Short Distance/Intervals vs. Long Distance/intervals
Former Member
Hey all. My first 4 days back in the water have been pretty good so far. It's gonna be awhile before I'm back to doing the 2000 - 3000 yard workouts that I was used to in high school, but I'll get there slowly but surely.
Since I'm very out of shape, I can't go very long distances without having to stop for rest, and if I do go as far as I can (about 100 - 150 yards at a time is my maximum right now) I have to rest for quite awhile. I have ben doing workouts of about 700 yards total so far, and while I was swimming today, I got into a debate with myself, and figured I'd ask for some advice here.
As a former competitive swimmer, who has been out of the water for 7 - 8 years, I am very out of shape. As I get back into swimming, would it be better for me to do sets that are shorter distances with shorter rest intervals (ie 25's & 50's on :10 - :20 secs rest), or longer distances with longer rest intervals (ie. 75's & 100's on :30 - :45 secs rest)??
I'm still at a point where if I swim a 100, I have to rest for quite awhile (almost a minute) before I can do another. So I wonder if I would be better off to do shorter distances with less rest for the time being, until my stamina builds up, or should I do the 100's and just rest alot?
Thanks in advance!
Brad
Parents
Former Member
I'm a lot older than you and had been away from swimming for about 30 years, so my return was pretty slow. When I started back I was in poor shape too, to say the least. I brought myself from about 300 meters to 800 meters then stopped making progress. At that point I decided I need some professional advice and sought out a coach (no USMS team in my area). This is how my coach increased my endurance in private coaching sessions. She started me with a warm up of 800 meters, any stroke with very min rest, if any. The point was to keep moving. Flip turns when appropriate. So you might have seen me swim free for a couple of laps, flip, and swim *** for a couple more laps, turn and swim back for a few more. Over the course of many months the warm up was increased in distance and with more restrictions such as swim 500 free, swim 250 ***, swim 250 back, no open turns. The increase was very slow and gradual The next part of the workouts was drills to work on technique and they increased slowly over the course of time also, but with adequate rest so I could concentrate on proper form. The last part of the workouts was the dreaded 'speed play' as she called it. Short and long distances swam on short rests. I don't know how she determined I was ready to step up the intensity of the workouts but in one month this summer she doubled the distance I could swim. The funny thing was, I never realized what she was doing until one day she said, that was 3,000 care to go for 4?
I'm a lot older than you and had been away from swimming for about 30 years, so my return was pretty slow. When I started back I was in poor shape too, to say the least. I brought myself from about 300 meters to 800 meters then stopped making progress. At that point I decided I need some professional advice and sought out a coach (no USMS team in my area). This is how my coach increased my endurance in private coaching sessions. She started me with a warm up of 800 meters, any stroke with very min rest, if any. The point was to keep moving. Flip turns when appropriate. So you might have seen me swim free for a couple of laps, flip, and swim *** for a couple more laps, turn and swim back for a few more. Over the course of many months the warm up was increased in distance and with more restrictions such as swim 500 free, swim 250 ***, swim 250 back, no open turns. The increase was very slow and gradual The next part of the workouts was drills to work on technique and they increased slowly over the course of time also, but with adequate rest so I could concentrate on proper form. The last part of the workouts was the dreaded 'speed play' as she called it. Short and long distances swam on short rests. I don't know how she determined I was ready to step up the intensity of the workouts but in one month this summer she doubled the distance I could swim. The funny thing was, I never realized what she was doing until one day she said, that was 3,000 care to go for 4?
