Think Quality of Training Volume Not Quantity

Most triathletes are training to swim 1500 meters.  71% of all individual USA Swimming Senior National events are 200 meters or less!  Prior to writing up your next workout, think about the race you’re training for!

Quoting Bill Sweetenham from an Arizona Swimming Coaches Clinic, “If you can’t do it in practice, what makes you think you can do it in a meet.”  If you want to race 1500m fast then swim 1500m fast in your workout!  There’s many ways to swim 1500m fast, i.e.; 15 x 100’s @ :30-1:00 rest or 3 x 500 @ :40-2:00 rest or even 30 x 50’s @ :30-1:00 rest… my youngest son say’s “go fast da-da” he’s now 2 years old.  What is fast?  Let’s try a little experiment over the next two weeks.  This week lets do 30 x 50’s Freestyle @ 1:00, swim them at your fastest possible average, record your average hold time for all the 50’s and record your heart rate after each 5^th repeat.

Next week let’s do 30 x 50’s Freestyle @ 1:30, once again swim them at your fastest possible average, record your average hold time for all the 50’s and once again record your heart rate after each 5^th repeat.  Now let’s compare our results… this will give you a lot of great info!  First of all take your 50’s average times and multiply by 30.  Is this faster than your 1500m goal time?  If not, you probably need to add more time to the interval.  Was there a difference in your heart rates?  Having more rest in your interval should create faster hold times and an increased heart rate.  Now let’s think about something, either way you look at it we’ve just spent 30+ minutes with an increased heart-rate.  Yes we’re trying to go fast, but at the same time we’ve also spent a great deal of time in an aerobic training zone!

Training for 200m freestyle and let’s say you want to break 2:00!  When you do the famed 10 x 100 Freestyle @ :15-20 rest are you holding each 100 under a minute?  If not you’re not training fast enough…  Once again there are many ways of swimming 200m fast; 8 x 25m @ 1:00 or 4 x 50’s @ 1:00 or even 2 x 100’s @ 2:00! Try doing all 3 of these sets at speeds that are faster than your goal time!  If you do all 3 set’s it would take you 16 minutes… that’s aerobic training too!

Swim Smart, Swim Fast!