Thursday 23 February 2017

February 2017 Week 2 Session 1

Today's 'sprint' training session was a success, especially early in the sets.


My pace faded across the brief 28 minutes but importantly a number of the 'fast' lengths were completed in the same number of strokes as the slower ones. Previously I've suffered from an increased stroke rate having less effect on pace than hoped as the strokes per length increased too. This is pretty common and all but the most expert swimmers tend to do this. Anyway, my short-lived ability resulted in low SWOLF scores.


For the first set, as this excerpt shows, even with a dramatic increase in stroke rate from 5SPM to 60SPM I completed each length in 18 or 19 strokes. This equates to 1.6m per stroke (assuming 3m push off) compared to my wrist to wrist span of 1.60m see this link. This looks like a good 'efficiency' performance, but is, after all, achieved with a pull buoy. I's worth noting that by the end of the session my SPL had risen to 23 for fast lengths and so my pace had fallen markedly.

In the warm-up, which I never do with the pull buoy, my SPL is 24, so with a modest push-off of 3m my efficiency is, at best, 78%.

Julian has stressed that for this block I need to keep a good reach, especially with my left arm, and the initial lengths have shown that a relatively low cadence with good style does work for me. Collapse of my leading arm during breathing is an issue for me.

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