IMHO, the difficulty in training breastroke is maintaining good technique. Other than training fly, training *** is the worst.
Also, the 50 is a much different event than the 200 : strength and power versus endurance and lung capacity.
For shorter races, I tend to focus on technique and speed, with some lactic acid stuff thrown in:
- 10x 100 on 1:50 swimming 50 BR at 80% and 50 FR or BK recovery
- 6x 50 BR on 2:00, all as fast as possible for ave time
- 10x 25 BR at 100%, followed by 75 recovery
- 6x 75 BR at 85%, 15 secs rest, 50 BR at 100%, 75 recovery
- fast kick sets: 50s, 75s or 100s at 90%, with 20 secs rest between
- 50s, 75s or 100s BR arms with fins and dolphin kick, focusing on accelerating hands
For longer races, there is no substitute for actually swimming the distance; this means repeats of 200s and 300s BR, with FR or BK thrown in when necessary to maintain form.
There are a number of great breastrokers on this forum who will no doubt opine.
I pretty much agree with Jim,except he is a lot younger and faster and I need more rest.Basically I do one day/week 50 pace,one 100 pace and one 200 pace(and one mixed day and if I can work in a 5th day I do long distance.)On 50 pace day I go 25s full speed on about 1 min. On 100 pace day it's 50s at 100 pace on about 2 min.On 200 days it's 100s at 200 pace on about 3 min.I say "about" because I think it is more important to hold my speed than my interval so I may go off earlier or later depending.I think it is important to get your body used to race pace so that you don't have to think about it in a race.
IMHO, the difficulty in training breastroke is maintaining good technique. Other than training fly, training *** is the worst.
Also, the 50 is a much different event than the 200 : strength and power versus endurance and lung capacity.
For shorter races, I tend to focus on technique and speed, with some lactic acid stuff thrown in:
- 10x 100 on 1:50 swimming 50 BR at 80% and 50 FR or BK recovery
- 6x 50 BR on 2:00, all as fast as possible for ave time
- 10x 25 BR at 100%, followed by 75 recovery
- 6x 75 BR at 85%, 15 secs rest, 50 BR at 100%, 75 recovery
- fast kick sets: 50s, 75s or 100s at 90%, with 20 secs rest between
- 50s, 75s or 100s BR arms with fins and dolphin kick, focusing on accelerating hands
For longer races, there is no substitute for actually swimming the distance; this means repeats of 200s and 300s BR, with FR or BK thrown in when necessary to maintain form.
There are a number of great breastrokers on this forum who will no doubt opine.
I pretty much agree with Jim,except he is a lot younger and faster and I need more rest.Basically I do one day/week 50 pace,one 100 pace and one 200 pace(and one mixed day and if I can work in a 5th day I do long distance.)On 50 pace day I go 25s full speed on about 1 min. On 100 pace day it's 50s at 100 pace on about 2 min.On 200 days it's 100s at 200 pace on about 3 min.I say "about" because I think it is more important to hold my speed than my interval so I may go off earlier or later depending.I think it is important to get your body used to race pace so that you don't have to think about it in a race.
