Interesting workout today. Felt initially frustrated, but upon reflection, I can see the silver lining, and realize that workouts like this are not only necessary, but if you don’t have them occasionally, you won’t make progress.

I decided to try a set that I learned about from Coach Shane Eversfield (http://www.zendurance.net) while helping out at the Freestyle Clinic just concluded in Coral Springs.

The set is designed to help you improve your speed at longer distances by choosing an appropriate starting point with a tempo trainer and gradually increasing the tempo as you swim increasingly shorter repeats, and then trying to maintain stroke counts as you gradually add distance again. The fundamental idea is the same as the basic set I’ve been doing that I learned at the coaches training, but Shane’s set opened up some new ideas for me.

his suggestion: Find a tempo at which you can comfortably swim a 500. This may take some experimentation with the tempo trainer. Then swim 2 x 250 at a slightly faster tempo, perhaps .01 or .02 faster, then do 4 x 125 at a slightly faster tempo, etc.

Again, basically the same idea, but much more endurance focused than the sets of 25s & 50s I’d been doing with the TT. I liked the idea of starting with a longer set, cutting it in half and cutting it in half again.

I set my TT at 1.30, a pace that almost feels too slow for me. Prior to heading ot hte pool, I did some math. I know that I can comfortably swim 15 strokes at that rate, and adding 3 beeps for push-off, came up with times between 7:40 and 8:20 for a 500 at that tempo, assuming i maintained stroke length.

That would be a PR for me, so I was anxious to see what the out come would be.

I started out with about 15 SPL for the first few lengths, then it quickly grew to 16, 17 and 18 SPL. I decided to keep going. I was getting a little tired and my breathing was not at it’s finest (far from it actually…I’d give it a 3 on a scale of 7).

I got to 250 and was up to 20 SPL on the 2nd to last lap so I called it quits. I was timing the set as well. My first 100 was 1:45, the 2nd 100 was 1:49 and the final 50 was :55, for a total of 4:30 for 250. Certainly not a horrible time, but I was really hoping for consistent 1:40s for the entire set.

I guess specificity is still the rule. As far as doing "timed" or tempo trainer sets, I’ve still been doing primarily 50s, not even 100s. The longer sets I’ve done have been untimed and focused only on stroke thoughts.

A rational person would have probably chucked the tempo trainer into the garbage, but I pressed on with a shortened version of the workout, doing 2 x 100 the 4 x 50 at the same TT setting.

Results?
100 @ 1:40
100 @ 1:42

50 @ 49
50 @ 51
50 @ 51
50 @ 51

So what did I learn from this set? Initially I wanted to just call it quits. But by continuing the shorter distances it’s clear that I just need to begin building the endurance to MAINTAIN TECHNIQUE as the distance gets longer. I can clearly swim the distance, so it’s not a matter of endurance alone, it’s whether or not I can keep the coordination and timing required to swim well, streamlined and balanced.

I think this is the key point that many triathletes miss when they swim masters workouts or swim "hard intervals". There’s no point in swimming harder if your technique can’t be maintained at that effort level.

As one of the coaches on the TI forum described it, I’ll use this set to "dance" with the proper TT setting for my current form & fitness level.

So how will I apply this information?

Lots of different ways, but here’s one that sounds attractive to me. at the same TT setting, swim:
50
75
50
100
50
125
50
150
etc…

The 50s in between each one as a "check"…am I too fatigued overall to even continue the set? Then gradually increasing the distance through the set to see how long I can hold the stroke length (as measured either by counting strokes, or by timing the set…as long as my tempo is the same, I can use either of the other two variables for the same data point).

Alternatively, I could swim sets of 100s with variable rest in-between, looking for the point at which my stroke length shortens, then use that as a variable from one workout to the next.

So many different ways to use the information I collected today, limited only by my imagination and patience.

Had I been swimming only by time, I’d have no real plan on how to empirically improve my performance except to either remain frustrated, or continue to swim hard…not knowing how or why my performance is changing.

I finished the workout with something along these lines…

200 of mixed butterfly drills and lengths, with rest btwn each length.

2 x 25 butterfly
2 x 25 backstroke, focusing on rotation and kick timing
2 x 25 breaststroke – focusing on relaxed head falling between my shoulders
2 x 25 freestyle, maintaining good SL and similar tempo as the first set

1 x 100 IM fast, but not all out (1:45) Happy with this…it’s pretyt consistent now.

Then some mixed lengths of all 4 strokes, playing again with the backstroke kick.

All in all a good day, tired shoulders.