Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Slight taper and literature review

Interesting literature search this week. I decided since the last time I looked for some studies that I don't have enough information on swimming training. Interesting thing is there is hardly any valuable studies done. The reason? Its hard to study with all that water, with everything moving, and with the amount of muscle activity going on what do you look for? For running you can plan everything around the treadmill. For biking a trainer works well. But you have to build a tank to study swimming. There is this concept of suspended swimming where they try to simulate swimming with tubing and then take VO2 max etc there. Uhhhhh what? No way can we use that information. Any way what I looked at was lactate threshold and interval training with swimming. Are there acceptible time frames for intervals? What speed should we be training at? Running is very specific why cant swimming be too? Of the several studies I read the answers are NO and it depends on the person. Since oxygen is flowing less freely, since there are so many muscle groups moving and working, and there really isnt a principle group working traditional interval times and principles may not apply. The topic for future studying is if you hold a pace of 60-80% of your maximum pace for a time from that is just longer than what you can easily accomplish you are making the necessary cardiovacular changes. So swim coaches across the globe have anecdotal experience with this, what works? The programs I read dont seem to jive....please post some workouts for speed on your blog or mine.

heres how my week went so far:
Monday- Swimming...changed my mind from long swim to shorter faster since I was pressed for time...(prompted interval review) I swam 3 laps of stroke drills, 15 laps (3 X 250...750 meters) where I sprinted the 1st and 5th of each 250, 6 fast and 9 slow active recovery type laps. Splits are 5:40, 6:24, and 6:34. Attempting to have fast laps under 55 secs, 250 meters in less than 6, and how many sub-sixers can I string together? Then 2 slow cool down laps. Total 1000 meters.
Tuesday-Running in am. slow recovery run ave 9:30 for 3 miles in front of a low speed hairdryer we call the Las Vegas wind. Softball in the pm. Heated games.
Wednessday- Bike intervals on the trainer. 10 min warm-up 4X4 min on/off, 10 min cool down. Does anything make you sweat more than the trainer? I dont think so.
Thursday-Rest
Friday-travel to CA, celebrate Karls real birthday
Saturday-5K PR can I run 24:30?
Sunday-Karls 30 miles on his 30th birthday ride...How long will I ride? I am support crew.

This weeks quote:
"Those who say that I will lose and am finished will have to run over my body to beat me."
- Said Aouita

2 comments:

B.o.B. said...

Good luck on your race. I will totally be referring back to this when I get on to tri's.

Julia said...

That's really interesting how there's not much literature out there about swimming; but it makes sense, because it would be difficult to study. But I'm just learning how to swim, so keep us posted on any info you find about how to get faster and stronger!
Good luck on your race; i know you can PR!