monty wrote:
Monty, I am going to try this:
8x50, odds fly@1;00/evens dolphin kick@1;30(36/35/35/35--58/57/58/57)
Yesterday I did something similar// Glad to hear that dev, now I'm going to start your intervention on your swim training. You have done a great job in trying to make up for lost time, getting in a lot of meters, in all of the strokes. You have brilliantly done some mega mileage for the past year, and you are able to do some sets that folks dont even dream of doing. But it is time to stop this, because I see that you want to swim meets, and actually do some decent times. I recall awhile back where you did some races in meets, and went slower than workouts, or not much better. I read those reports and bit my lip at the time, because you were wrapped up in mileage, and not really the quality.
So my suggestion going forward is to stop with all the 10x400IM's and such sets, and now begin to drill down on what will really make you a faster swimmer. You have great conditioning for a stroke that slogs, you now need to fine tune your speed, and learn to carry that to race day. Pick some goal times and only do sets that mimics that speed. When you fall off, do something shorter to hold form and speed. Of course I could do all those 400 IM's you do, but it would be kick, kick, pull fly and lazy on the other strokes. It really would do nothing for me and my actual 400IM. Right now I'm going to take it in pieces, work on goal paces there, and eventually maybe do 3 of them on longish rest, but maybe just 20 to 24 seconds slower than race pace, thus holding pretty much the same form.
I think you had some wonky races because you really dont have a race from as of yet, just your super distance form that falls apart when the gun goes off. All of us swimmers have been there, specificity in training is key for such short swim races, and all races are short except the 1500.
Anyway just my 2 cents if you really want to race faster. You have come so far in a short time, and at an age where it just isnt done. Now take it the rest of the way, and start to think about top 10 in your AG at masters meets, not just finishing 10 events all crammed together...Thanks guys, I agree with you and I'll be doing a lot more of what you are suggesting. On a plus note the races I have done with an arm that is still weak and a bad disc have been quite a bit better than training speeds. I am also doing more alternating 25 hard/easy and a lot more sprint sets.
BUT I have difficulty getting motivated by clocks, power meters, track lap times which makes chasing the pace clock difficult more than 1x per week or at best 2x per week. Even when I was last racing tris, I only took the powermeter bike out 2x per week, and would go to the track 1x per week and would never wear a GPS. I was just finding training with measurement devices very unmotivating.
So if you see me say 50 hard or 25 hard in any swim set, I am going roughly as hard as possible for that set. I just don't think that it's mentally very healthy for me to chase "meaurement of time intervals/output" in sport anymore on an ongoing basis. My business life is a continuous "measure for performance" thing day in and day out, every second of the 365 days in a year. So when I get to exercise, I just need to decouple from that mindset.
Also I don't really post any times on the fish thread, because they are so pathetically slow compared to real swimmers that the entire thing feels demoralizing and unmotivating. Instead, I can get motivation just doing the process.
I do get motivation with race times and I think those are enough. I did 5 swim meets at the end of last spring and did 3 more before Xmas and will have 7 more between Feb 1 and May 30th, so there will be clocks to chase there....plus 1-2x per week in the pool.
Also I have a lot of frustration chasing clocks on breast stroke, freestyle and back stroke because my bad leg with the nerve root compression does not go where it is supposed to. The only time it goes where it is supposed to is if I do dolphin kick or butterfly, so that's enjoyable and not frustrating other than it is tiring. But at least swimming is less frustrating than trying to jog or even walk across the hallway (you guys would really have to see me walking to understand, but I look somewhat impaired when walking....which I kind of am....which really sucks when you were always an ultra coordinated kid who could pick things up easily). So this is also an additional layer on the reluctance to try to fight my body and chase clocks. Some days my body works better some days worse. So I do the really hard sets only on days when things are working properly.
I have also enjoyed doing this set of relatively hard swimming
100's as 50 fly-back followed by breast free
50's as 25 fly-back followed by breast free
....and I guess to Monty's point of "
if you really want to race faster", I suppose I am trying to first just have fun and enjoy myself and secondly see if while doing that, I can also gradually learn a new sport and get faster. But mainly I just want to enjoy the journey, because if I enjoy it, I WILL get faster (which I kind of have....I've gotten from 7:55 in my first 400IM event, to being able to hold that pace or very close for 10,000m!!!!....and I got down to 7:22 in a few months after that).
I've always been in the camp of not caring "that much" about racing faster in that, I don't want to sacrifice my personal enjoyment of this workout, for the sake of racing faster tomorrow. Hey, I'm the guy who climbed Stelvio and Gavia two days before 70.3 Worlds because I thought it would be an awesome chance since I was only 4 hours away from Austria to those climbs. My facebook profile picture is from the top of Stelvio, not from some random race finish line....that should give you a visibility into my mentality. I climbed 5000 ft up Kaloko 3 days before Ironman Hawaii in 2013. I was likely the ONLY athlete out of 2500 people in Kona doing that (actually I roped in 2 friends who also did not care that much about the actual race), but for the 10 min slower marathon I likely ran, I got an experience that most won't (I kind of raced up Kaloko and down too, not just a slog).
Generally I've found a sweet spot between workouts I want and need to do and race performance. Right now the pool time is largely an opportunity to disconnect from the pressures of life and just do whatever makes me happy and not think about professional responsibilities and associated metrics. I THINK when my health is better (arm is working full strength as I can't do a push up yet and disc is better AND I don't have responsiblity of building out a startup and putting groceries on the table for all my employees, then I'll be more willing to put the performance target higher in the sport part of my life.
