Reply To: Taper for Distance Swimmers
Billratio,
Sorry for the confusion was not my intent. Ok this may get lengthy. I would replace some of what I was doing for the speed.
My thinking on the 8 x 25s was that she could be speed deprived and just to allow her to get up and go fast plus if she swims the 200 she’d need the speed. The 8 x 50, those you could use as a baseline because she has done them all season and you can evaluate them against race splits and her practice performances and same with 100s.
Do you have her 100s avg for that 2 x (10×50 + 4×100 set)? Also do you have her race splits for the last two 500s she did? Just be interesting to see.
You’re trying get in 2000-3000 @ 500 pace which is the 33s pace? Problem is that’s too slow to go 5:23 she would need to be in the 32.65 range for 50s and average at least 1:05.31 for 100s. So “how do you try and get there?” If you went in Monday and had her do a set of 20-30 x 50s and told her instead of 33.1, she now has to hold 32.7, and you are going to time each one. How many do you think she’d make? My guess is it won’t be 2000 – 3000. The volume alone is not the answer especially if the speed/ pace are incorrect. If the volume is important then doing it by rounds may be a way to go e.g. 3 x 10 x 50 @ 32.7 with :30 rest between rounds. Any time there is an increase in speed/pace there will be a reduction in numbers. Especially .4 in a 50 over 30 that’s 12 seconds faster for 1500. FYI My guys go nuts when time is adjusted .2/50 and usually have a fall off in numbers done in the 30-40% range for the first couple of weeks with the adjusted time.
I thought I’d read in one of your posts that you had 2 weeks until their Championship Meet. If that’s incorrect then I apologize. If you have more than that then you are in a better situation to create adaptation (adjustment to the new speed). Yes, it is a drop but the focus would be on increasing speed.
The 3 day protocol percent improvement ranges for 200/500 free. I don’t separate out by age or gender.
The age range of the kids is 15 – 18 so it gives me a decent snap shot of how training is going.
2012 – 2013 200 was 2.846 and 500 was 4.173
2013 – 2014 200 was 4.980 and 500 was 5.275
Your LZR elite2 question: I had a boy at the time wearing that suit and he was nowhere near a 2.5 to 3% improvement and he swam the 50/100. He was 3rd at WUG and 12th at USOT so no sea slug. We laughed when SPEEDO made that statement. At that time with those improvements the top 10 men in the world would have swam under the WR and that didn’t happen. Sure was a great marketing angle and sold a boat load of very expensive suits.
Oldschool
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