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In your training plan you have been improving your ability to maintain consistent tempo and precise movements at increasingly faster tempos. At some point you either reach a range of tempos that are suitable to your event and pace goals, or you reach a range of tempos that is the best you can adapt to in this training cycle. At this point you want to stop working on faster tempos and build precision and endurance for the tempo range you have.
For this, you will establish three (or more) tempo ‘gears’. These three tempo gears need to correspond to certain SPL gears that you have been training for, because SPL x Tempo = Pace. If you switch tempos and this causes your SPL to shift without care, then you likely end up moving your arms faster but moving the same speed or slower. So, tempo gears need to be estimated with certain SPL combinations in mind.
This is why the training plan also has you work on building your strength for suitable SPL. Eventually, you put the two together to hold distinct pace gears (SPL x Tempo = Pace) and train to switch between them like switching gears on a bike, and to hold that pace gear consistently.
Tempo Gears Described
Tempo Gear 1 (TG1) should feel like ‘jogging’, at a rate of speed you could hold for quite a while. You will use this gear TG1 for recovering on-the-move during long swims. This allows you to keep swimming after a period of high effort (like sprinting) and recovery your strength before shifting back into your race pace.
Tempo Gear 2 (TG2) should feel like ‘running’, at a rate of speed you could just barely hold for the duration of your race – this is your ‘race pace’ tempo. This tempo should be suitable for your stroke over the whole distance, if you could swim in calm conditions at the same pace the whole time.
Tempo Gear 3 (TG3) should feel like ‘running hard‘, but not quite sprinting. This tempo should be suitable for catching up to a slightly faster swimmer, or for cutting through a challenging stretch of water. It would be a tempo you could sustain for 10 minutes or so.
When you establish your three gears you need to make sure that you can steadily maintain a suitable SPL at each tempo so that you are truly swimming faster when using a higher gear. A rule of thumb for this – when able to measure tempo and SPL in a pool – is that you can afford to allow +1 stroke on your SPL for every -0.06 seconds increase in tempo if you were to barely hold even pace between those different tempos. So, you either hold SPL steady and increase tempo, or you can add +1 stroke for every 0.07 or more second increase in tempo.
For Example
Swimmer Sali tried three different tempo gears that were 0.06 seconds faster, but he added +1 stroke to his SPL for each change in tempo. This means he did not actually swim any faster although he was moving his arms faster. These would not be appropriate tempos, unless he could prevent adding 1 stroke to his SPL.
- Gear 1: 20 SPL x 1.20 Tempo = 24.00 seconds pace
- Gear 2: 21 SPL x 1.14 Tempo = 23.94 seconds pace
- Gear 3: 22 SPL x 1.08 Tempo = 23.76 seconds pace
Swimmer Maru tried three different tempo gears but he was careful about making sure he could also hold a suitable SPL for each one, so that he was actually swimming faster. As long as he can maintain the SPL at each tempo, these would be appropriate tempo gears to train with.
- Gear 1: 20 SPL x 1.20 Tempo = 24.00 seconds
- Gear 2: 20 SPL x 1.10 Tempo = 22.00 seconds
- Gear 3: 21 SPL x 1.02 Tempo = 21.42 seconds
Note: these pace calculations are not counting the push-off and turns of swimming in a pool. They only calculate SPL and tempo for the length where the swimmer took strokes. It makes it much easier to see how the math works.
Choosing Your Tempo Gears
Your training plan has been making you expand your tempo range into faster tempos, so that you can maintain precision of movements in this whole range. If you have a range that is at least 0.30 seconds wide (e.g. like 1.40 to 1.10) then you have enough room to build 3 or more tempo gears within that range. To start, your tempo gears for distance swimming may be about 0.08 to 0.12 seconds apart, or more.
You will start with an initial guess for what your tempo gears could be.
Start with your current comfortable tempo TC as TG1. Then, subtract 0.10 seconds for TG2, and another 0.10 seconds for TG3.
As you go along in the training plan, you will be testing these tempo gears and adjusting them according to your ability to hold steady SPL at each one and make sure the SPL x Tempo combination feels appropriate for the purpose of that gear.
Your Tempo Practices may assign certain tempo gears, and these will be the tempos you use.
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