Mike's Progress

In the hope that I continue to make some progress , I'm starting this thread just to keep a record of developments.

So this morning, rather than doing my usual 4 x 500m, I thought I'd see what time I could do for 400m. I'm pretty sure my previous fastest non-wetsuit 400m was around 7:10. Well I set the Tempo Trainer on 26s, and came in almost on the beep at 6:57. First time I've got below 7 minutes for 400m sans wetsuit, so I'm pretty pleased with that (although 6:30 would be nicer, of course ). I should add this was with unilateral breathing - I'm quite a bit slower when mixing it up with bilateral.

Followed this with 3 x 500m, and then a couple of 50s to make up the full 2k.

So today I had a lane to myself for once (initially, anyway). I thought I'd swim a continuous 1500m, just to check if I'm actually holding CSS for that distance (for the past few months I've swum nothing longer than 500m intervals). I didn't use the Tempo Trainer, or push myself particularly hard. I concentrated mostly on keeping the strokes per length down. I also alternated between unilateral and bilateral every 100m.

I was quite pleased to come in on 27mins 50s - equivalent to a 1:51.33 CSS. That's pretty close to the 1:51 I've measured from 200m/400m time trials. I think that's the fastest I've ever swum 1500m without a wetsuit. I could probably manage a bit faster using the Tempo Trainer.

It reminds me that some years back I set a mental goal of getting sub-27 minutes for 1500m. I think that ought to be quite achievable.

Something quite funny happened today, too. When I got in the pool at 6:40am it was pretty empty; there was someone in the slow lane and no-one in the fast lane, so I got in the fast lane. Towards the end of my swim I noticed a pretty fast guy racing past me in the main pool. "That's funny," I thought, "why didn't he get in the fast lane?". But when I got out of the pool, I saw they'd actually put another lane rope in, marked it "fast lane" and downgraded mine to "medium lane". Haha, that put me in my place!

almost a good enough story to survive Graham Nortons chair.

Hi Mike A.,

Trying the same thing that makes to contribution is really insane.

4x500 or SS based all rubbish/household CSS workouts (already have been known under aerobic capacity workouts for over 50+ years - and then which were advertised by some commercials under some names like CSS) never make you better and faster swimmer, and/or not for the swimmers above the 1:20 pace.

To swim faster you should develop both the efficiency(DPS) and stroke rate. Improving(decreasing) only stroke rate is not enough, at the same time you need to develop the DPS which means "power". Power = Force * Speed. Force generally remains the same, it depends on your DNA (physical capabilities), but you can develop the speed by some short repetitions(25s, 50s).

Recommend you to swim at least 5days a week(swimming is not like other sports, it is unfair, never forget that) and try some shorter sets with tight intervals such as 40x25m on 00:30 and 30x50m on 1:00 for developing a faster pace.

Gain speed first then you can make easily it sustainable by CSS or whatever it is called or I can recommend a set better than the CSS which will make that speed continuous.

Hope you will enjoy it. Good luck.

Thanks Nightcrawler. The USRPT approach isn't really viable in my winter pool as the lane's too busy; in the summer I may give it a go. Last time I read up on USRPT there wasn't much research on using it for distance/endurance swimming, but I know that's what you're applying it to.