Speed Zone

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. BN, if I might offer a suggestion...? Obviously you're happy with your training and like your club, and that's great. Many -- maybe even most? -- people don't have such a nice situation so you don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. But what you could do is do a quality workout on your own at regular intervals (say, once a week). It isn't ideal, of course: it is always easier to have a coach standing over you with a stopwatch, to motivate you to swim fast. Swimming with others is good too, and one of the nice things about having a coach you trust is that you don't have to waste mental energy worrying about what to do. But effective quality solo workouts can definitely be done, especially if you only do them once a week. Look at Fortress as an example. So you could pick up some of Paul's workouts, modify as needed, and do it on your own. The main thing is (a) swim FAST with (b) lots of recovery time. If you can find a motivated training partner to do it with, that would be even better. The (very successful) age-group team here probably trains similarly to yours: somewhat old-school, lots of sets with short rest (though they definitely get up on the blocks from time to time). But they've also begun what they call "specialty training" which is basically a rotating group that works with Mark Kutz (our masters coach) on quality, race-pace training. The AG coaches will send different swimmers to Mark for part of the workout, and then they return to complete the normal workout. They only send the swimmers who have good attendance and have earned it by working hard in the "regular" practices. Kids go there maybe once a week and learn about race-pace training and pacing, with lots of rest. Some (the sprinters) also do speedwork. And everyone also does fast kicking (Mark maintains a board with the names of the fastest kickers, and their times in a 50 all-out kick). Anyway, the program is very popular with the kids and it seems to work well, based on results. And it fits in with their normal, hard-core training. So maybe you can reproduce something like that: do the bulk of your training as you do now, but do some quality work too. (Just don't think of them as recovery days from high-yardage days: you might do less yardage, but they aren't recovery. At least not if you do them properly.) Good luck.

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. BN, if I might offer a suggestion...? Obviously you're happy with your training and like your club, and that's great. Many -- maybe even most? -- people don't have such a nice situation so you don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. But what you could do is do a quality workout on your own at regular intervals (say, once a week). It isn't ideal, of course: it is always easier to have a coach standing over you with a stopwatch, to motivate you to swim fast. Swimming with others is good too, and one of the nice things about having a coach you trust is that you don't have to waste mental energy worrying about what to do. But effective quality solo workouts can definitely be done, especially if you only do them once a week. Look at Fortress as an example. So you could pick up some of Paul's workouts, modify as needed, and do it on your own. The main thing is (a) swim FAST with (b) lots of recovery time. If you can find a motivated training partner to do it with, that would be even better. The (very successful) age-group team here probably trains similarly to yours: somewhat old-school, lots of sets with short rest (though they definitely get up on the blocks from time to time). But they've also begun what they call "specialty training" which is basically a rotating group that works with Mark Kutz (our masters coach) on quality, race-pace training. The AG coaches will send different swimmers to Mark for part of the workout, and then they return to complete the normal workout. They only send the swimmers who have good attendance and have earned it by working hard in the "regular" practices. Kids go there maybe once a week and learn about race-pace training and pacing, with lots of rest. Some (the sprinters) also do speedwork. And everyone also does fast kicking (Mark maintains a board with the names of the fastest kickers, and their times in a 50 all-out kick). Anyway, the program is very popular with the kids and it seems to work well, based on results. And it fits in with their normal, hard-core training. So maybe you can reproduce something like that: do the bulk of your training as you do now, but do some quality work too. (Just don't think of them as recovery days from high-yardage days: you might do less yardage, but they aren't recovery. At least not if you do them properly.) Good luck.