I don’t think so, still going to get a good physiological response from there if you can mentally keep pushing despite slowing. There’s an argument for front-loading VO2 sets anyway given the time it takes to reach it. So long as you got to an intensity that got you hurting, but were able to finish the set and not a complete crash and burn you’ll be reet.
It’s like when I see people prescribe bike VO2 workouts as very defined % of FTP, especially for short repeats like 40:20s. Yes you need slight sensibility, but just send it and see/pray.
Yes I just do it to get clock back to 0, but essentially enough time to get HR back under control, but not resting, potentially around 1:1 rest / work ratio
“999, which service?”
“Air ambulance”
“And coastguard”
“Actually, just send the lot of them”
Well that was possibly the grimmest 9 minutes and 59 seconds of my life so far. Managed 6: 1m22, 1m26, 1m27, 1m26, 64s rest, 1m22, 1m29 (misfired on final tumble turn), sacked it off and did not start #7.
So some work to do. The “rests” seemed over in the blink of an eye, even the full minute after #4. Great set though, thanks, will definitely give this another go in a few days after drinking a can of hard. Reckon if can complete 8, then #9 might be in the bag too.
Also, not sure when I last saw sub 6 for 400m. So am thinking, for the sprint tri lined up in August, might stop for a 5 second rest after every 4 lengths too
Nice. These were a proper love-hate session when I was swim fit. Hammerer set me these way back, and they really kicked me on. I’d never felt my entire body tingle with lactic when swimming before! It was partially a mental breakthrough of just how much I could actually push in the water.
I really would like to get back to swimming. It was fun progressing at a sport
Yeah, but I worry about the kids who in years to come suffer from not being able to use paddles just because The Man decides to ban them. It’s ridiculous, they never think about the long term negative impact of these rules.
My 10 year old swam in a gala at PF on Sunday. He got three golds which was great though to be fair is was a Little Olympics which is for kids just starting on competitive swimming. Many are just swimmers who are doing well at their lessons.
What stood out a mile is the importance of size, my lad is small for his age, his winning time in the free was significantly behind the girls who came 1st and 2nd in the free event for 9 year olds ! To be fair they also would have beaten all the 10 year old girls. It is no coincidence they were big, one of them could have passed for about 14.
But the thing Hammerer will be really interested in, not that it’d telling him anything he does not already know, is the fall off in times between this event (and the same one in Jan this year, which more swimmers entered) and one held back in 2014.
My lad’s winning 50 free time 42.4 would have only placed him 7th (or 5th in the girls) back in 2014.
His winning 50 fly time - though he has only been swimming fly for about 8 months - of 52.2 would have got him 8th in 2014 (or 5th in the girls).
Only his Back time of 47.5 would have got him a medal and that silver not a gold (though he’d only have missed the gold by 0.3 secs). Interestingly back in 2014 the girls were quicker at this event than the boys, he’d have only come 4th. It could be there just happened to be 3 girls who were particularly big for their age !
That’s an interesting observation. We are seeing a big issue in the 12 ag currently, 5 or 10 kids dominating and the rest miles back, lack of numbers also competing where kids of that age didn’t start competitive swimming due to pools and therefore clubs being closed for a year. Most of the older kids have caught up though, they lost a lot but developed at an alarming rate once back. I do feel (just an observation not #sciencefact) that we may have a bit of a lull in times at elite level for 5 years or so in about 10 years time, or more likely young 18year olds will be faster than the 22-25years olds that should be in their peak who were also not making it against their older peers, so a “lost” generation as such.
This is quite common hence development pathways being a year advanced for girls (ie 13 V 14 for boys) and the LTAD model used in swimming giving a year advanced also.
Less of an issue at the younger age groups is size, rather the issue is late development, so muscular growth. Size/height development can be a disadvantage even at a young age as kids end up uncoordinated if they grow too quickly, lose power and form and slow down a little. They then get despondent and quit (particularly in pubescent girls) but the successful ones are those that trust the process, turn up every session and come through the other side. El Nino had a growth spirt in October, and ended up looking too skinny and was like a jelly!, to the point we were feeding him any old crap to build up, he filled out naturally, got control of his limbs and instantly started hitting massive pb’s again ( 3 - 5 seconds off a 100 level) His 50 free time dropped 3 seconds in 2 weeks! (hard to quantify that exactly as other things are at play in a gala, ie race event timing after a long weekend, fatigue through school etc. but you can just tell also)
I have not spent long on this, just looked at the three events I am interested in for my boy, but for the gala at the Stocksbridge Pentaqua open meet at PF (in April this year) the 10 year olds were faster then the 11 year olds !
How weird is that ?
yep 11/12 are the most affected by Covid, that’s 8-9 years old in 2020, the sort of time you join a competitive squad from the L2S/Tadpole programmes. A 10 year old now would have joined a squad in 2021/22 and been unhampered largely that first year and also more kids would have not bothered joining a swim squad in 2021 if they are already 9 that may have in 2020.
I did and they are fantastic.
TBH we take loads of videos of our lad (possibly not so many these days…) and rarely watch them, but those three I have already watched them loads of times.
How wonderful is it to have his three races winning three golds on video ? People who say I should not be able to video my lad racing - and winning - have no empathy (or no kids)…
They are also helpful as I do some of his coaching.
2014 just a random picked year?
I’d be cautious that in such a small, low-grade competition there’s just too much variability at such a young age to really decide?
Although yes I’ll agree obviously there will have been an effect on a 9 year olds development if they didn’t swim for 12 months. But what does it matter how fast a 9-10 year old swims? I don’t know about you but I care mostly about them being safe in the water, and then being happy and learning skills and wanting to progress. If they want to progress and try hard and compete then great, but it doesn’t really matter long-term? Even in swimmers, a typically early-specialisation sport we se kids start older then that, nevermind get good
I’ve just quickly checked British Champs 2019 vs 2023 for men’s 400 free and women’s 200 free, A and B finals. Winners and 8th faster in 2023. Judging by the clubs in the B finals they would have been places shut during The heaviest covid restrictions, not all from within British Swimming who only had 1 or 2 centres allowed to stay open (I think, but no longer any contact to elite sport so feel free to correct me there)
As I mentioned above, we see that the kids caught up within 2 or 3 months once they got regular swimming back and all were hitting pb’s at the their first galas back. El Nino in July 2021 and first gala since March 2020 (their pool was shut March thru October, then 2 weeks and shut until December, opened again for a week or 2 in December and shut until April, so essentially a whole year out) he did 3 swims, 100bk , 50br and 100IM and was 4sec, 3sec and 8 second pb’s, which isnt much different to what you’d expect over a year or so anyway in pre pubescent boys, except those at the very beginning of squad training.
