A sprint experiment

Speaking of mark foster... www.guardian.co.uk/.../swimming.olympicgames2008 A little more anecdotal evidence for ya Maybe...but he still swims 15k a week, which is perhaps somewhere around the median for masters swimmers. (I'm sure his gym workout is harder than the vast majority of masters swimmers.) But weekly yardage is a poor standalone summary of a training plan. Foster's approach seems to be to eschew aerobic and lactate-tolerance training in favor of building strength and raw speed, and working on technique. He does full-speed work in the pool and lots of easy swimming. Seems like a fine approach for training for 50s. I wish you luck in your experiment. A few things that raise red flags in my mind: -- you say that you cannot swim (say) an easy 200. This implies either that your muscles are not used to swimming or that you have poor swimming efficiency. A key point in your experiment is the ability to transfer strength gain from the weight room to the pool. I don't doubt that lifting weights can hit the major muscle groups that propel swimmers, but there are probably many small muscles that swimming depends on that might only (or best) be exercised by actually swimming. Maybe 2k per week is enough to get them properly conditioned, but perhaps not. The saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link may apply here. -- Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression that you plan to avoid or only do minimal race-pace training (or any hard swimming) because it might interfere with your strength gains. If true, I think this is a huge mistake. While there are a variety of training philosophies on this forum, I think perhaps the one thing almost everyone agrees on is the need for race-pace training with adequate recovery between sessions. Both Mark Foster and Jazz Hands (to choose a masters swimmer with a comparable philosophy) do plenty of race-pace work. -- you mention you don't have the "cardio" to complete a 50 at full speed. I am not sure how you are using the term, but if you mean it as "aerobic fitness," I would strongly disagree. I think the aerobic component of a 50 sprint is very small. Again, IMO the best way to train in the pool is to do race-pace 15s, 25s and 50s as well as work on technique (drills, starts, breakouts, turns). One thing I found interesting about the article Jazz linked to was that assisted swimming (eg, swimming with a stretch cord) can be as effective as resisted swimming or weight training. I can certainly see the value in encouraging/developing a fast turnover. Another useful tool to develop a fast (but still efficient) turnover might be a tempo trainer. These sorts of swim-specific things are hard to replicate in the gym. Enjoy.

Speaking of mark foster... www.guardian.co.uk/.../swimming.olympicgames2008 A little more anecdotal evidence for ya Maybe...but he still swims 15k a week, which is perhaps somewhere around the median for masters swimmers. (I'm sure his gym workout is harder than the vast majority of masters swimmers.) But weekly yardage is a poor standalone summary of a training plan. Foster's approach seems to be to eschew aerobic and lactate-tolerance training in favor of building strength and raw speed, and working on technique. He does full-speed work in the pool and lots of easy swimming. Seems like a fine approach for training for 50s. I wish you luck in your experiment. A few things that raise red flags in my mind: -- you say that you cannot swim (say) an easy 200. This implies either that your muscles are not used to swimming or that you have poor swimming efficiency. A key point in your experiment is the ability to transfer strength gain from the weight room to the pool. I don't doubt that lifting weights can hit the major muscle groups that propel swimmers, but there are probably many small muscles that swimming depends on that might only (or best) be exercised by actually swimming. Maybe 2k per week is enough to get them properly conditioned, but perhaps not. The saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link may apply here. -- Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression that you plan to avoid or only do minimal race-pace training (or any hard swimming) because it might interfere with your strength gains. If true, I think this is a huge mistake. While there are a variety of training philosophies on this forum, I think perhaps the one thing almost everyone agrees on is the need for race-pace training with adequate recovery between sessions. Both Mark Foster and Jazz Hands (to choose a masters swimmer with a comparable philosophy) do plenty of race-pace work. -- you mention you don't have the "cardio" to complete a 50 at full speed. I am not sure how you are using the term, but if you mean it as "aerobic fitness," I would strongly disagree. I think the aerobic component of a 50 sprint is very small. Again, IMO the best way to train in the pool is to do race-pace 15s, 25s and 50s as well as work on technique (drills, starts, breakouts, turns). One thing I found interesting about the article Jazz linked to was that assisted swimming (eg, swimming with a stretch cord) can be as effective as resisted swimming or weight training. I can certainly see the value in encouraging/developing a fast turnover. Another useful tool to develop a fast (but still efficient) turnover might be a tempo trainer. These sorts of swim-specific things are hard to replicate in the gym. Enjoy.