For ow swimmers and Red Mist fans

I found the forum because I had a spike in visits on my blog and as the admin of it I can see if it came from one place. so I just clicked away...most visitors to my blog are hidden by google but if they come from another page besides google you can see it. Most people don't leave comments too....

Ultra short rest are good and so is long slow swimming. I do both. Distance wanna be have the same bodies as young swimmers they just adapt slower so you need more rest between big hard sessions. Kinda like the days when you could drink more!

Long strokes are the building blocks to a longer racing stroke. But you can be too long too. They won't be the same. However elite athletes can hold stroke count incredibly well; Phelps' goggles came off in one of his 200fly golds and he was able to hit his turns by counting his strokes for each 50m. Fly is easier than free to hold stroke count. You shouldn't purposefully take shorter strokes in a race; the simple formula is keep strokes long with a faster tempo = faster. To do that takes a lot of things; strength, flexibility, vigilance on stroke and a little bit of 'in the zone'.

Contrast therapy is out of the pool and doesn't have anything to do with strokes. It simply helps your body recover from training faster.

swimcoachingblogger wrote:
Contrast therapy is out of the pool and doesn't have anything to do with strokes.  It simply helps your body recover from training faster.

Ok, I just thought it was a metaphor. By the way I do the same kind of therapy on regular basis (not in sauna, just switch between cold and hot water under the shower). Can't say whether I really recover faster but at least it helped me a lot to acclimate on cold(ish) open water.

Salvo

Hi Salvo,
There are three voices that makes the best theraphy on earth:
- Women's
- Money's
- Water's

When you are in stress go and try the below complex set as a theraphy, muscles relax and the revealed high dosage of endorphin makes you happy, you will forget every trouble in life and sleep like a baby:

A 3000m Complex Set:
Loop it 20 times non-stop with a very easy pace
{
  25 butterfly
  25 free
  25 backstroke
  25 free
  25 breastroke
  25 free
}

nightcrawler wrote:

A 3000m Complex Set:
Loop it 20 times non-stop with a very easy pace
{
  25 butterfly
  25 free
  25 backstroke
  25 free
  25 breastroke
  25 free
}

Good, it can also be a valid solution for the day after a hard session or for when the lane is busy and doesn't allow to swim a proper set (fortunately this hardly ever happens in my pool early morning when I normally swim). Anyway, for the record I was talking about cold therapy which has nothing to do with stress, it's a good way to improve the immune system and blood circulation.

Salvo

Yesterday it was the first session of the new year. I had many lunches and dinners to digest, so I did a brief dryland warmup and then a simple long set:

61x100m on 1:50 target pace 1:40.

Never swam that much in a session, I was curious to see what happened after 5k, what broke first in my stroke. First of all I'm glad I finished without foot/calf cramps despite not having hydrated during the set. In the first reps I was fresh and hit 1:35 at 18-19SPL, then I settled to 20SPL and 1:38-1:40 for most of the set. Toward the end I started hitting 21SPL and sometimes I came in 1:42. I never felt taxed from a breathing standpoint but my muscles were tired and my body just refused to go faster (I tried to sprint in the last rep but I couldn't do any better than 1:38).
All in all I'm satisfied, the stroke didn't break that much in the 6th "unexplored" km.

Tomorrow is usrpt day.

Salvo