Hi, I just joined USMS last month. I swim for fitness, and I have been doing this for a long time. I am working on lowering my time in the 500 free because I would like to swim in meets someday. I train on my own almost exclusively, except for an occasional workout with a masters team. I have 2-3 hours a week to practice except during the summer months when I have a lot more time to train due to having summers off from my job as a teacher. My current time in the 500 free is 8:40. My goals are to bring this time down to under 8 minutes by the end of the year and to under 7 minutes by the end of next year. I am 6'1" and weigh 193 lbs. Any suggestions that will help me reach my goals are appreciated!
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I would advocate taking your goal time for this year, divide it out into increments of 25/50/75/100 all the way up to 200 so you know what times you need to hold on each of those. Then start incorporating some fast work into your workouts where you try to hold that pace. Ideally you want to be able to hold repeats of those times at those distances with about a 1:1 work to rest ratio (so for 100s, if I wanted to hold :59 trying to go under 5:00, I would go 6, 8, 10, or maybe even 12x100 at 2:00...that's :59 seconds of work, followed by about 1:00 rest)....
Calvin,
I'm not criticizing the need for pace work, but I have a question about the 1:1 work:rest ratio, especially for the shorter repeat distances.
Do you really think that if someone can hold P500 for repeats on a 1:1 rest ratio they have a shot at the corresponding add-up time in a meet, rested? That seems impossibly optimistic to me.
Take 50s, for example. I am pretty sure I could do a whole lot of 50 fr holding :35 on a 1:10 send-off. For example: today I did 11x50/1:00 holding :34s. (That was a very good performance for me right now.) It seems plausible that I could do a lot more than that on 1:10 holding :35s, but it is incomprehensible to me that I could go 5:50 in the 500. Even if we call those :35s actually :36-flat to accommodate the turn, that's still a 6:00 add-up. My best 500 as a masters is 6:09. I did that 10 years ago when I was in much better shape. I'm thinking 6:30 is pretty realistic now, (holding 1:18s) maybe 6:20 (holding 1:16s) on a very good day. Now before you suggest that my problem is endurance, I should report that my drop in pace with increasing distance tends to be much less dramatic than average. My 100 time is almost always faster than what one would project based on my 50. My 200 time is almost always faster than what one would project based on my 100. Am I just not sucking it up and going as fast as I am capable in the 500? I suppose maybe.
I'm thinking that the pace I could hold for 10x50 on :15s rest might be a reasonable predictor of my 500 meet time. (Maybe I should try it, but it sounds very painful!) I know that 4x50 on :10s rest is usually as reasonable predictor of my 200 time, (and that hurts like crazy! especially if I go multiple rounds.)
I agree that doing a lot of work at pace is extremely good training, (if you can't go :35 for a 50 you aren't going 5:50 in the 500) but I don't see that what you can do on a 1:1 work:rest ratio is any kind of gauge as to whether you are ready to hold that ace in a race. Your thoughts on all this?
...
I would advocate taking your goal time for this year, divide it out into increments of 25/50/75/100 all the way up to 200 so you know what times you need to hold on each of those. Then start incorporating some fast work into your workouts where you try to hold that pace. Ideally you want to be able to hold repeats of those times at those distances with about a 1:1 work to rest ratio (so for 100s, if I wanted to hold :59 trying to go under 5:00, I would go 6, 8, 10, or maybe even 12x100 at 2:00...that's :59 seconds of work, followed by about 1:00 rest)....
Calvin,
I'm not criticizing the need for pace work, but I have a question about the 1:1 work:rest ratio, especially for the shorter repeat distances.
Do you really think that if someone can hold P500 for repeats on a 1:1 rest ratio they have a shot at the corresponding add-up time in a meet, rested? That seems impossibly optimistic to me.
Take 50s, for example. I am pretty sure I could do a whole lot of 50 fr holding :35 on a 1:10 send-off. For example: today I did 11x50/1:00 holding :34s. (That was a very good performance for me right now.) It seems plausible that I could do a lot more than that on 1:10 holding :35s, but it is incomprehensible to me that I could go 5:50 in the 500. Even if we call those :35s actually :36-flat to accommodate the turn, that's still a 6:00 add-up. My best 500 as a masters is 6:09. I did that 10 years ago when I was in much better shape. I'm thinking 6:30 is pretty realistic now, (holding 1:18s) maybe 6:20 (holding 1:16s) on a very good day. Now before you suggest that my problem is endurance, I should report that my drop in pace with increasing distance tends to be much less dramatic than average. My 100 time is almost always faster than what one would project based on my 50. My 200 time is almost always faster than what one would project based on my 100. Am I just not sucking it up and going as fast as I am capable in the 500? I suppose maybe.
I'm thinking that the pace I could hold for 10x50 on :15s rest might be a reasonable predictor of my 500 meet time. (Maybe I should try it, but it sounds very painful!) I know that 4x50 on :10s rest is usually as reasonable predictor of my 200 time, (and that hurts like crazy! especially if I go multiple rounds.)
I agree that doing a lot of work at pace is extremely good training, (if you can't go :35 for a 50 you aren't going 5:50 in the 500) but I don't see that what you can do on a 1:1 work:rest ratio is any kind of gauge as to whether you are ready to hold that ace in a race. Your thoughts on all this?
