Comments on: USE practice time. Don’t use it UP! http://www.swimwellblog.com/archives/518 The Blog of Terry Laughlin Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:48:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Terry Laughlin http://www.swimwellblog.com/archives/518/comment-page-1#comment-1568 Terry Laughlin Wed, 26 May 2010 10:46:13 +0000 http://www.swimwellblog.com/?p=518#comment-1568 Katie Great anecdote. Thanks for posting it. Here's another suggestion for next time. Use the TT to recapture lost efficiency. E.G. swim a series of 50s counting strokes and gradually slowing tempo. Count @ 1.12. Reset to 1.14 and count again. Reset to 1.16, etc. Continue this way until your SPL total for 50 yds has improved by 10%. Then retrace your steps back to 1.12 by the same increments - trying to <em>avoid adding strokes</em>. I always improve my efficiency when I do that kind of set. Katie
Great anecdote. Thanks for posting it. Here’s another suggestion for next time. Use the TT to recapture lost efficiency. E.G. swim a series of 50s counting strokes and gradually slowing tempo. Count @ 1.12. Reset to 1.14 and count again. Reset to 1.16, etc. Continue this way until your SPL total for 50 yds has improved by 10%. Then retrace your steps back to 1.12 by the same increments – trying to avoid adding strokes.
I always improve my efficiency when I do that kind of set.

]]> By: Katie http://www.swimwellblog.com/archives/518/comment-page-1#comment-1565 Katie Tue, 25 May 2010 20:41:18 +0000 http://www.swimwellblog.com/?p=518#comment-1565 This was a really great topic for me this morning. I'm doing my first open water race on Saturday, and I've been practicing the race distance (2000m) every day at a faster tempo. Today, I was scheduled to swim it at 1.12 which should have been a manageable pace. But, my SPL was a little off, and I felt rushed. After swimming 500 yards, I stopped for a few seconds to adjust the tempo to 1.14 and swam another 150 yards. I still felt rushed. So, taking this post to mind, I turned off the tempo trainer and swam 200 yards at an extremely relaxed pace (probably about 1.5) to try to hit my best possible SPL. At the end of the 200 yards, my SPL was still up by one from my best possible, but I felt relaxed and decided to go back to the tempo trainer. I set it at 1.14 for 200 yards, and it felt very relaxed. Then, I went back to 1.12 for the rest of the distance. By then, the 1.12 felt effortless. Even with all that stopping to adjust the tempo trainer and that slow 200 yards, I still improved my time by 30 seconds. This was a really great topic for me this morning. I’m doing my first open water race on Saturday, and I’ve been practicing the race distance (2000m) every day at a faster tempo.

Today, I was scheduled to swim it at 1.12 which should have been a manageable pace. But, my SPL was a little off, and I felt rushed. After swimming 500 yards, I stopped for a few seconds to adjust the tempo to 1.14 and swam another 150 yards. I still felt rushed. So, taking this post to mind, I turned off the tempo trainer and swam 200 yards at an extremely relaxed pace (probably about 1.5) to try to hit my best possible SPL. At the end of the 200 yards, my SPL was still up by one from my best possible, but I felt relaxed and decided to go back to the tempo trainer. I set it at 1.14 for 200 yards, and it felt very relaxed. Then, I went back to 1.12 for the rest of the distance. By then, the 1.12 felt effortless.

Even with all that stopping to adjust the tempo trainer and that slow 200 yards, I still improved my time by 30 seconds.

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