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 think Patrick is a perfect example of how adding in high quality speed workouts and weights can benefit a middle distance swimmer...far to many swimmers out there still seeing quantity over quality and wondering why they aren't improving...like 1 or 2 of the swimmers who come to the same workout as PW but instead of doing fast 50's on 3:00 do 200's..a the same plodding speed they swim every length of every workout.
If you want to be "fast" in the 500, the mile, the 400IM it all starts with being able to go "fast" for a 25/50 and that comes with improved strength and "fast" training in the pool.
Paul, I spoke w/ my coach about adding in these types of sets or workouts to my schedule and was told that some are big believers in this type of training but that's not how they train where I swim. This is one of the best known clubs in the area and they've trained past Olympians. So. . . advice? As I've greatly surpassed my times as a kid, I'm not really disappointed if I've reached my speed limit - and I'm thrilled with how I can split races well and come back strong. I mostly enjoy the workouts and the people and the fitness level I've achieved. Switching teams is not an option b/c frankly, I feel this is one of the best teams out there. But just thought I'd share with you the fact that some of us swimmers do try and do what the coaches tell us to do. There are simply some very different coaching methods out there. I think you swam at the club I swim at?!
I think Patrick is a perfect example of how adding in high quality speed workouts and weights can benefit a middle distance swimmer...far to many swimmers out there still seeing quantity over quality and wondering why they aren't improving...like 1 or 2 of the swimmers who come to the same workout as PW but instead of doing fast 50's on 3:00 do 200's..a the same plodding speed they swim every length of every workout.
If you want to be "fast" in the 500, the mile, the 400IM it all starts with being able to go "fast" for a 25/50 and that comes with improved strength and "fast" training in the pool.
Paul, I spoke w/ my coach about adding in these types of sets or workouts to my schedule and was told that some are big believers in this type of training but that's not how they train where I swim. This is one of the best known clubs in the area and they've trained past Olympians. So. . . advice? As I've greatly surpassed my times as a kid, I'm not really disappointed if I've reached my speed limit - and I'm thrilled with how I can split races well and come back strong. I mostly enjoy the workouts and the people and the fitness level I've achieved. Switching teams is not an option b/c frankly, I feel this is one of the best teams out there. But just thought I'd share with you the fact that some of us swimmers do try and do what the coaches tell us to do. There are simply some very different coaching methods out there. I think you swam at the club I swim at?!
