I’m new to TrainerRoad, and am rolling into week 6 of SSBI. I’ve been concurrently training in the pool. I have a background in competitive swimming, and wouldn’t normally take a recovery week this early in the training season. My frequency and intensity in the pool are down from what I’d normally do, in deference to adding cycling training to the mix. I’ve been doing 3x~2500 yards when in past seasons I’d be doing 4-5 x ~2800, and the intensity of my work has been ~85% of previous norms.
Should I back off the swimming a bit this week as well, or carry on as usual? What says the forum?
This is VERY different than our old swim training where you just put in 5-7k per session, sometimes twice a day. You should be fine with swimming at 3x2500 if you are not feeling overwhelmed by the structured training. If you are feeling tired/sluggish at all, I would skip a swim session, enjoy a donut, and look forward to getting back at it. I seem to eat a lot more during recovery weeks which I allow as my reward for needing one.
Yeah, I did the 8-12k yard days for months on end as a Club and High School Swimmer back in the '80s. Took up the sport again ~5 years ago. Stumbled across something called Ultra Short Race Pace Training, or USPRT. Long story short, the program is very sharply focused on quality over quantity, and I’ve been very successful training on quite modest yardage under the program. Last season, on 11-14k yards/week, I managed top 30 USMS ranking performances for my age group in the 1000 free, 1650 free, and 200 fly. Also cracked the top 100 in the 100 (84th) and 200 (62nd) free. Medaled (5th) in the 1000 free at USMS Spring Nationals, and at the Open Water Sprint (1-mile) National Championship (2nd). All in the last year before aging up. For any time-constrained Masters looking to maximize their swim performance, I’d strongly suggest checking out USRPT.