Just a thought/request:
At some point in the future, it would be nice to have workouts posted by someone who specializes in LONG distance coaching with an eye on open water distances (1 mile "death sprints" to ??? miles). The workouts provided are generally excellent, but since open water distances basically start where pool distances leave off, it would be great to have something a bit more specific. This is especially true since there is a relatively small body of printed work on longer distance/open water training and coaches for LONG distances seem few and far between.
Would anyone else be interested and would this be possible?
-LBJ
Parents
Former Member
I was recently at the British swim coaches conference, where I heard a talk by Malcolm Straight, the coach of one of the best UK distance swimmers. This swimmer excels at longer distances, such as 5k, 10k and 25k open water swims.
All of their training is in the pool and they concentrate on even pacing. Specifically they do long interval sets, holding a steady pace, stroke count and stroke rate.
Maglischo was also there and he also talked about the importance of even pacing.
For instance if you are doing 2000m sets, good for 1500m races and building an aerobic base. You could do the 2000m as:
40 by 50m, 15 secs rest, all at even pace,
20 by 100m, 30 secs rest, even pace,
10 by 200m, 45 secs rest, even pace,
5 by 400m, 60 secs rest, even pace,
4 by 500m, 75 secs rest, even pace,
2 by 1000m, 90 secs rest, even pace.
When you can hold a steady pace, 50m splits, all ±2 secs from target time, then you can bring the target 50m split time down by 1 second.
Practice it thru the whole sequence above, which will take a few weeks, and then when you can hold that new target then you can bring it down again.
Then later in the season you could do race simulators. These would be 1500m or 800m swims. Initially broken at each 50 or 100m to get split time, with 10 secs rest. Repeating this with less rest until you are swimming with even pacing at your target split time.
Most people "sag" in the middle third of the race. So if you do lots of 3 by 500m swims, focusing on the quality of the middle 500, it should help.
It seems that gradual, progressive, training helps the most in longer distances. You could also do lots of arm circling exercises to keep strength and stamina in the arms so that you can keep up a decent tempo. Stroke rates of 40 to 50 cycles/min should be used for these events.
I, myself have only started swimming the 1500m events in the last year, but i do enjoy them. Not having to deal with Lactic acid overload, is nice !
I was recently at the British swim coaches conference, where I heard a talk by Malcolm Straight, the coach of one of the best UK distance swimmers. This swimmer excels at longer distances, such as 5k, 10k and 25k open water swims.
All of their training is in the pool and they concentrate on even pacing. Specifically they do long interval sets, holding a steady pace, stroke count and stroke rate.
Maglischo was also there and he also talked about the importance of even pacing.
For instance if you are doing 2000m sets, good for 1500m races and building an aerobic base. You could do the 2000m as:
40 by 50m, 15 secs rest, all at even pace,
20 by 100m, 30 secs rest, even pace,
10 by 200m, 45 secs rest, even pace,
5 by 400m, 60 secs rest, even pace,
4 by 500m, 75 secs rest, even pace,
2 by 1000m, 90 secs rest, even pace.
When you can hold a steady pace, 50m splits, all ±2 secs from target time, then you can bring the target 50m split time down by 1 second.
Practice it thru the whole sequence above, which will take a few weeks, and then when you can hold that new target then you can bring it down again.
Then later in the season you could do race simulators. These would be 1500m or 800m swims. Initially broken at each 50 or 100m to get split time, with 10 secs rest. Repeating this with less rest until you are swimming with even pacing at your target split time.
Most people "sag" in the middle third of the race. So if you do lots of 3 by 500m swims, focusing on the quality of the middle 500, it should help.
It seems that gradual, progressive, training helps the most in longer distances. You could also do lots of arm circling exercises to keep strength and stamina in the arms so that you can keep up a decent tempo. Stroke rates of 40 to 50 cycles/min should be used for these events.
I, myself have only started swimming the 1500m events in the last year, but i do enjoy them. Not having to deal with Lactic acid overload, is nice !
