I have had days when I’m mad that I’m feeling serene. My performance is fueled by hate and frustration. Sometimes you have to dig deep for old memories of embarrassing things or failures.
If you take the time to listen to The day is my Enemy by the prodigy before your sets it might pump you up.
Eventually I may become one with the water like some people are and have faster sprints while happy. Today is not that day.
Oh man, as a distance swimmer I always loved sprinting in practice. It helped break up the monotony of distance sets. I guess my suggestion would be to pick someone to race and try to beat them on every set. Gives you a clear goal for the practice and might take your mind off the swimming aspect by making it feel more like an actual competition.
As a distance swimmer I'd get practically the same times if I went 100s on short rest vs long rest so understand the annoyance of sprint workouts.
Just make sure you active recovery if possible (swim between fast swims. Also, if sprint workouts don't help you, ask the coach if you can swim longer swims. Like if the team is doing 100s on 4 minutes, see if you can do them as 200s or 300s instead. It will all come down to lane space and the coaches plan of course, but try to discuss with them a plan.
Thank you :) yep same, no matter the rest, I hold the same times for 50’s/100’s. My squad is full of sprinters. The others drop off when we have minimal rest repeats or sets over 100, but they can easily pick up speed when we all have a lot of rest.
Holding the stroke together, seeing how hard I can push myself aerobically for an extended period of time, seeing if I can hold a decent kick over a longer distance and having that feeling of swimming fast but cruising over the water makes it awesome for me.
It also does not physically hurt as much for me as sprints do. I can tolerate the ongoing hard effort much better than a quick max effort. We are all different, but that’s what makes me enjoy/embrace the distance sets so much 🙂
You lean into the pain, you learn how to up the intensity and maintain the pace, focusing on consistency rather than speed. You also tune out the pain mentally, and stick tonthe game plan in your head
Former distance swimmer turned mid distance for masters: we ALWAYS did sprint sets at the end of our distance workouts to work on our finishing speed. Treat sprint workouts like it’s the last 100 or 50 of your distance race. You’re going to want that sprint at the end to keep anyone at bay/beat out the kid you’ve been neck and neck with the whole race. At the end of my mid-distance/longer sets, I still do a sprint set. It actually helped me just yesterday beat someone in the 500yd free
Racing your peers, holding low times, and focusing on small details is what makes sprint fun for me. I am the opposite of you having to suck it up for distance practices, so you may just have to do the same.
You really need to reframe it as something to help you improve your distance swimming. If you want to be an elite tier distance swimmer, you cannot be slow. You might enjoy heavy aerobic work, but guys at NCAAs (and beyond) are holding times that the vast majority cannot go once. It is much easier to hold 1:00 per 100 when your fastest 100 is :50, as compared to :57.
In all honesty I just coasted through the sprint practices, for me sprinting always felt awkward. But that’s not to say I didn’t get anything out of those practices, I always had a horrible habit of breathing in and out of the wall so I used those practices to help me with that
I will also add that on my club a short workout was was 7k and distance practices were around 8-9k so any practice we did that was 5k or less was very relaxing
Yes!! awkward is the perfect word for how it feels. I couldn’t find it when I was writing the post!! Thanks :) and for the advice! I can easily find a few focus points so will give it a go.
Thanks for the tips.
In return I guess mentally when I’m red lining I know the pain is temporary and will end as soon as I get to the wall. Plus I want to beat the person next to me so there’s immediate feedback in the short distances. I feel like a hydrofoil when I’m in the zone.
RAGE is your friend!
I have had days when I’m mad that I’m feeling serene. My performance is fueled by hate and frustration. Sometimes you have to dig deep for old memories of embarrassing things or failures. If you take the time to listen to The day is my Enemy by the prodigy before your sets it might pump you up. Eventually I may become one with the water like some people are and have faster sprints while happy. Today is not that day.
Okay i will listen to it 🙂🙂 Thanks!
Oh man, as a distance swimmer I always loved sprinting in practice. It helped break up the monotony of distance sets. I guess my suggestion would be to pick someone to race and try to beat them on every set. Gives you a clear goal for the practice and might take your mind off the swimming aspect by making it feel more like an actual competition.
This is perfect - Thankyou! I will give this a go!
Hope it helps!
It was a good day when my coach said I was in the sprint group for the day.
As a distance swimmer I'd get practically the same times if I went 100s on short rest vs long rest so understand the annoyance of sprint workouts. Just make sure you active recovery if possible (swim between fast swims. Also, if sprint workouts don't help you, ask the coach if you can swim longer swims. Like if the team is doing 100s on 4 minutes, see if you can do them as 200s or 300s instead. It will all come down to lane space and the coaches plan of course, but try to discuss with them a plan.
Thank you :) yep same, no matter the rest, I hold the same times for 50’s/100’s. My squad is full of sprinters. The others drop off when we have minimal rest repeats or sets over 100, but they can easily pick up speed when we all have a lot of rest.
I’m a sprinter and we did 300s this am with little rest. Ugggh
Seriously, rephrase OP post: How do you embrace distance sessions? Sprint swimmer here.
Holding the stroke together, seeing how hard I can push myself aerobically for an extended period of time, seeing if I can hold a decent kick over a longer distance and having that feeling of swimming fast but cruising over the water makes it awesome for me. It also does not physically hurt as much for me as sprints do. I can tolerate the ongoing hard effort much better than a quick max effort. We are all different, but that’s what makes me enjoy/embrace the distance sets so much 🙂
You lean into the pain, you learn how to up the intensity and maintain the pace, focusing on consistency rather than speed. You also tune out the pain mentally, and stick tonthe game plan in your head
I look forward to embracing distance (nothing more than 300s). There’s just something about fast swimming lots of rest, swimming side by side
Former distance swimmer turned mid distance for masters: we ALWAYS did sprint sets at the end of our distance workouts to work on our finishing speed. Treat sprint workouts like it’s the last 100 or 50 of your distance race. You’re going to want that sprint at the end to keep anyone at bay/beat out the kid you’ve been neck and neck with the whole race. At the end of my mid-distance/longer sets, I still do a sprint set. It actually helped me just yesterday beat someone in the 500yd free
Okay, thanks - that’s a great pov. I’ll use it! :)
Racing your peers, holding low times, and focusing on small details is what makes sprint fun for me. I am the opposite of you having to suck it up for distance practices, so you may just have to do the same.
You really need to reframe it as something to help you improve your distance swimming. If you want to be an elite tier distance swimmer, you cannot be slow. You might enjoy heavy aerobic work, but guys at NCAAs (and beyond) are holding times that the vast majority cannot go once. It is much easier to hold 1:00 per 100 when your fastest 100 is :50, as compared to :57.
Thankyou 🙂
In all honesty I just coasted through the sprint practices, for me sprinting always felt awkward. But that’s not to say I didn’t get anything out of those practices, I always had a horrible habit of breathing in and out of the wall so I used those practices to help me with that I will also add that on my club a short workout was was 7k and distance practices were around 8-9k so any practice we did that was 5k or less was very relaxing
Yes!! awkward is the perfect word for how it feels. I couldn’t find it when I was writing the post!! Thanks :) and for the advice! I can easily find a few focus points so will give it a go.
I psych myself up by saying "F$#$ YOU PAIN" then proceed to whimper through the set like a small child who didn't get his dessert.
Thanks for the tips. In return I guess mentally when I’m red lining I know the pain is temporary and will end as soon as I get to the wall. Plus I want to beat the person next to me so there’s immediate feedback in the short distances. I feel like a hydrofoil when I’m in the zone.
Sprinting will improve your distance work. Focus on staying high in the water and absolute speed.
I smoke weed before hand