concentrate on how the set flows, and get used to doing USRPT sets. When I first started, my 50 repeat target time was :32 per 50. I started however using :35 as my target time to get used to it. After two sessions I was able to do 30 repeats with no failures. So I moved it down to :34. After three sessions at :34, I was able to do 30 repeats with out a fail. I moved it down to :33 and then started to get fails after 12 or 15. It probably took me a month to get to my target time of :32 on the repeats. By that time I was used to doing the sets. 3. Start with one set two times a week only. Then go to three times a week and eventually for or five times a week. Do this gradually. 4. Many people continue with Traditional Training while flirting with USRPT. If that works for you then go for it. I however, believe that only training with USRPT is the way to go, but I do understand why most people reject that approach. Remember, I have been doing USRPT exclusively for 5 years. Up until very recently, I was doing it five times a week doing two and sometimes three sets a day and that was doable for me. Three months shy of my 70th birthday, I have come to the realization that I can no longer do this training five times a week. Right now I am training only USRPT three times a week and taking the other two days off. I have not trained on weekends for several years. We have many swim meets in SoCal so Sat/Sun twice a month will be a meet. If you want to commit to USRPT don't try to do it in one week or even one month...take your time and ease into it. You are essentially changing your training habits of many years to a workout regimen that may be much shorter in yards but much harder in it's application.

Glenn, how many days per week do you train? Did you find that your body had to adjust to training so frequently at high intensity? I find that my sleep is HORRIBLE following a session of USRPT (especially more than one set in a session). The same goes for any day where I do multiple practice races or a swim meet day. Even when I keep the yardage low (less than 2,500), my body doesn't deal well with the demands of high intensity training or racing. Did you ever have that problem? I have tried USRPT before, and I had the same problem. I tried it again throughout last week, and it wiped me out. To avoid repetitive stress injuries, I never did sets of the same stroke two days in a row; however, it was still tough on my body. My body is telling me to back off, and I'm guessing that other swimmers in the AARP set have the same experience. Done properly, USRPT is very much harder than traditional training. That is why many people go into it and after a few sessions say,"this is too hard" and they quit. If you are going to train with USRPT here is what you should do when beginning: 1. Do only one set each time. This is NOT like Traditional Training. You do not need mega yardage, you need quality yardage. 2. When you calculate your target time, add two or three seconds to the time in the beginning. That way you can concentrate on how the set flows, and get used to doing USRPT sets. When I first started, my 50 repeat target time was :32 per 50. I started however using :35 as my target time to get used to it. After two sessions I was able to do 30 repeats with no failures. So I moved it down to :34. After three sessions at :34, I was able to do 30 repeats with out a fail. I moved it down to :33 and then started to get fails after 12 or 15. It probably took me a month to get to my target time of :32 on the repeats. By that time I was used to doing the sets. 3. Start with one set two times a week only. Then go to three times a week and eventually for or five times a week. Do this gradually. 4. Many people continue with Traditional Training while flirting with USRPT. If that works for you then go for it. I however, believe that only training with USRPT is the way to go, but I do understand why most people reject that approach. Remember, I have been doing USRPT exclusively for 5 years. Up until very recently, I was doing it five times a week doing two and sometimes three sets a day and that was doable for me. Three months shy of my 70th birthday, I have come to the realization that I can no longer do this training five times a week. Right now I am training only USRPT three times a week and taking the other two days off. I have not trained on weekends for several years. We have many swim meets in SoCal so Sat/Sun twice a month will be a meet. If you want to commit to USRPT don't try to do it in one week or even one month...take your time and ease into it. You are essentially changing your training habits of many years to a workout regimen that may be much shorter in yards but much harder in it's application.