Reply To: When to abandon a set
Couple of thoughts here.
1. It might be good to make your target time a little slower. That gives you the opportunity to get used to how the set should go. If you are just starting USRPT I do not suggest using your ultimate target time from the get go. When I started USRPT ten months ago my target time (I am training for the 400 SCM) was :32 per 50y. However, I started with a target time of :35. I was able to do 20 at that speed so I moved down to :34. I was also able to do close to 20 at :34 so moved down to :33. I spent about two months at :33 before I moved to :32. I spent 4 months at :32 and when I could do 20 in a row and 27 with three failures, I moved to :31. I’ve been at :31 for about two months and I can occasionally do 10 in a row before my first failure.
Had I started doing USRPT trying to do my :32 target time, I might have gotten frustrated and quit. But easing into it proved to be a very good strategy.
2. When you are alternating between make one fail one, make one fail one, you are not doing USRPT anymore. Now you are doing a traditional set with a minute rest between each repeat!
3. USRPT is NOT about finishing the set as is the case with traditional training. Instead it is about doing as many repeats at RACE PACE as possible. When you can no longer do that you are then not practicing at race speed – and there is no point to practicing at anything but race speed.
If you are counting yardage per workout, stop doing that. It is not important. If you are dead set on working out for 90 minutes, stop that, it is not important. The only thing that is important is doing as many repeats as possible at your race pace. Every thing else is a waste of your time.
4.I don’t buy the “I’m a slower workout swimmer” stuff. Do as I have suppested in #1 above regarding your target time, be patient and determined and you will get there.
5. I’m 65 years old and yesterday I swam my fastest 100 free LCM since 2004 (1:03.01), that’s ten years ago! And we old folks are supposed to be getting slower as we age.
Glenn Gruber
