Single Event Training

[thunderbird]

I’m taking a crack at USRPT (we’ll see how long it lasts):

– I’m a one trick pony: I’d like to train for 100 breast only
– I’m starting from ~7k/week of pretty relaxed swimming in a masters program
– I’m 4 years out of swimming full time in a traditional high-volume program
– My primary strength has always been technique and front-end speed

I have some questions and any feedback would be much appreciated:

– What should a microcycle look like for someone training for a single event?
– What should a workout look like?
– Should I be doing multiple USRPT sets in each workout, even though it’s for the same stroke and event?

[The Screaming Viking]

I am the same. I am training just the 100 and 200 breast and I alternate days. (Sometimes I sneak a short swim in on my lunch break and sometimes I do the workout with the team I coach in the mornings.) I actually did a 100 fly set for the first time this morning but since I haven’t done a 100 fly since high school I have no idea what time to aim for. It hurt.
I don’t even create a set… I get in every day I can and do either 100 breast training with 25’s on 30 trying to hit 14.78 (I swam a 58.92 in December so that is what I use as my race time.) for the 200 I do 50’s on 55 trying to hit 33.08 or better, based on the 2:12.33 I did in December as well. I just go until I have failed three times. (the first 6 25’s or 4 50’s count as automatic successes.) After each fail I sit out one repeat and get right back into the set. I make my team give me their scores as x+y+z which is how many successes before 1st, 2nd and 3rd fail, so that’s how I log mine as well. I don’t even write workouts anymore. I just say “today we are practicing 100 breast, 200 free and 100 fly and the kids know what they are in for. I wouldn’t do multiple sets for the same race in a day unless you just couldn’t get going on something like 50’s for 200 pace and decide to try again with 25’s at 200 pace. I guess with your fitness level it might not be a big deal, but I know that I would be pretty worthless trying to do the same one again in the same workout. When I fail out I feel like I just maxed out in the weight room.
I have seen more improvement than most of my swimmers have even though I only end up swimming 800-1500 yards a day total. I am sure this is because I started with a pretty low fitness level though. I am 39 years old. haha. I did make our sectional cuts for LCM last weekend in the breaststrokes on my first long course races in 14 years so I ain’t that far gone.
the only other fitness work I do is a 30 minute run 2 or 3 times a week, but not very consistently since I am so busy.
With a high fitness level you might still struggle with this stuff at first. I have a 2:02 breaststroker on my team who really struggles with the 200 breast splits he needs to hold. It seems harder to get technique and timing right on breast. I actually suit up for these sets because it makes such a difference in timing in breast. I actually suit up all of the swimmers in my highest group because we want to mimic meet racing as closely as possible.
We don’t really micro/macro-cycle. we just plan the week out to hit every race at least twice and fill the extra time where we would have been logging yards with reaction drills, start/turn work, mental training and technique stuff.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I hope it works out for you. I love it for me so far. Still feeling it out for the team though.

I came into this world naked, toothless and screaming and that's exactly how I plan to go out.

[The Screaming Viking]

I’m back to say that yesterday I practiced 100 pace breast on my lunch break and scored 4+1+1 which is pretty much a FAIL compared to what I had been doing. I got pissed and got in the water with my team later in the day and did the same set. Scored 7+1+3. Better but not my best.

I can definitely see the value in doing the same race set twice in one day so I say why not? Sometimes there are legit reasons to take another crack at it. There are just too many factors that can lead to a lousy round.

I came into this world naked, toothless and screaming and that's exactly how I plan to go out.

[Author]

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