So I've been reading a fair amount on USRPT training, and I think I'm going to go that route for the summer months as a personal experiment. As I was doing my homework on it though, it got me wondering why you couldn't apply those same principles to other sports, specifically running and cycling.

Hear me out.

My understanding of USRPT and swimming, at a very basic level is this (basic example in parens)...

1. Swim a race/time trial at your chosen distance (400m in 8 min).
2. Determine the rep distance for your set (50m).
3. Calculate rep time by race pace from step 1 (1 min).
4. Determine max reps (there are several things to consider here, but let's just go with the suggested* 30 in this case)
5. Breaks are based on rep distance (15s).

A person ends a set when they fail 2 reps in a row. If they fail 1 rep, the sit out a rep and try again on the next interval.

So I ask, why not apply this to say.... running?

Repeating the steps above with a lot of made up magic on my part...

1. Race a 24min 5k
2. Choosing rep distance is magic to me, so say, 400m.
3. Rep time then is 1:55.
4. Again, this step is magic to me, so say 16? I don't know. I'm making this up. That's about 4 miles at race pace, which seems very good for a 5k. Maybe more reps?
   
5. Breaks are 30 seconds just to extrapolate from above, since the rep time is about double in this running example.
   

I'm sure the times I chose for the running example can be corrected somewhat, but I think the idea comes across.

So I ask, what is the magic in USRPT for swimming such that it will or won't apply to other sports of this nature?

To head off some arguments/start discussion...

• I don't think you can dismiss it on the grounds of "injury prone". One of the main points of USRPT is that form is a vital factor. Once your form falls apart, you can safely say you failed that rep. This *should* keep people from running extended distances which compromised form which could lead to injury.
• No aerobic base training! I'm not sold this is a problem, and maybe that's the weakness in my argument. It seems to work for swimming, and step one already assumes you can run a 5k, and this process gets you above that mileage before working on going faster, so I *think* it should suffice.
  
• I'm sure someone will point out that top racers put in 4 bajillion miles a week and this would never work for them. That's fine. I don't really care what they are doing. I'm concerned with maximizing my return on (my limited time) investment.
  
• Plenty of training plans already sprinkle in race pace repeats during the "specialty" phase, so the idea obviously isn't completely foreign, even if the plans vary wildly.

I'm honestly considering doing my swim AND run training this way, if I can figure out proper timing/distances for sets. I'm doing exclusively sprints this year, and the risk to my run is minimal since I'm not crazy fast off the bike anyway. At best, I actually do well running. At worst, well, I'm confident I'll still be able to run my normally slow 5k.

So tell me why I'm crazy. Or a genius. I will take both.


* Disclaimer *

I kindly ask that if you think USRPT is the same as your speed day, that you don't chime in until you understand it a bit more.

* I get most of my USRPT info from this document: https://coachsci.sdsu.edu/.../bullets/47GUIDE.pdf