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Hi Alex,
We can continue our conversation here about your questions, decisions and progress in the Sprint 100 training plan.
Thanks for this Mat. I’ll make a deposit this week for another set of four lessons and you can put the 1k course on hold if you would while we continue to work on the sprint class. I’m looking over assignments in the prep phase and I can’t seem to find the Consistent SPL Progression Set. I need to work on this as I spent a lot of time on consistent SPL for 25, but not for 50 and above. The turnaround technique should help with this but I always seem to drop one or two strokes on the return trip down the lane. (Amazon is only 25 yards now for lap swim since the high schools are playing water polo in the other end of the pool :(, that said the conditions are still pretty wonderful but will end in a few days. I’m thinking about my practice schedule and how to fold it in with climbing which I do two days a week and I should post that fairly soon.
I’ve done a little more reading on the site and I can see that I need to meet several objectives. (1) Conduct the first test swim. I’ve done this informally, but I need to do it with the stroke counts and split times. I may get friend to observe and take data just so I can move on. I need to set up a practice schedule which I have pretty much decided on. I also need a few 200 test swims so I can identify a TF when I do the SPL consistency practices.
Developing SPL consistency will probably keep me in the prep phase for a while. I am guessing that doing 40×25 at TF with no more than three misses would be a set for an intense day.
Keep in mind for those SPL Consistency sets, it is not only that you are trying to get stronger, so that you can hold consistent SPL on 90% of the lengths, you also want to discern the reason for an SPL failure because that is what tells you what the weak spot is that needs to be worked on in order to be more successful.
As fatigue starts to creep in, some part of the actions executed across the entire length (some part of The Perfect 25) is failing. It might be with the pushoff, with the breakout, or with the stroke itself. We shouldn’t assume the failure as merely a matter of not being fit enough – it could be distraction, or neural fatigue, or just not noticing a small deviation from the ideal in some area of the stroke which then precipitates a cascade of drag inducing failures. Sometimes you can prevent that initial cause and thus much more easily prevent the cascade.
So, the effort to resist failure is part of the effort. Carefully examining any failure is another, so you can learn from it.
Thanks Mat. Appreciate the helpful comments. I’ve come up with a practice schedule that should work with my climbing workouts which I can keep on the easy side while I’m doing the sprint program.
Monday Rest
Tueday Intense Prac.
Wed. Rest
Thu, Intense Prac.
Fri. Moderate Prac.
Sat. Intense Prac.
Sets for my intense practice will focus on SPL consistency. I can hold 18 SPL down to 1.3 perhaps even 1.25 but just for 25. When I do 50 it jumps to 20 on the second lap. I’m planning to work with this ladder until I can achieve a little more consistency :
Setting SPL at 20 (2×50 @ 1.40,.137,1.34.1.31,1.28.1.31,1.34, 1.37.1.40) 900 yards total . If I can manage this several times at SPL 20, I’ll drop it to 19.
I’ll combine this with turnaround work, some speedbursts and a focal point supplemental set
300 warm up/200 cool down
Sounds like a good plan.
In reality, the first length will have fewer strokes – what you are doing is building the strength to maintain SPL for the second, third and fourth lengths. The first length is ‘easy’ so to speak. The really important strength building SPL work is on that second length. +2 strokes would be max. +1 would be expected.
I think that consistent SPL ladder is going to be a really valuable workout practice. I did it today and made a number of observations. On the first lap of the fifty I’m not always in the right gear, sometimes coming in at two strokes below what I was aiming for. Throughout the set I was successful at coming back with two plus strokes and at times one. Once I got distracted and lost count. The neat thing is that I was starting to process what was more difficult about the lap back and noticing things like a tendency to lift my head more as I was trying to pull harder to maintain stroke count.
I varied the set a bit and wound up working on the lower end of the temp range doing a total of 1200 yards of 50 repeats. At times I would take a little more rest, but I think I can cut down on that as time goes by. I did all the 50s breathing every three and am starting to prefer swimming that way which seems kind of weird. This set gives me lots of opportunities to focus on stretching out, getting a good catch, keeping my head aligned as I turn to breathe, and holding that skate just a bit longer.
I’m going to put off starting my 100 sprint schedule until next week because I have only a few days left to swim at Amazon and it’s just too good to pass up. Given that I wonder if it’s ok if we move my next lesson to the 14th?
Yes, this manner of practice, short, high-intensity, should supercharge your awareness of small details!
Thurs, Nov 14, 11am at Battle Creek is fine.
Thanks Mat-I’m also going to experiment with finding the right gear so to speak by setting my TT at a moderate pace say 1.35 and then finding the effort level required to complete 25 in 20, then 19, then 18, then 17. I’ve hit all of those marks at times,but I haven’t developed a feel for the effort required to do so. This will probably take a while but I think it will also be worth the effort.
Another amazing swim under a beautiful sky. A little cool, but lovely nonetheless. I worked on getting a feel for SPL today-primarily on 25s and working without the TT. Trying to hit a specific mark between 20 and 17. The hardest thing was to hit twenty, but seems like I was always under even when I was taking it pretty easy. Trying to hit a specific SPL really gets you paying attention to stroke mechanics so this is going to be a good activity for me. I also started worked on integrating the turnaround-I would start under the flags swim to the near end, turnaround, push off and count and most of the time I was hitting 18 with a little effort and 19 with less effort. I think this is a good first approximation to holding SPL on a fifty-I did do 5×50 afterwards and managed to hit 18 down/19 back all five times. This is a real work in progress but the workouts are fun. Tomorrow is the last day to swim at Amazon this fall and that will be a relaxed swim.
Happy Halloween-Last day at Amazon so today was just a relaxed swim. Breathing every three continues to feel really good, I’m feeling more streamlined, legs falling in line behind me, not over kicking (at least that’s what it feels like). Head staying down much better when I breathe left and that right skate arm is waiting for the head to return to neutral. I also think I’m breathing earlier-not eeing the recovery arm as my head returns to neutral.
Swimming without the TT I was hitting 18 SPL and coming into the wall nicely just attending to my focal points. I stopped at each 25, mostly to keep my focus
I also did do 5×50 at 1.20 and was getting down in 17 and back in 18, the turn is feeling better and my fastest 50 was 47 sec, which is quite a bit faster than usual (ordinarily at 1.25 it was 56,57 sec.) I couldn’t hold this pace for a 100, but still the improvement is encouraging.
I’m going to start my 100 sprint practice schedule on Monday.
Relatively easy workout today. Worked on some stroke fundamentals-head neutral-not raising head when breathing, particularly breathing left, and holding skate. I would grade out the effort at a B+. Also worked on turns at the wall and did 10×50 with the TT (goal was to keep SPL at no more than plus one on the return). That was generally successfully (Only 1 failure). I’m still having difficulty identify the right gear for a specific SPL-I’ll start out intending to hit 19 and hit 17 then having to really seruggle to hit 18 on the way back. I think I need more work just being able to pick an SPL in my range (15-20) and then hit that SPL. A more advanced skill would be to hit a goal SPL at a given TT.
I did a little work today at 1.20 and noted that even though I can’t maintain this pace for more than 50 yards I feel best when swimming at this pace-meaning my mechanics feel good to me at this pace-I feel very streamlined, stroke has some rhythm, good extension and generally holding skate. I would love to be able to swim at this pace for longer periods of time. (This was breathing every three)
Tomorrow will be a “hard” day with more effort. I think an ideal main set at this point is one I was using for a bit in the spring : 3x6x50 at 1.3 : I raised the TT to 1.3 in order to do a better job of hitting consistent SPL. I’ll be shooting for 18/19. I’m at the point were at a given TT interval I can consistently hit the same SPL on 25s but 50s are still a real challenge, hence the set above. I’ll also start out resting a bit more than 20 sec which I think is appropriate given my age. At any rate I’ll see h ow this goes and modify as needed. If I can hit the goal on all three sets I’ll drop down .02 on the next hard day or depending on the perceived effort I’ll stay there for one more hard day and then drop it down.
I watched a video tutorial on stroke timing and looked at a good deal of my own video and saw that I was rotating after pulling almost all the way through and hence missing the transfer of power as you described in the video. When I hold this as a focal point it really puts my hips to work and otherwise I’m seldom aware of them. I definitely feel like I get more out of the stroke when I rotate as I’m pulling through.
Also, I’m more likely to be consistent with SPL breathing every two even though I like breathng every three, so unless I hear otherwise I’ll be breathing every two on the main set and breathing every three on the warm, the cool down and other stroke.
Back in the pool yesterday and I tried the workout described in my last post 3x6x50 main set
After a 300 wu (gentle every three, standard focal points)-still need to work on stroke timing breathing every three. Whenever I breathe evry three that right skate tends to drop when I breathe left unless I really focus on it-I can drill as much as I want but I go back to whole stroke swimming that right arm want to rush and start to pull before the right enters the water.
Main set : started at TT 1.3 the goal I set was 20/19 and 3 out six were just that and then the last three were 18/19. On the 2nd and 3rd rounds I dropped the TT to 1.25 and hit 20/19 all but two times when I lost track during the lap-turnarounds are still tough-I feel like they take a lot of energy and leave me breathless which starts the second lap with some frenetic, sloppy strokes.
I did 200 hundreds with the snorkel-relaxed working on syncing hops the pull beyween rounds and a 200 cool down-easy swimming.
The set should help me develop some consistency-need to really get better at t hose turnarounds so their effective but a bit more relaxed. Still working at rotation so that my hips turn as I ppull through and not after I’ve already pulled through.
I think twice a week will do it for these workouts and at other times I’ll work on the same skills but i a less demanding set. I can tell I need more recovery time at least at the outset and also becasue I’m climbing on my rest days which doesn’t reallyt leave me very rested.
Great, detailed reports.
Yes, climbing doesn’t allow you to completely recover all parts, but I would be reluctant to advise you reduce that pleasure from your schedule! 🙂 When I do one of my strength/conditioning workouts at home I give myself some allowance when I swim the next day, if my upper body is still a little fatigued.
I am aware of the fact that I have not experienced a 70 year old body yet and I understand theoretically that one needs more recovery. I’ve been seeking some guidance on this, but this is the art of the older athlete, to be aware and sense his own best balance between enough stress and enough recovery to make progress in strength. You are more athletic than most and can handle more stress in training, and your greater health habits make your body better at recovering.
Hip Rotation
That’s a very important insight because a tight connection with your torso rotation is how you tap into bigger, longer lasting power. Without thinking, the shoulder muscles can respond quickly and pull before the torso can get really connected, but that is the trick – to notice and then train that connection and get the torso going sooner, a bit quicker too and get the arm to transfer the load to the torso.
Breathing Pattern
The overall principle is to let breathing pattern fit your need for air. You are ‘sprinting’ after all and that means heart rate shoots up. You are already challenging your neural and muscular systems to maintain SPL on the second length, so you would not necessarily (at this point) want to short change your respiration and make that even harder to do.
One the other hand, there is a slight cost to each breathing action – the better the execution the lower that cost – so you don’t want to breathe more than you need to. But still you need to breathe enough to give your muscles the best shot of handling the SPL demands you are asking of them.
Then there is the rest interval between repeats that we already talked about. That is another area where one can limit recovery to stress the metabolic system. If/when its time to push the metabolic system we’d probably do it with rest restriction rather than breath-restriction (while swimming).
You might do a mix of 2-stroke and 3-stroke breathing pattern. And I caution swimmers to make sure they don’t hold breath too long after that start of the first length, don’t use up your reserve right at the beginning, by waiting more than 2 strokes to take the first inhalation (I don’t know if this is your case, but just mentioning it).
Strength In The Second Length
That second length is where your muscles are really being challenged to dig deeper, for you to consciously override the subtle but strong restraints that the brain puts on effort to protect energy. And when your body digs deeper than that threshold, that’s when the adaptations you seek are being provoked. So the struggle to maintain SPL N+1 or better is an appropriate task.
Thanks Mat, appreciate the feedback. This Wednesday I tweaked my groin while climbing and had to limit my workouts on Thursday and Friday, but it feels better this morning so I’m hoping to get back at on Sunday. The hip rotation is going to be a long term fix but something that I think will really help develop that sense of flow and lead to a more even distribution of power rather than starting the pull with a heave because it feels like you’re starting to stall.
The ladder of 50s from 1.4 to 1.28 seems like the right starting point and a good place to begin to build the strength on the return lap. Hopefully my groin will be up for that workout on Sunday.
Now I have another challenge to deal with 🙁 In my fifties I had some fairly serious issues with my lower back (too many falls while bouldering)-never had an injury requiring surgery but had some serious attacks of back spasms, several of which kept me in bed for days. Rest and PT usuallly set things right and I could get back to climbing, running and whatever else I wanted to do. This got better when I stopped bouldering and simply climbed on ropes and only did lead climbs I was sure I could do without decking. Early in my swimming journey my pool workouts started to bring back those twinges that were the precursor to a full on spasm attack and the culprit was pushing off hard from the wall. Well working on the push off for a sprint has brought those nasty twinges back-nothing serious but they are my early warning system and I know I will hvae to back off and push off more gently. This may turn out to be a good thing as currently my push off is often frenetic and gets me out of breath before I take that first stroke. Regardless if I loss a few seconds at each end of the pool it’s better than losing a few weeks and having to spend them in bed with a heating pad on my back.
I’m also still having fun working on swimming efficiently and pleasurably while breathing every three. I feel each day I figure a little something out, sometimes only something very small, but there always seems to be something. I going to take a few days off to rest my back but I’m still planning on coming up for a lesson on Thursday.
Back in the pool again today for a mellow workout. Lots of breathing every three with particular attention to relaxed neck , not lifting head when turning to breathe and good extension. Warmed up breathing three for 600 and it felt good and was a bit faster than usual. Working on critical focal points as my back and groin recover. Gentle pushoffs today, so no pain, back is much better. Did some work at TT1.6 to work on balance as I still feel at points in the stroke that I’m sinking and that causes a hurry up which only makes the problem worse. Also slower tempos are good for working on rotation-it’s about time to wake up my hips instead of forcing my way through the water with my shoulders. Fun workout, around 2k. WIll probably take it easy until after my lesson when we can talk about direction to take in light of physical problems that have come up.
Thought you might find this interesting if you hadn’t seen it already. What he calls his ocean walker stroke looks very much like TI to my unsophisticated eye.
Ha, ha. You noticed.
There is some bad feelings in TI with this guy. He was injured (as he tells in his story) and then went to a TI Coach in UK for some period of time and learned to swim the TI way. That’s probably why his stroke looks so familiar. Then somehow down the road he makes some great accomplishments, gets a name and decides to tell the story without mentioning his time under TI influence and now claims he taught himself to swim this way alone. Some of us have crossed paths with him in different places and generally don’t have a pleasant impression of his manner. It wouldn’t be such a rub if he just acknowledged he had some outside influences on his ideas, as everyone does, and then just announce that he has his own blend and way of teaching things.
I suspected as much,too bad he couldn’t be a more open about his experience and the way he came to develop his stroke.
See you Thursday at 11:00 unless I hear otherwise
Great lesson today (thanks again to Mat). A small change now appears to have the capacity (with lots of mindful practice) to really make a difference. Changing the position of my right foot-the left foot was generally in good position prior to kicking has helped in a number of regards-better streamline, better rotation-facilitating breathing left which has been a challenge for some time-improved rhythm and arm switch timing. After my lesson I went back to my resident pool and working down 1.4,1.3,1.2.1.1 with the snorkel I was dropping down just 1 SPL over that range and 1.1 didn’t feel that rushed. I did have a little discomfort in the groin region that I’ll need to keep an eye on, but I think this change has the possibility to have a very nice impact over time-pretty exciting.
Got word from my doc that the thing in my groin is just a muscle strain not a hernia or anything more serious. I did a brief workout last night (company in town so not much time to work out). I did another snorkel swim just to make sure what I observed yesterday would hold up. I did the same almost the same TT ladder (10×25 @ 1.5, 1.4,.1.3, 1.2,1.1) again I was consistent at 18 until about 1.2 then was hitting 19 . The foot position was holding and the kick generated discomfort only at the outset before I was warmed up. I can feel the added rotation providing some impulse and a better glide-I’m pulling with some energy but not as much as I once did to hit these SPLs. I also noted that working at 1.5 gives me an opportunity to really hold that core tension until you roll to the other side, also I’ve been getting my recovery arm in position to drop so the extension and the roll feel aided by the arm dropping into position. I’ll be able to workout for more time on Sunday and will add breathing in at that time.
Last day with company so another shorter workout. Worked on consistent SPL with 50s and am consistently plus 1 on the return. Keep the TT at 1.5 to try to get more consistent with some success with hitting it exactly seems difficult for me even when I stop at the back wall and reset. I did my WU with the snorkel focusing solely on that right foot and then did a good number of 25s breathing every three and focusing once again on that right foot and keeping my head down when I breath left. That foot position definitely helps me keep my head down when I breath left but it’s a challenge to maintain over many laps so I’ll just need to keep working on it while I try to get my SPL more consistent. Placing my right foot in that position makes the stroke feel better but it takes effort (physical and mental) so I’m limiting myself to 25s until it becomes a bit more natural for me. Given that I may work on the preparation phase of the 100 plan for a good time, which is fine. I won’t be working on the hard pushoffs, but I will include the sprint bursts.
I’m reviewing the content in the preparation phase and I see a reference to a consistent SPL progression set but I can’t find a description of the set, is that set described within the body of the 100 Sprint material?
In Phase 2 I think that is referring to Assignment 2.4. Assignment 2.2 would be a preliminary step, but you may already be at the appropriate SPL range for your sprint work.
For continuing to train that right foot, you can also go on a longer continuous swim and give yourself the assignment to concentrate on that foot position every 2nd length or 4th length or some interval like that. Turn attention on to it for a while, then turn it off for a while. This can also improve your subconscious monitoring of foot position because the nervous system won’t completely let go of it although you turn your conscious attention elsewhere periodically.
Thanks Mat. I found out the hard way that you can put your foot in that position but without the requisite flexibility/strength you maybe doing so at the cost of strains to other parts of your anatomy. After several days of working hard on that foot position I developed a mild spasm in my right hip the very part that needs to put that foot where it belongs. It’s not an injury, just an irritation so I;ll need to work into that foot position slowly while I continue the stretching needed to accomplish it without strain. A few days of slow swimming with alternate lengths focused on that placement should do the trick. I’m sure when it becomes automatic it will help in the quest for a little speed. While I’m building back up I can also work on that tension/relaxation dynamic you discussed in your recent blog post.
One more question. If I was starting out with a 2.00 minute best in 100 yard swim what would a reasonable goal for an old duffer like me be (assuming a training period of about three months)?
Yeah, any new muscled movement like that, started suddenly, and done persistently, may produce some irritation. You are wonderfully persistent, but let’s couple that with a gradual onramp – the more challenging the position or movement is to the tissues, the more gradual that onramp needs to be.
Maybe rolling that tissue will help too?
Speed Math
Since you like math… let’s run a little calculation pretending there are no walls, just a long, straight 100 yards to swim.
You are currently capable of 100 yards in 120 seconds.
Let’s assume you are taking about 19 stroke in 20 yards of swimming (after pushoff), which comes to approx 1.05 yards per stroke. Now, pretending you are swimming straight and not doing flipturns at a wall, in 100 yards, you would take about 95 strokes.
Taking 95 strokes over 120 seconds, comes to a tempo of approx. 1.26 seconds per stroke.
How SL Improvement Would Affect Time
If you improved your stroke length by -1 stroke to N=18, then your stroke length would be approx 1.11. This would translate into approx 90 strokes per 100 yards.
Taking 90 strokes at 1.26 tempo would come to 113 seconds for 100 yards.
How SR Improvement Would Affect Time
If you held SPL at 19 (for 95 strokes over 100 yards) and improved tempo to 1. 20 then your time would improve to 114 seconds for 100 yards.
If you held SPL at 19 and improved tempo to 1.18 then your time would improve to 112 seconds for 100 yards.
By looking at it this way, you can connect the idea of a specific change in SPL or in tempo to how much effort you experience in changing one of those metrics. This can then give you an idea of which metric you may want to aim for improvement in, and what kind of effort may be involved in extracting an increment of improvement. Those numbers then tell you exactly what time improvement you might aim for.
Definitely agree regarding the ramp up. As I noted I can make good use of the time to work on some like balance and a relaxed recovery coupled with a good taught extension.
Thanks for the analytics, absolutely the right approach for me and good way for me to do some goal setting. I’m going to be slowed for a while with the hip and the slight groin pull from climbing, but both are improving and I should be able to start sprint workouts again fairly soon.
I still didn’t find the consistent SPL progression set in assignment 2.4, but as you noted I’m already close and can design some sets myself to hit consistent SPLs while doing 50s at varying tempos.
Thanks for the feedback,always appreciated.
Sorry about that Mat-I was stuck in the prep phase. It’s right there in the conditioning phase and I had looked at that previously when I first reviewed the course. I’ll follow that progression-40×25 is probably fine, but I’ll need a little time on the 20×50 with no tempo constraint.
I must have posted in a different location, but you were right, of course, the consistent SPL progression set is right there in assignment 2.4 in the adaptation phase-I was looking in the prep phase. Since my real goal is to swim faster in open water and I can’t do the aggressive pushoffs, it seems like it would make the most sense to do the sprint workouts without worrying much about my 100 time. I’m sure my 100 time will improve. Right now my efficiency goes way down when I swim more than 50 yards. Yesterday I did a warm up of 500 breathing every three and I was right at 21 SPL half way through and I’m almost never anywhere near that when I’m doing 25s or 50s. So when I start working on SPL progression for sprints I should be starting at 21 because that’s where I am if we’re talking about a comfortable 200 yard swim. I’ve been starting at 19 and that may explain why it’s been difficult to get consistent except at 25 yard repeats. If speed is about muscle recruitment it may build quite slowly in my case. I’ve looked at a number of studies of strength development in older adults and the results are pretty consistent-strength and muscular gains and adaptation are possible but it takes longer, often a good bit longer. In my case this work to build a bit of speed may need to continue for six months or so to show much of anything.
Swimming at steady pace past 50 yards is going to require more metabolic training (in Phase 3), where rest is controlled and gradually reduced so provoke adaptation to work with less recovery.
You can still work on time for the swimming part, and separate the start and turn time. You assign a time and distance to the start/turn, whatever kind you do, and keep it strictly consistent, so that any increase or decrease in your overall time is more easily attributed to changes in the swim part and not a change in the start/turn part. You could even start from a standstill, stretched out,with feet on the wall and start accelerating from there. You would just have to add a stroke or two to your stroke count to account for the distance you did not travel on the push-off.
Another way to look at this is to think of the sprint work, not about building speed but about building power (which is converted into speed). Here is an explanation I wrote for another 70+ student recently…
***
Power training is a more efficient way to recruit more muscle fibers to participate in the work (because, strangely, only a % of the available fibers in your muscles are actually participating in typical endurance work). When more fibers are participating, the work gets easier.
Think of sprint work more like going to the weight room to build power in certain parts of the body – but without all the negative social implications of going to a gym!
There is another thing we need to confront through power training, and it is especially important for long-slow-endurance athletes to work on: our brains put a restraint on how hard we will push our muscles because it has developed a priority for conserving energy so we can last a long time. It resists us pushing harder because it doesn’t want to lose power too soon. This means it holds us to working at far below our power capacity, which means our brain then does not recruit as much muscle fiber as it possibly could. We have to break out of that restraint in order to trigger the mechanisms that start recruiting and firing more muscle units.
***
Now the art for older athletes is in striking a balance between accumulating fatigue through a series of power-building workouts over a number of days and the length and difficulty of recovery in the days afterward. Our bodies are increasingly reluctant to do things that fatigue us as we get older, and (or because) we pay a higher price to recover as we get older. But part of resisting or slowing down the aging process requires crossing that line and accumulating some tissue stress the body must adapt to and fatigue that the body must recover from.
I know you (and everyone)can greatly benefit from power work, I just don’t know how much you can do before reaching the threshold of a reasonable recovery afterward. That’s something each person ultimately must judge for himself.
After finding the consistent SPL assignment I started working at the beginning. After a warm pu I did 40×25 (no tempo) with about three to fourth nasal breaths at the wall. I was consistently hitting what I think would be called 17 SPL. Take off at the beep, one beep and pull left (beep) and left hand enters (stroke one on what would be the third beep. Continue down the lane , right hand hits wall at what would be stroke 18. This was very consistent throughout all 40 laps, no misses, the question is how to take this to a 50 and maintain the same SPL. Admittedly this is not an SPL I’m comfortable with for 200 yards, but whenever I do 25 repeats this seems to be what happens-I’m not pulling super hard just working on good extension and feeling a nice glide. Not sure what the tempo would be, but probably pretty close to 1.3. I think I’ll just start working on 20×50 and see what happens.
We should each end up with a small range of SPL that we can use. The lower SPL is for longer, or slower swimming and the higher SPL is for sprinting.
When you work at your longer SL end (lower SPL) that really challenges balance, streamline and eventually strength. It simply takes more strength – in terms of neural and muscular – to do 50 of your best SPL than it did to do 25. It’s like choosing weight in the weight room. You pick an SPL ‘to lift’ on that is very challenging to hold for a second length, and that would be the appropriate ‘weight’ to be lifting for a 50. But if you wanted to work on strength for a 200, then you’d pick an SPL that was challenging for you to maintain on the 6th, 7th, and 8th length. If it was appropriate SPL you would not fatigued by it for 4 lengths, but after that it gets iffy.
Thanks for the feedback on SPL, which makes perfectly good sense. I’m out of the pool for a few days to let my nose dry out and to begin using the nasal spray consistently that my doc recommended. Fortunately the muscles that needed to adjust to that new (or modified) foot position seem to be fine. When I get back this coming weekend I’ll begin working on consistent SPL for 50 and probably shoot for 19. I’m also going to work on the turn getting smoother without a ballistic pushoff. Appreciate all the support, probably be up for a lesson the second week in December-have a great Thanksgiving.
I must of made a few posts in another area since I don’t see them showing up here, but you responded to one so I know they are somewhere.
Just a few updates-did some snorkel work at 1.2 today just to work on swimming in a moderately relaxed fashion at that turnover rate, just to practice cutting down on unnecessary movement as stroke rate increases. I also did 5 50s where I was consistently hitting 19 strokes up and back.
If I’m consistently hitting 19 SPL with three beeps before I stroke again wouldn’t that be 22 strokes /25 yards for a total of 88 which at a tempo of 1.2 would be 105.6 seconds. I’m asking because you said if I maintained 19 SPL that would be 95 strokes/100 and I wasn’t sure where all those other strokes were coming from.
I also did a few 50s breathing left and also hit 19 up and back at 1.2 so I think that’s a good target –100 yards at 19SPL per 25 at a tempo of 1.2.
I was just testing my nose today to see how I’ll do with the new medication
If you take 19 strokes per length, after 4 lengths that is about 76 strokes in 100.
But you only took strokes for about 80 yards of that. There is 4 or 5 yards per length where you are gliding away from the wall or to the wall, for about 20 of those remaining yards. If you take about 1.0 to 1.1 yards per stroke then in 80 yards you take 76 strokes. In open water, you’d be stroking during those remaining 20 yards, not gliding to or from the wall, so that accounts for the additional 18 or 20 strokes or so. I was just estimating to use the simplicity of the open water scenario.
Thanks Mat, that makes perfectly good sense (stroke count). Once I’m sure my nose is responding well, as it seems to be, I’ll be ready for some longer workouts-ones that are likely to test my strength and recovery capability. It’s always a challenge to find that sweet spot between not challenging yourself and over training. I’ve injured myself a number of times over the years by refusing to back off when my body was telling me I wasn’t devoting enough time to recovery and I’ve gone to some lengths to try to identify helpful metrics (resting heart rate in the morning, heart rate variability) and at this point I’m just relying on how I feel and hopefully that will be enough.
Forgot to mention that I found another TI lookalike (a little different but very similar : SkillsNT Swimming. It seems to me more like what you would get if you combined TI and Masters swimming
When you have time I’d like to get the contact information for the person in Ashland doing open water swims.
Another short workout resulting from holiday commitments-ugh.
More work on SPL consistency at 50 and it’s going well. I’ve also discovered that swimming at 1.0 isn’t that bad if I breathe right and will be doing a bit more of that. I’m off to a meditation retreat this weekend and won’t be back in the pool until Wednesday so I may need to rethink when I want to catch that next lesson. Breathing right at 1.0 I was at 20 SPL. I only did 25s but will give 50s a go during the next workout which I may be able to get in before I head to the retreat. I’ve spent the fall playing around the edges of the sprint program but I think it’s paying off even if I haven’t been strictly following the program.
I forwarded the newsletter from Shannon, the coach/swimmer in Ashland with a nice lake swimming program going on down there.
https://www.intrepidwater.com/
I have exchanged an email with her. Nice gal. I will introduce her to my south valley students.
I hope the meditation retreat goes well. I need to try one of those some day!
Thanks for the link Mat. Hopefully I can get one more workout in before I leave for the retreat. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
It’s been a week of limited practices and now I’m off to a retreat for three days, but I do want to note a few things from another brief workout today. When you’re working on things like muscle recruitment rest really matters. Today I did a warm up with the snorkel at 1.5 and I was hitting 15 SPL-really low for me. It wasn’t easy, but it felt good and it was clear I have more power after a bit of rest (two days off). I also did a bit of work at 1.3 and was hitting the wall at 16 (for 25s and 50s). Working down to 1.0 I was coming in at 19. So even though I have been less than systematic it seems that the power emphasis is having an effect.
Hopefully when I get back from the retreat I can get into a consistent practice schedule.
Got back from the retreat today and had time to get a short swim in. Started with snorkel at 1.6 and was hitting the wall at 15 down 16 back. After warming up I descended by .05 and was still hitting 16 (and at times 15) down and 16 back on 50s until 1.35 at which point it became 16 down 17 back. I did a good deal of stretching during breaks at this retreat and it really seemed to help as I could feel the area near my armpit opening up more than usual on the extension. I worked at 1.3 without the snorkel and was hitting 16 down 17 back and working to get to feel more comfortable. Dropping down to 1.25 I was still able to hit 16/17, but at 1.2 it became 17/18. With just a little slower turnaround I can hold this SPL at 17 at 1.2 with the first stoke off the wall coming at beep three. I didn’t have time for much more but I felt good about these SPL counts.
I’d like to plan on a lesson the second week of January, say Jan. 9 at the usual time if you are still around then-(I know you have a swim camp coming up pretty soon).
Got a workout in today, but I have realized that it’s hard to count my climbing days as rest days. I was pretty tired this a.m. after a night of working on some challenging projects, but I thought I should get a workout in anyway. That said, I probably chose the wrong workout. After a warm up-forced slow WU with snorkel at 1.6 I did the following main set.
Starting at TT 1.4 and descending by .04 doing 2×50 at each tempo I did
1.4, 1.36, 1.32,1.28,1.24, 1.20, 1.16
At 1.4 Is at 16 down 17 back
1.36, 1.32,.128 I was at 17 down 18 back
1.24 18 down 19 back, 1.20 18/19, 1.16 18/19
I was too tired to work my way back up the ladder so I just did 10×25 at 1.15 and hit 17 each time
Easy cool down and head for the shower
I should note that I tend to take more rest than prescribed in the 100 sprint program and I’m happy to use my age as an excuse. I have found that if I start conservatively and do the same workout over time that I can drop the rest times but at the outset it’s better for me to not force the issue too much particularly when there is already neurological stress from counting your SPLs and maintaining a fixed tempo. The 25s at 1.15 felt good and I’d like to take that down to 1.0 over a little time as I feel like these descending ladder workouts are helping to get a feel for how I can go faster and not let me stroke mechanics fall apart.
I was looking at the material in the third phase of the sprint program and noted that there’s a bit of an error in phase three. I think it’s 3.2-if your target is 1 min 44 sec then your 50 split is 52. The text says your 25 sec goal would be 32 and you’re working on 50 repeats anyway.
A question. If I’m using a TT and I set it at say 1.2 and hit the wall at exactly 20 beeps or very. very close to that then I know I’ve hit my 25 at 20×1.2=24 sec. This would seem to be accurate enough since I’m just trying to get faster not aim for a specific 100 yard time.
After a warm up I did a ladder starting at 1.3 descending by .04 2×50 at each point and maintained 17 down, 18 back-the second 50 at 1.18 I hit 19 on the way back.
After the ladder I did 8×50 at 1.2 and was able to hit 50 sec every time taking about 40 sec rest. I know that’s about twice the rest indicated in the program, but hey that’s old guy rest. And 1.2 is feeling better all the time. I would really like to shoot for doing 100 at 1.2 and set a goal of 1 min 45 sec which would be a big improvement for me. This is probably a little ambitious and training during the holiday season is going to be spotty, but I hope to hit this goal by the end of January and then get back to work on endurance.
MY training is also going to be impacted by that strain in my groin, which I’m pretty sure is mostly a little tendonitis but doing faster than usual repeats tends to annoy it a bit and then I feel it making a variety of moves when I climb. I’ll take the usual steps for tendonitis, but I think I’d also like to keep doing my repeats just to continue the adaptation to faster turnover rates but use an adapted pull buoy (standard buoy cut in half) so I don’t kick at all. I’m going to try a set today doing 50 repeats with a descending sequence (1.25, 1.22, 1.19, 1.16, 1.13, 1.16. 1.19. 1.22,1.25) (2×50)-no SPL constraint but I will make a note of SPLs and use a 30 sec rest between 50s.
I want to try to maintain form and focus on my breathing which can get rushed and shallow as pace increases. I’m sure a certain amount of this is normal, but last workout I noticed that when I was doing 50 repeats I could my time exactly if I focused on exhalation,particularly on the last 25 and then I didn’t feel spent when I hit the wall.
That sequence I described in the last post went well, probably too well. The small buoy I used did keep me from kicking but it sure made the pulling easier-which probably tells me I still have a ways to go in terms of improving my position in the water 1.2 almost felt like an all day pace and that used to feel quite fast. I’m probably going to need some actual time off to get rid of this groin pull (the buoy helped but I still got some twinges) so I may just stay out of the pool for the next few weeks and ramp up when I get back from Colorado. After the New Year I’m going to keep a personal swim journal as I want to comment on a variety of non-swimming issues as well so I won’t be posting here except for some occasional updates. I’m planning to come to the Cascades Camp on the 24/25 but Ineed to make some reservations first-Cultus will only let you reserve for a full week at that time of the year
You are a prolific reporter of practices! Good work. I read them all but don’t always respond.
Yes, counting total beeps from wall to wall is a way to stay accountable to time. Allow for 3 beeps until first stroke or something like that, but you also have to travel the same distance in those first 3 beeps. If you are stroking for 21 yards out of 25, and taking N number of beeps to get there, then you know your pace for 21 yards, and can extrapolate to 25 yard pace or any distance pace.
As we discussed, the first objective is to develop strength and power, not necessarily metabolic conditioning, so taking more rest is OK. But your ability to go beyond 50 at the target pace does depend on the metabolic system being able to keep up the work that long. This approach does a lot of shorter-than-race-pace distance work, so the compensatory element is to restrict rest for shorter repeats, rather than do more distance per repeat. And do much more than race distance during the set, to induce fatigue through volume of work.
It’s good and a bit safer to have a few consecutive sprint days, so there is some accumulative stress, recovery, stress, recovery to stimulate growth. If you are going to have more interruptions, more days off, you may be a bit more cautious, or click down your SPL expectations slightly. You can also shift to Sprint Burst sets to stimulate the system with full tempo, full power, but few strokes, without stressing the joints too much, if you have too much time off between work days. Or, as you suggested, do fast-tempo-low-power (which means higher SPL) sets just to keep the nerves primed for faster movements.
Yes, pull buoys will speed up most people by lifting you up so much.
I need to talk to Cultus lake too. I will try these mini-camps. One could come for all 4 days, but hopefully the two-day arrangement will fit for more people who might consider. It’s a bit of a risk for me to reserve some cabins with no idea how many people we may attract, and only for 2-day occupancies. Your thoughts are welcome too. Just trying to work out a model that will work for us in this region.
Thanks for the feedback, always appreciated. I did manage several consecutive days this week without lots of fatigue and managed to not aggravate my groin too much. I like the workouts and I’m getting faster, even though I haven’t done a 100 test swim lately-next week I’ll see where I am, but 1.2 is feeling pretty good and I’ll build up a little stamina with some more sessions of 50 repeats. I also warm up with snorkel at 1.25 and that feels quite good and that’s much faster turnover than I used to be able to tolerate for anything beyond 50 yards even with the snorkel. I think at the end of January or mid Feb, I’d like to start working on endurance but keep throwing in one sprint type workout each week.
Elk Lake has more accomodations and still has lots of openings for August and it really doesn’t take long to get to Cultus from there and since people are on their own for breakfast and dinner they don’t really need to stay at Cultus. I’m planning to stay at Elk Lake. I’m hoping Deb Carver will gone us after she gets started with lessons with you. It might be helpful to give folks a list of nearby options-if someone comes for 2 days and looks at the Cultus Lake site it makes it seem like that’s not an option. I know there are cabins at a number of other high cascade lakes.
I’ll keep you posted on my progress, I’m impressed that you read all my posts-prolific is putting it mildly. Happy Holidays and hope to be up the second week in January for a lesson.
On the landing page for the Cascade Lakes camp I did mention these lodging options. I expect a few people from Bend to consider coming so they don’t need to stay somewhere.
And, thanks for pointing out the math error on assignment 3.2. I think I fixed it. Should be 26 seconds x 4 = 104.
Great, I should have noticed that. I forgot to mention two other things. How about some flyers-there are a lot of swimmers in Eugene, but I doubt many of them are aware of the camps you’re running. Much public pools have bulletin boards and the Y probably has one too. I also thought it might be a good idea to do one or two one day camps at some place like Foster or Hagg just to get folks interested. Maybe all this is a little too much since you don’t have that many slots but I thought I’d throw it out there.
Congratulations on the graduate program it definitely sounds like a great match for you.\
I’m off to Colorado which will keep me out of the water for a week and when I return I’llneed to see if this nagging groin injury has improved. Sets focused on speed seem to irritate the tendon even though there isn’t much pain when I’m working out. If it persists I’m going to h ave spend time on improving efficiency while I continue to calm my legs since it is the kick of the right leg that aggravates this minor injury.
I’m still planning to come up for a lesson the second week of January (Wed. or Thur. work for me) and will know more by then.
Will there be an option for cabins at Cultus? I wasn’t sure based on your comments. I’m planning to come for the last two two day sessions but haven’t registered yet .
Hope you and your family enjoy the holiday season-BTW-great blog posts on lifting weight in the water
I need to call Kate at Cultus to discuss the cabins situation. I will reserve a couple for coaches and my family. I will talk with her about renting another cabin or two that I might sub-let for a couple nights at a time to participants, if I can secure a low-risk way of doing that with her (which I think she will be OK with).
We could do something Jan 8 or 9. On Thurs Jan 9 I will be at a different club, South River Road location from morning to 1:30 then I have a run lesson in Keizer. So I could fit you in between 10:30 and 12:30 on that day at that location (the water is a bit warmer there too). Or Wednesday at Battle Creek.
We could meet Wed Jan 8. Deb said she wants to come that day and you two could commute together. I proposed meeting with her for an hour first, then she could keep practicing while i work with you. Maybe 10 am and 11am slots?
I contacted Deb to see if she’s interested, either way I’d like to come up on the 8th. I got a message that my personal swim lessons were expiring, but I thought I still had two left so I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I think I would also like to reopen the 1k class and pull back on the sprint class for now. I’m not sure where I am payment wise with the 1k class but I’ll get current if you let me know.
Really interested to see where the series on breathing will go. I’m going to get serious about the Belissa Vranich program now that I’m back from Colorado. Once I recover from a horrible night’s sleep and a miserable day in several airports I’ll be back in the pool. No bugs from my little darlings this time even though one of them had a bit of a cold.
Alex
I just extended your Dojo Membership for ‘Private Lessons’ (it is something I manually open when someone is in a private lesson series – it goes for 3 months and then we need to renew).
I opened the MC 1K course for you, and you can combine that with your monthly private lesson series, as we were with the sprint course.
I look forward to hearing about your experience with Vranich’s program.
Very glad you are bug free this time!
PS – you’ll see a notice. I cancelled the old MC 1K subscription that was on pause for many months, so no more payment will be taken, and I’ve just included that course with your monthly private lesson series, as a package.
I tried to access the 1k training plan this morning before working out this afternoon and access was denied.
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