The Butterfly Lane

Gary P Our Longhorn coach (Olympian Whitney Hedgepeth) has made me (60-64 age group) a pretty good 200 Flyer, Backstroker, IMer so I take no credit for it as she writes the workouts and I just do them as she says! currently I go 6 days a week and 4000-5000 a practice. Coach likes a day or 2 a week of short rest interval training to build up aerobic capacity which is critical when swimming 200 Flys. For example a recent short rest interval set was a ladder of 1 x100, (we went 1:10 pace) 2x25 on :40 (recovery), 2 x100, 2x 25, 3x 100, 2x25, 4 x100, 2x 25, 5 x100, 2x25 all same interval ...minute or so rest and then back up the ladder starting with 5 x100's. Set is designed to build that aerobic capacity as the total # of 100's on short rest was 30. Pick an interval you get 5 seconds rest or less. We also do sets like these of stroke. For example a recent Fly set was 2 x 50 Fly on :50, 2x 50 Fly on :45, 2 x50 Fly on :40, 2x 50 Fly on :45 and 2 x 50 Fly on :50. Idea was to keep your pace at 3rd or 4th 50 of the 200 fly. For me I was trying to hold 33+'s. My other favorite fly set is drop down 50's starting on a minute and interval drops 1 second each 50. I usually do the first 10 Back and then at 11 switch to Fly and see if I can get down to 35-36 interval before I drop out. Again trying to build that feeling of swimming the last 50 fly of a 200! This approach has worked for me, last 2 50's of my 200 Fly in Riverside were just 4 tents apart...33.1 and 33.5. Every now and then I can execute it but always is hard both on the body and mind!

Gary P Our Longhorn coach (Olympian Whitney Hedgepeth) has made me (60-64 age group) a pretty good 200 Flyer, Backstroker, IMer so I take no credit for it as she writes the workouts and I just do them as she says! currently I go 6 days a week and 4000-5000 a practice. Coach likes a day or 2 a week of short rest interval training to build up aerobic capacity which is critical when swimming 200 Flys. For example a recent short rest interval set was a ladder of 1 x100, (we went 1:10 pace) 2x25 on :40 (recovery), 2 x100, 2x 25, 3x 100, 2x25, 4 x100, 2x 25, 5 x100, 2x25 all same interval ...minute or so rest and then back up the ladder starting with 5 x100's. Set is designed to build that aerobic capacity as the total # of 100's on short rest was 30. Pick an interval you get 5 seconds rest or less. We also do sets like these of stroke. For example a recent Fly set was 2 x 50 Fly on :50, 2x 50 Fly on :45, 2 x50 Fly on :40, 2x 50 Fly on :45 and 2 x 50 Fly on :50. Idea was to keep your pace at 3rd or 4th 50 of the 200 fly. For me I was trying to hold 33+'s. My other favorite fly set is drop down 50's starting on a minute and interval drops 1 second each 50. I usually do the first 10 Back and then at 11 switch to Fly and see if I can get down to 35-36 interval before I drop out. Again trying to build that feeling of swimming the last 50 fly of a 200! This approach has worked for me, last 2 50's of my 200 Fly in Riverside were just 4 tents apart...33.1 and 33.5. Every now and then I can execute it but always is hard both on the body and mind!