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 --
... for me you can another one to the list -- all those other events are actually a distraction.
I swam some great times in December in the 50 Free --- but I also swam some good IMs (100, 200 and 400 -- I don't know why ?? and 50 Fly ). So that got me thinking about other events like IM, or maybe a 200 Back. Add all the longer Free events to the list, and it creates some very mixed workout goals. I admit it, I look at the top times and the records in my age group and I get tempted. I could probably do very well and all these events - but I would have to train for it. Maybe Phelps and Lochte can do it all -- but I have to pick and choose. Training for speed means letting go of training for a 500 or a 400 IM. That does not mean you can't swim these events at the end of a meet -- but you can't train for it without sacrifycing your sprint training.
So here is the new question to ask myself and yourself before every workout and set:
How does that make you faster in the 50 and 100 Free ?
If you have to think to come up with an answer, you are probably not doing the right thing.
So, while I don't aim to be a sprinter, I actually swam very fast for me in the sprints thus far (lifetime best in the 50) while training primarily for the 200 free and 400 IM and while swimming each event in the lineup at a meet over the course of this season. I don't know if I'll ever spend a season focusing on sprinting as I'm such a fan of variety (or I have some form of ADD), but I believe that training a variety of strokes and distances over the course of a season can be beneficial to sprinting. I'm not talking world-class / Cielo-level sprinting, but beneficial for most of us mortal Masters.
... for me you can another one to the list -- all those other events are actually a distraction.
I swam some great times in December in the 50 Free --- but I also swam some good IMs (100, 200 and 400 -- I don't know why ?? and 50 Fly ). So that got me thinking about other events like IM, or maybe a 200 Back. Add all the longer Free events to the list, and it creates some very mixed workout goals. I admit it, I look at the top times and the records in my age group and I get tempted. I could probably do very well and all these events - but I would have to train for it. Maybe Phelps and Lochte can do it all -- but I have to pick and choose. Training for speed means letting go of training for a 500 or a 400 IM. That does not mean you can't swim these events at the end of a meet -- but you can't train for it without sacrifycing your sprint training.
So here is the new question to ask myself and yourself before every workout and set:
How does that make you faster in the 50 and 100 Free ?
If you have to think to come up with an answer, you are probably not doing the right thing.
So, while I don't aim to be a sprinter, I actually swam very fast for me in the sprints thus far (lifetime best in the 50) while training primarily for the 200 free and 400 IM and while swimming each event in the lineup at a meet over the course of this season. I don't know if I'll ever spend a season focusing on sprinting as I'm such a fan of variety (or I have some form of ADD), but I believe that training a variety of strokes and distances over the course of a season can be beneficial to sprinting. I'm not talking world-class / Cielo-level sprinting, but beneficial for most of us mortal Masters.
