Cesar Cielo is fastest swimmer in the world -- 25 yards in 8.88 to the foot -- he was just trying to "maintain" on the second 25...
There are 3 ways to swim faster in any given race:
1) Improve your technique -- if you become more effecient in your technique, your times will drop across the board
2) Maintain a pace as close as possible to maximum speed -- You can hold your maximum speed for 6-8 seconds. There are no swim races of that length - so when training for any swimming race (50 up the mile), you are trying to maintain a pace as close to your maximum speed as possible.
3) Get Faster = improve your maximum speed
I would say on average, Masters swimmers (and age-groupers) spend their in the water workout season according to the following breakdown (rough guess):
1) Improving technique = 20-30%
2) Maintaining close to max = 65-79%
3) Improving Max Speed = 1-5%
Think about it -- if you swim 4-5 times per week, that equals about 20 hours a month. Did you spend more than a full hour in October on maximum speed ?
This Thread is all about Category 3 -- Improving your Max Speed --
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I received a question about the tempo trainer and thought other people may be interested:
I use the tempo trainer quite a bit - and I think it's one of the best tools out there for all swimmers -- but you have to do some work prior to using it.
You must learn all about your stroke rate / turnover during races and in practice. Some people need to lengthen their stroke (majority falls into this category) and some people want to shorten their stroke. No matter what - you have to know where you are at and where you would like to go.
You should either have a video of one of your races or have a coach time your stroke rates on each 25 of the race (we are not talking anything above a 100 on this thread). Some watches have a stroke rate already in -- or you can just measure 2 full cycles - easiest when one hand enters the water.
My stroke rate for a 100 is about 46-48 -- for a 50 I can get into the low 50s. That means my turnover is 48 cycles per minute or each cycle is 1.25 seconds. Let's say, I want to increase my turnover to 54 -- that would be 1.11 seconds per cycle (that's a huge switch). I would set my tempo trainer 55 and swim race pace 25s. I put it behind my ear under the cap - that is the only place I can hear it at full sprint (even that is difficult).
Now there is a trade-off -- I will not be able to get the same distance per stroke out of each of my strokes -- if I go for such a big increase (would be 12.5% increase) >> if I could, I would have just shaved a second off each 25.
I take 9 cycles per 25 meters - but I do streamline and do the turn about 1 meter out - so let's say I swim 20 meters with those 9 cycles or 2.22 meters per stroke - and I swim the 20 meters in 9x1.25 = 11.25 seconds. So let's say with my NEW turnover I lose about 10% of my stroke length. Now I have to do 10 cycles for my 20 meters of swimming - but I complete them in 10x1.11 = 11.11 seconds >>>> I just took 0.14 seconds off my 25 !!!
I need to get the video of one my races this weekend - and I should have better numbers to shoot for - but that is the general principle.
1 more things: You will curse at the little beeper, especially going long-course you will always feel like the thing is speeding up in the second 25 of a lap
I received a question about the tempo trainer and thought other people may be interested:
I use the tempo trainer quite a bit - and I think it's one of the best tools out there for all swimmers -- but you have to do some work prior to using it.
You must learn all about your stroke rate / turnover during races and in practice. Some people need to lengthen their stroke (majority falls into this category) and some people want to shorten their stroke. No matter what - you have to know where you are at and where you would like to go.
You should either have a video of one of your races or have a coach time your stroke rates on each 25 of the race (we are not talking anything above a 100 on this thread). Some watches have a stroke rate already in -- or you can just measure 2 full cycles - easiest when one hand enters the water.
My stroke rate for a 100 is about 46-48 -- for a 50 I can get into the low 50s. That means my turnover is 48 cycles per minute or each cycle is 1.25 seconds. Let's say, I want to increase my turnover to 54 -- that would be 1.11 seconds per cycle (that's a huge switch). I would set my tempo trainer 55 and swim race pace 25s. I put it behind my ear under the cap - that is the only place I can hear it at full sprint (even that is difficult).
Now there is a trade-off -- I will not be able to get the same distance per stroke out of each of my strokes -- if I go for such a big increase (would be 12.5% increase) >> if I could, I would have just shaved a second off each 25.
I take 9 cycles per 25 meters - but I do streamline and do the turn about 1 meter out - so let's say I swim 20 meters with those 9 cycles or 2.22 meters per stroke - and I swim the 20 meters in 9x1.25 = 11.25 seconds. So let's say with my NEW turnover I lose about 10% of my stroke length. Now I have to do 10 cycles for my 20 meters of swimming - but I complete them in 10x1.11 = 11.11 seconds >>>> I just took 0.14 seconds off my 25 !!!
I need to get the video of one my races this weekend - and I should have better numbers to shoot for - but that is the general principle.
1 more things: You will curse at the little beeper, especially going long-course you will always feel like the thing is speeding up in the second 25 of a lap
