Age: 63
Looking for suggestions for workout to get faster
Really want to be at the front of my age group in the next 2 years if possible
I get technique critiques in person every 2 - 3 weeks
But don’t have anyone to plan/suggest workouts
AOS
Last 8 months swim focus
Fastest 25 yard from a push 14.25
Fastest 500 Yard - avg 1:28/100 open turns
Any other info needed I’m happy to provide
Current workout program is
6x/week
400 WU
2000 main set
400 CD
Well if you hold 7;20 pace for a 500 until you are 65, you should be up in the first few of that AG. Wont be winning it in bigger races, but certainly up there with the pointy end of the race. I would say the best thing you could do easily is to pinch workouts from the Fishes thread. And they go back for like 10 years now, so if the search function works, you have 1000’s to choose from. I mean the standard stuff is easy, 20x100, 4x500, 10x200 and such, but I think what you are needing is variety in your 6 days a week in the water?? Just make sure you swim something hard most days, so longer sets on short intervals, and shorter swims on longer ones. After 60 you just want to hold onto the speed you got, which means every year you got faster. If you learn how to do a good flip turn you will get 10 seconds faster right away, so there is that too…Maybe do some strokes too if you can, that really helps overall for just about everything we do in triathlon…
Thank you Monty
Much appreciated
I think you understand I was talking about triathlons and not a swimming race
Also with my 25 time VS my 500 time is there one sort of energy system I should be working more?
Meaning if the 25 time is what is holding me back or more so my endurance speed
Thank you
Not specific to your question but here is what I have been thinking about lately:
I’ve been thinking about drills and “technique” and how useless they become based on the way they are traditionally used. I’d rather incorporate that work into the main set than do a stand alone “drill set.”
I’m trying to do a better job of actually being warmed up at the end of warmup!
An easy 400 doesn’t warm me up, it simply makes me a little looser. So I conclude warm up with some breath control or fast swimming. Example: : 8 x 25’s on :25 (or in your case probably :30) breath once per lap on odds, twice per lap on evens. You could change that to breath twice each lap.
Every coach is doing main sets with brackets now most of the time. What I mean is you have a miniset of 300-500 yards, and you repeat it several times. Example repeat this 5 times: 4 x 100’s each round: 100 of 50 drill / 50 swim / 100 fast but smooth / 100 of 50 drill 50 swim / 100 fast // and in the spirit of making drills mean something, on the 50 smooth you should really be incorporating whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish with your drills).
the greatest exercise on earth is dolphin kicking on your back. Building the strength to dolphin kick on your back well will make you a LOT better at 95% of physical activity. Hmmm, I’m going to start a post about this…
GREAT info. Thank you
Trying dolphin kick in the back today
Without knowing you or seeing you at all I’d say the very tip of expectations should be 4 x 25s where you only do half a lap of dolphin per lap for the first week.
I put my hands over my head in a streamline but i’ve seen some very competent swimmers do dolphin with their arms at their side.
At what distance race do you want to get faster? Is it a 500 yard sprint or an Ironman?
Tim
1/2 distance Tri. I included my know times for 25 and 500 to maybe give an idea of where I am at now
Based on those times, it looks like you lean a little more towards the “fast twitch” side than slow. The number of days a week is good, but you aren’t swimming enough - if you are looking to improve to the front of your AG. From the structure that you give of your workouts, you are probably spending almost half of your main set still warming up and not really making an adaptation.
Here’s a small library of workouts that I put together for the team I coach. They are the workouts I gave when I first started coaching triathletes. The ones I give now are a lot different, but these still work.
www.magnoliamasters.com/workouts
If you have any questions, let me know.
Tim
GREAT!
Thank you I will do those
I did lower my yards per workout when I added back on biking and running
For the previous 8 months I only swam.
The last month I got up to 40,000 yards per week
I will add some more yards back in
Be careful. There is only so much room to adapt. If you were going 40k a week and then add in biking and running, my guess would be you would start to get slower in the swim and not faster.
Thank you
Sorry I didn’t make it more clear
When I added the biking and running back in
I dropped back to 6x/week 3000 yards per session
Which now by contrast feels easy
Try 10x100 on 2:30 every few weeks and just get into it
I am now realising I do a lot of my sets on rest that is too short so I can’t actually swim that fast
Need to do both short and long rest and combine the mix well
If I want to be able to do a certain speed for a 400 I need to start being able to do it for a set of 50s then 100s then lots of 100s but need enough rest to build it up to that speed
One of the hardest sets I ever did was something like 7-8 rounds of 50-100-200 with 30 seconds rest between and 90 seconds rest each 350 , just flooring it the whole time. Got absolutely pasted by my lane mates on the last few 200s
Little bracket sets repeated a lot is a good tip
I swim public lanes only
So it’s kind of annoying to lane sharing to sit on the wall for ages then go again, annoying to others
So most of my sets have been short rest. Need to just find good times and try swim faster with some more rest and like it or lump it with others in the lane
Great thank you
I am fortunate I don’t think I have had to share a lane more than maybe 3 or 4 times in the past year
YMCAs in a few different states always seem to have open lanes so far for me
That’s great. The dream is your own lane sunny day on an outdoor 50m.
Got that today
Fantastic!!
I have never been in a 50 yard pool, let alone a 50m pool
Wow
Aw you got to try a 50m pool
That is our most common length in Australia
It’s funny hey, when I worked in the UK early 2000s there were two 50m pools in the entire country, 1 in Newcastle the other in London and the 1 in London they ended up splitting into 2 x 25m pools. You go to any small country town in Oz and they’ll have a 50m pool.
I did swim in a few 33m pools in the UK, my favourite length of pool.