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 --
I agree, it's NOT a recovery day. I find it rather painful. And that's part of the issue - it's certainly not fun yet. :) During my 8x50 fly set on 2:00 (not enough rest still, I know), I commented that it really hurt BAD! And my coach responded, "Just like the last lap of your 100 fly race, eh?" Uh no. My 100 fly in a meet never hurts like that. At all. I think that's a sign.
That's plenty of rest, it depends what you are trying to do. Also good to try repeat 100s or even 200s with lots of rest. Now THAT'S a lot of pain.
It is fun...once you build up your lactate tolerance to the point where it is equivalent with your (no doubt incredible) aerobic conditioning and power. (I, in turn, can use more training along those lines. I just have a hard time getting to those 4:30am AG practices...or recovering from them in time to be semi-coherent at work.)
You're right, it may be a sign. Building up lactate tolerance means that it still hurts pretty bad, but you're able to swim fast anyway. And you don't fear the burn quite as much, since you've experienced it in practice even worse. That means you can push it more on the way out and still feel confident you can make it home strong. (I'm amazed at how the top swimmers can take out the first 50 in the 100 at virtually their top speed, and still hang on and look strong coming home.)
I agree, it's NOT a recovery day. I find it rather painful. And that's part of the issue - it's certainly not fun yet. :) During my 8x50 fly set on 2:00 (not enough rest still, I know), I commented that it really hurt BAD! And my coach responded, "Just like the last lap of your 100 fly race, eh?" Uh no. My 100 fly in a meet never hurts like that. At all. I think that's a sign.
That's plenty of rest, it depends what you are trying to do. Also good to try repeat 100s or even 200s with lots of rest. Now THAT'S a lot of pain.
It is fun...once you build up your lactate tolerance to the point where it is equivalent with your (no doubt incredible) aerobic conditioning and power. (I, in turn, can use more training along those lines. I just have a hard time getting to those 4:30am AG practices...or recovering from them in time to be semi-coherent at work.)
You're right, it may be a sign. Building up lactate tolerance means that it still hurts pretty bad, but you're able to swim fast anyway. And you don't fear the burn quite as much, since you've experienced it in practice even worse. That means you can push it more on the way out and still feel confident you can make it home strong. (I'm amazed at how the top swimmers can take out the first 50 in the 100 at virtually their top speed, and still hang on and look strong coming home.)
