Target time for 100Free LCM
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Everything above is great.
Improving velocity through pulling power is the most taxing change on the periphery. Improving velocity through drag reduction is the least taxing. Manipulating rest falls in between and alternatively fatigues the central and peripheral systems.
Manipulating rest periods allow for longer, and more incremental, periodization. Before you increase target velocity drop the rest a couple times. Then increase the rest period when you decrease the target time.
For 100 swimmers, 50’s at 200 pace does three things: 1) highlights technical deficiencies at a speed approximately 8-10% slower than the 100 pace 2) allows for about double the quality technical repetitions at “near” preferred race pace 3) early in a training cycle stresses the central system more than the peripheral systems.
Program 50’s @ 200 pace after a training break and I would include these at the beginning of the week as the cycle progresses.
It sounds like you’re doing pretty well so far. I don’t think anyone has a good handle on the ideal timeline or expected results when transitioning from traditional to USRPT.
Ryan
Performance update.
First meet of the season last week. He swam 50 and 100 free and 50 and 100 fly (SCM). PB’d on 3 of 4 (only non-PB was his 50 free – last race of the meet on Sunday afternoon after a long weekend).
100 free was 53.2 a half second improvement. We’re now on a target time of 13.5 and his last two sets his average time was about 13.3 (13.3 x 4 = 53.2!!!).
We’ve also been doing some fly sets. He went 58.7. He’s been training 14.8 TT sets so that’s pretty close too.
Still good enough for “proof of concept” for us, especially since he’s only doing a total of 3.5 hrs training a week due to his work and college commitments and the pool time we have. He also had a holiday and missed nearly two weeks of training mid August. So not too bad overall.
What we did conclude though is that he is still lacking back end endurance. The limiting factor is still his last 25. Plan is to try to fit a few more reps of 50m and work on reducing his TT and number of reps more.
He’s ready to go again.Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious, but is he having a very short warm-up immediately (10-15 mins) before he races? The guidance for race pace sets is that you are getting everything (heart rate, respiration etc) up to speed on the first 5 or 6 repeats. Training with USRPT has made a portion of the fast twitch fibres oxidative but if you try to swim fast immediately then you’re unable to deliver oxygen to the fibres quickly enough so they will perform anaerobically. Part way through the race the oxygen delivery will get up to speed but by then the damage is done and you suffer at the back end. I’ve found that swimming an easy 100 followed by 4×25 at race pace with about 15 seconds rest, 10-15 mins before the race works well. It also helps to get your body locked into the effort and pace that is expected in the race. If he doesn’t already do this it’s worth a try at meets that have the facilities. It works for me.
Wow, 3.5 hours a week? Most other coaches won’t see an improvement with 10 hours a week. It’s always frustrating to compare metrics when limited data is available:
“My athlete improved 2%!” [he swam 15 hours a week, 8k a session]
“Darn, mine only improved 1.5%” [swam 4 hours a week, 1.5k a session]Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious, but is he having a very short warm-up immediately (10-15 mins) before he races? The guidance for race pace sets is that you are getting everything (heart rate, respiration etc) up to speed on the first 5 or 6 repeats. Training with USRPT has made a portion of the fast twitch fibres oxidative but if you try to swim fast immediately then you’re unable to deliver oxygen to the fibres quickly enough so they will perform anaerobically. Part way through the race the oxygen delivery will get up to speed but by then the damage is done and you suffer at the back end. I’ve found that swimming an easy 100 followed by 4×25 at race pace with about 15 seconds rest, 10-15 mins before the race works well. It also helps to get your body locked into the effort and pace that is expected in the race. If he doesn’t already do this it’s worth a try at meets that have the facilities. It works for me.
Thanks. That has bothered me a little I’m not convinced he is “ready” to go fast straight away. In training he often delivers his best reps from #5-10 after his systems are up to speed. I’ve suggested a late warm-up as you suggest and his response has been that it’s hard to replicate that pre-race adrenaline feeling. But I what you are talking about is different. I guess it’s about getting the energy systems “switched on” prior to a race. I’ll raise it again with him. Thanks
Wow, 3.5 hours a week? Most other coaches won’t see an improvement with 10 hours a week. It’s always frustrating to compare metrics when limited data is available:
“My athlete improved 2%!” [he swam 15 hours a week, 8k a session]
“Darn, mine only improved 1.5%” [swam 4 hours a week, 1.5k a session]And also, it’s always going to difficult to determine the actual cause of improvement. Is it the training, is it physical development, is he just having a good day?? It’s all about what they do whilst they are there too isn’t it. Swimmer A might be working twice as hard in half the time as Swimmer B.
I agree, 3.5 hours a weeks isn’t very much is it?!! I think it’s actually not “enough” to be reaching his peak performance, but it’s all we’ve got at the moment. He is still just shy of 18 so there is still some physical development going on. But in the last year he has gone from doing nothing for 4 months, a few months of a few sessions a week (trying to fit USRPT into traditional sessions), a few months of dabbling with USRPT and about 5 months (with summer break) of trying it “by the book”. He also plays other sport so is getting some cardio benefit from that.
He does work very hard in the pool and always pushes to his limit. I track his times and can see the improvement trend in his training times. We’ve decided to incorporate a few more 50s at 200 pace sets to try to build that back end.
As I said above, even on such a limited amount of time, we are seeing enough to be convinced that it is working for him. The main reason of course is that it’s got him back in the pool!!!Paul,
Good analysis. He’s past the neurological adaptations. He’s probably inducing some technical adaptations along with natural growth. I’m assuming you’re using the macrocycle technique guide. For stressed growth, he’ll probably need more training time.
To expand on the warmup comment above and in USRPT literature:
Heart stroke rate will rise within 20 seconds of moderate-to-heavy work.
VO2 kinetics begin to peak at about 40-50 seconds for trained athletes.
Heart stroke volume will increase after about 2 minutes of m-to-h work.
Blood viscosity will decrease and core temp will increase after 2-3 minutes of m-to-h work.
VO2 optimization occurs after about 6 minutes of either continuous work or interval work where rest is less than 22 seconds.
Muscle activation and technical coordination, at intended velocity, requires at least 4 repetitions (in this case swim reps, i.e. 15’s, 25’s, 50’s etc.).
Blood viscosity and core temperature will slowly return to baseline for 20-30 minutes after warmup or race. This is generally where the “less than 20 min before the race” rule is from.
Heart stroke volume will be optimized for up to an hour after warmup.
Muscle activation (motor unit “memory”) for the intended velocity will be optimized for 2-4 hours after warmup.At a minimum, an athlete needs 6 minutes of m-to-h work. This can simply be a 200 swim followed by 4 x [interval training distance @ target time] reps. For sprints keep the distance below 15y/m to decrease the chance of glycogen usage. For a 200 use 4 x 50. This is a minimum; if the 4th rep feels sloppy or respiration is in a moderate range do a couple more reps.
Of course, they should do some dives before the meet or during if available.
I think one of the most important parts of the meet warmup is timing the first stroke of the breakout. I always need to adjust to different pool depths. Both for the underwater kick depth and the visual relationship between the pool bottom and when I’m about to “breach” the surface.
Ryan
We’ve decided to incorporate a few more 50s at 200 pace sets to try to build that back end.
In my experience, this will pay dividends.
I think one of the most important parts of the meet warmup is timing the first stroke of the breakout. I always need to adjust to different pool depths. Both for the underwater kick depth and the visual relationship between the pool bottom and when I’m about to “breach” the surface.
Oh, yes, there’s been a few times where I’ve been swimming in a deeper pool and tried to take my first fly stroke while still a foot below the surface!
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