I'm a huge fan of USRPT. I use it regularly to train for pool events. Contrary to atasic's speculation on effectiveness beyond 200M, I had huge success with it as my exclusive training method a couple years ago training for the 400M free as my "A event." That said, I'm not sure that it has a lot of direct applicability to triathlon training beyond maybe a FOP Sprint or Oly distance specialist. The objective of a triathlete in the swim is different than the pool swimmer or even open water racer. Especially a long-format triathlete. And I do think it gets harder to directly apply the principals at longer distances. I had far less success trying to adapt USPRT principals to my training for a 2 mile open water swim the following year.
Now, I do think triathletes would benefit from regularly doing some USRPT, or USPRT-like, sets of 25's and 50's at 100 and 200 pace, respectively. Think about the most effective ways used to build cycling power. It's not just long, slow rides. The repeated short alternating intervals of high output/recovery are a huge part of the plan. You need to do something similar in the pool, IMHO, if you want to build your swim power.
As for concerns about whether kids using this method will be lacking a "aerobic base," I think it depends. If they're being trained for 50's and 100's only, and aren't doing anything more than 25's at race pace, it's a valid concern. But if they're being trained for a variety of events across the spectrum of distances, then I think there's more of an aerobic component than might appear at first glance.
When I was training for the 400M free, my staple set was an "offering" of 32 x 75 yards at 400/500 race pace on a 20 second rest interval. I say "offering" of 32 because I never made that many before failing out. When I got close to 32, I knew it was time to advance the pace. Typically I was getting into the low 20's, though. So that set was taking me roughly 30 minutes, with ~20 minutes of that in motion. I guarantee there was a significant aerobic capacity component to that work. The sets of 25's I did at 100 race pace on 15 seconds rest which had a roughly 1:1 work:reset ratio and were over in 10-12 minutes? Not so much. But I guarantee that helped my power capacity, though.
In fact, in the middle of that training block I went out and finished 3rd overall in a 1.2 mile open water race, my first ever, despite rarely swimming anything longer than those 75's in practice. Not coincidentally, that 1.2 mile race took almost exactly as long to complete as one of those USRPT sets for the 400M free. And it's not like I had "carry over" aerobic capacity from other exercise, because I really wasn't doing anything else at the time besides swimming with USRPT.
As for Michael Andrew, it will be interesting to see what he's able to do in the next 5 years. While is rate of progression has slowed, his 14 year old "baseline" was so high that the gains are understandably hard to come by. He recently won a "World Champion" title in the 100 IM at FINA short course worlds. Not Junior World Champion, but outright World Champion. Now that field isn't a complete "Who's Who" of swimming because the US collegiate swimmers don't typically participate. But most of the International stars were there, and the field did include current world record holder Vlad Morozov.
And, with Lochte and Phelps out of the way, Michael Andrew is clearly in the hunt for a spot on next years Long Course World Championship roster for the 200 IM. He was 6th at trials, and swam a time this past weekend at the Indy Area Pro Series event that would have been 4th at trials.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"
Now, I do think triathletes would benefit from regularly doing some USRPT, or USPRT-like, sets of 25's and 50's at 100 and 200 pace, respectively. Think about the most effective ways used to build cycling power. It's not just long, slow rides. The repeated short alternating intervals of high output/recovery are a huge part of the plan. You need to do something similar in the pool, IMHO, if you want to build your swim power.
As for concerns about whether kids using this method will be lacking a "aerobic base," I think it depends. If they're being trained for 50's and 100's only, and aren't doing anything more than 25's at race pace, it's a valid concern. But if they're being trained for a variety of events across the spectrum of distances, then I think there's more of an aerobic component than might appear at first glance.
When I was training for the 400M free, my staple set was an "offering" of 32 x 75 yards at 400/500 race pace on a 20 second rest interval. I say "offering" of 32 because I never made that many before failing out. When I got close to 32, I knew it was time to advance the pace. Typically I was getting into the low 20's, though. So that set was taking me roughly 30 minutes, with ~20 minutes of that in motion. I guarantee there was a significant aerobic capacity component to that work. The sets of 25's I did at 100 race pace on 15 seconds rest which had a roughly 1:1 work:reset ratio and were over in 10-12 minutes? Not so much. But I guarantee that helped my power capacity, though.
In fact, in the middle of that training block I went out and finished 3rd overall in a 1.2 mile open water race, my first ever, despite rarely swimming anything longer than those 75's in practice. Not coincidentally, that 1.2 mile race took almost exactly as long to complete as one of those USRPT sets for the 400M free. And it's not like I had "carry over" aerobic capacity from other exercise, because I really wasn't doing anything else at the time besides swimming with USRPT.
As for Michael Andrew, it will be interesting to see what he's able to do in the next 5 years. While is rate of progression has slowed, his 14 year old "baseline" was so high that the gains are understandably hard to come by. He recently won a "World Champion" title in the 100 IM at FINA short course worlds. Not Junior World Champion, but outright World Champion. Now that field isn't a complete "Who's Who" of swimming because the US collegiate swimmers don't typically participate. But most of the International stars were there, and the field did include current world record holder Vlad Morozov.
And, with Lochte and Phelps out of the way, Michael Andrew is clearly in the hunt for a spot on next years Long Course World Championship roster for the 200 IM. He was 6th at trials, and swam a time this past weekend at the Indy Area Pro Series event that would have been 4th at trials.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"