Reply To: Heretic Here – Training for the 200 Free
Low to mid 20s for 50s and high teens for 75s, puts us a little beyond 5X for the 200 free. Do you consistently train at the higher level of the 3-5X rule for your mid-distance swimmers?
I’m a self-coached Master training primarily for the 200M free. My personal experience is that the training:race correlation is indeed closer to 5X than 3X race distance for this event. Given that your athlete’s rest time is at the long end of the optimal range for 50’s, I suspect she needs to be at the high end of the repetition range, too.
You could work it backwards to check for yourself. She swam a 2:07. See how far she can get in a USRPT set of 50’s on :55 with an target time of 32 instead of 31. It will probably take a few practices to adjust to the slightly slower pace and not go too fast early in the set, but I bet within a week or two she’s getting to somewhere in the low 20’s.
One thing to remember: “USPRT training” and “aerobic training” are not mutually exclusive. USPRT sets do increase aerobic capacity.
