Help with planning my weeks

[drpaul]

I’m good with knowing how to plan an individual usrpt workout. I’m still struggling, however, in trying to plan out my weeks. How much to cover of which events/strokes/etc, Mostly for my senior swimmers then I can work backwards from there. I don’t feel I have any structure and don’t want to just make something up last minute.

Can some of you share what that looks like for your club?

Thanks for any info,

Paul

[drpaul]

If it helps, they practice 5 days/week for 90 minutes

[Geoff Eastwood]

Hi drpaul
We did 5-6 90 min sessions a week last year, the trouble was getting at least 3 exposures to each set per week.
Odd weeks
Mon/Wed/Fri:Some 25 Dives and then 200RP for all strokes
Tue/Thur/Sat:Turns and 100RP for all strokes
Even weeks
Mon/Wed/Fri:Dives and 100RP for all strokes
Tue/Thur/Sat:Turns and 200RP for all strokes
For 100RP it was mostly 25 repeats until they were completing most of the set and then the next attempt I would set 50’s, likewise for 200RP except 50’s were most common and 75’s were the harder repeat.

[drpaul]

Thanks Geoff, that helps

So on Monday of an odd week you would start with dives then 4 sets of n x 50 @ 200 pace? Each set a different stroke? I may be reading that incorrectly.

Paul

[kevin]

Hey Paul,

We have 6 workouts per week (usually 2h, 1,5h on wednesdays) and start the season as follows:

sets per week:
– 3×400 front crawl
– 2×200 front crawl
– 1×200 backstroke
– 3×100 per stroke
– alternate sets for 50 and sets for kicks/turns

concretely (all in meters, 25m pool):
monday:
– 6×25 for 50 fly (max effort, with start from blocks)
– 16×50 for 200 crawl
– 12×25 for 100 breast
– 16×25 for 100 back

tuesday:
– 6×25 for 50 back (max effort, with start from blocks)
– 20×50 for 400 crawl
– 12×25 for 100 fly
– 16×25 for 100 crawl

wednesday:
– kicks (10×12,5m max effort)
– 16×50 for 200 crawl
– 16×50 for 200 back

thursday:
– 6×25 for 50 crawl
– 12×75 for 400 crawl
– 16×25 for 100 back
– 12×25 for 100 breast

friday:
– kicks (10×12,5m max effort)
– 12×25 for 100 fly
– 16×25 for 100 back
– 12×25 for 100 breast
– 16×25 for 100 crawl

saturday:
– 6×25 for 50 breast
– 20×50 for 400 crawl
– 16×25 for 100 crawl
– 12×25 for 100 fly

Odd/even weeks alternate between emphasis on kicks/turns and also changes order of longer events/shorter events (e.g., start with set for 400 or end with it).

We do 4 weeks of this building volume:
– 400 from 20×50 to 30×50 and from 12×75 to 16×75
– 200 from 16×50 to 20×50 and 24×50
– 100 from 16×25 and 12×25 to 20×25

then we evaluate and modify race paces
next 4 weeks we hold the same max volume, but with faster race pace

Next 4 weeks we have some meets, but shift focus slightly from 400 to 200
we would do only 1×400 per week but 2 or 3 extra 200 per week

After these 3×4 weeks we evaluate and start more specific workouts (towards big meet in january), focussed on 100’s and 200’s.

During all this we have technique accents that are put in. Race strategy/psychology will be emphasised in second half of the season.

Greets,
Kevin

[billratio]

Kevin, with those first meets that you have after 8 weeks, do you typically see results that early? I’m nervous about doing this is a high school season that is only 12-13 weeks long.

"Most people have the will to win. Few have the will to prepare to win."

[Geoff Eastwood]

Yes that’s correct, though its hard to get all of the strokes/sets finished in 90 mins especially at 200 Pace, so prioritizing some events over others might happen depending on the size of the squad and individuals events.

[coachroy]

Hey drpaul, this is my basic plan which covers two weeks. I try and always add some start work and turn work as well. We train approx. 90 minutes with USRPT except on Tuesday and Thursday where we do some strength and mobilizing training. Those days I have about 1 hour in the water. Also, we follow the 30 rep plan for 100’s and 40 rep plan for 200’s and do mostly 25’s. Of course, our goal is not to be able to finish the 30 or 40 reps as failure is adaption but you need 5-6x the race pace distance for that.
I used USRPT this past summer and had great results at zones, the best we ever had.
Hope this helps and would be happy to answer anymore of our team training.
PS: We attempt 2-3 race pace sets per day and sometimes I put distance guys in one lane and sprinters in a different lane, that’s why there is more than three each day listed.
Roy
Colorado Torpedoes Swim Team

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[drpaul]

wow…..this may be one of the most informative post i’ve seen on this forum, thanks for the responses

do you try to get a certain number of exposures for each stroke per week?

for example, a swimmer who is mostly fly/free/back. how many of each of those should they get in ea week?

hope that makes sense

Paul

[coachroy]

Thanks!

Well, in a perfect world, I would try and get at least 3 per week and do that with the “favorite” strokes and distance (100’s and 200 free). The distance events may suffer a little, however, I think that the 200’s help with that anyway and the 400IM, 500 and mile I saw some of the earliest success (surprised me). Even one of my 400IM swimmers dropped 10+ seconds at zones and hit a 5:19 and the rest all dropped decent times (5-20 seconds) early in training and at the end.
The 200’s do seem to help distance events and I don’t always mind that swimmers have to do a off event workout. I think that the change is healthy mentally and physically on muscles worked.
In the end, staying consistent is very important each week in doing USRPT and then focusing on an event or two in practice for a meet seems to build confidence. For example, if a swimmer is doing a 100 free and 200 fly as a priority at a meet, that week I may and try and get them at least once or twice to do those events at RP even if not scheduled.
Roy

[drpaul]

coachroy…..thanks again

what do your IM sets look like?

Paul

[coachroy]

I’ve been experimenting with those and trying to stay with the USRPT format.

This is a set we did this past Saturday:
40 x 25’s
10 reps fly
10 reps back
10 reps breast
10 reps free
R:30
Then we did turn transition work at RP.

Sometimes I do 50’s with fly to back, back to breast, breast to free and do for example:
40 x fly/back & 200RP (I have them use 200 ind. stroke racepace times since those are close to 200IM RP times).

For those that do not really have enough “real” times and early in the season (Like right now), I allow them to take the first 5-6 to establish a race pace or tell them to add 3-5 seconds on their best 200 time then get the 25 split.

Early in the season I think they need to find success and get back into the sets, so I will do this for about one month before demanding real race pace times. Also, make sure they do about 5x the swim distance before stopping. To help with that I tell them to do 20 before they even start counting misses, just to be sure we have a training response in the early season.

They seem to like the change of pace with these IM sets but I do think that they get most of their IM training while doing the 200’s of each stroke. This serves as more a transition practice and race pace turns, etc.

Hope that helps.
Roy

[drpaul]

I agree…..they like that the workout says “IM” even though it’s a regular 200’s set 🙂

sometimes we will do 16 x 25’s evenly divided among the IM strokes and on the 4th they make the transition turn to start the next 4.

we also do the occasional 50’s (fly/back, etc) & I just have them rest 20s then go

I like having them start their miss count a little later in the set at the beginning of the season

Thanks again

Paul

[oldschoolc]

The attached is the cycle we currently use. All work is short course meters.

Week 1 Monday: Primary emphasis is 200 free with secondary 100 free

Short to long is set/distance design. Example we start with 25s or 50s for first set with goal of improving the number done from last time. The second set maybe 75s at the previous number done with trying to maintain the previous number done and the third set maybe 100s at 20% below previous number offered.

Example set might be:

20 x 25 fr on :30 at 200 pace (last time numbered offered was 18), looking for improvement in numbers made.
10-15 minutes of technical work with emphasis on skills needed for next set.
12 x 50 fr on :50 at 200 pace (last time 12 offered, made 8, maintain at least 8).
10-15 minutes of technical work. Again with emphasis on skills needed for next set.
5 x100 fr on 1:30 at back ½ pace of 100 (last time did 8 x 100) goal here is to maintain numbers done in previous set.

Reason for reduction is “accumulation of fatigue” from set to set. It does happen!

Week 2 Monday: Primary emphasis is 100 stroke with secondary either IM/STK

Week 2 Monday: Long to short again is set/distance designed. Start with 50s on 1:30/2:00 with target time of back ½ 50 of 100 and goal of doing more than last time offered. Second set might be 25s on :30 at ½ first 50 pace at previous number done trying to at least maintain numbers done and the third set might before for the IMers 49 x 25 as 10x 25 fly, 12 x 25 ba, 13 x 25br and 14 x 25fr all at ½ 200im pace all on :30.

Example set might be:

16 x 50 stk on 1:30/2:00 at back ½ 100 pace (last time numbered offered was 14), looking for improvement in numbers made.
10-15 minutes of technical work with emphasis on skills needed for next set.
16 x 25 stk on :30 at 100 pace (last time 14 offered, made 11, maintain at least 11).
10-15 minutes of technical work. Again with emphasis on skills needed for next set.
May be 30 x 25 on :30 at ¼ of best 100 stroke/free time or IM work. (Using tempo trainers)

We repeat weeks. Weeks 1 and 3 are the same as are weeks 2 and 4 the same. It allows us to compare and see if we are making progress or need to slow down.

Questions:
Why do you allow your swimmers to slow down?
Why give them 3-5 seconds on 50s or allow them to not start counting “outs” before 5-6?

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[ottercoach]

I just started USRPT season with my oldest training group. I like the idea of not counting outs before 4-6 repetitions for a number of reasons. My kids don’t have a feel yet for their times. I have been surprised at how many have trouble getting even 200 free times! With it being early in the season they are struggling with the change a bit. Holding off the “outs” gives time for individual adjustments if the goal time is “off” for that day. Overall, it seems to be going okay, but it is VERY early. I am a bit concerned with variety throughout the year.

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