Ande's Swimming Blog

That's a nice 400 time, Ande. And the 50 wasn't that bad, either especially when you take into consideration all the differences from last year. Perhaps the two biggest changes were that you had just swum a 400 and that you weren't super-psyched. Maybe the last one was the most important.

If it were me, I would scratch the 200 back to focus on the 200 free! But that is just me!

Good luck, Ande.

What's your fastest masters time in the 400 free? Is that about what you expected to go? Seems good to me.

I think you already know why your 50 free was slower: swam the 400, wore a slower suit, trained for 200s+ and weren't psyched. I swam the 50 free a couples times when I wasn't psyched -- actually SCY Zones and Nats last year -- neither effort was very satisfying. I was mostly relieved they were over -- never a good sign.

What suit were most of the swimmers wearing?

I saw on FB that David G. was planning on wearing either his B70 or Aquazone at this meet. Didn't he know in advance he couldn't wear either?

Ande -- I think the lack of rest, the lack of super-psyched-tude and the 400 were negative on your 50. I'd still suggest you swim both 200s tomorrow.

I can't make any judgments about the (lack of) being psyched, but the 400 and the heavier workload will have HUGE effects on your 50 speed. You were slightly over 1 sec from your best time last summer...you can easily get that in a taper -- I know I have -- suit or no suit.

As far as dropping the 200 or not, I would go with your instinct. If you are looking forward more to the backstroke, scratch the free.

Nice 400. I liked how the last 2 100s were pretty event. But, you might want to try to keep the last 3 100s even. Just a suggestion. It is a really good time with all the 5K, 10K 55K swims that you have been doing. Do both 200s, why not!!!

Ande,

Difficult for the central nervous system to recover in back to back events. It can't recover in a few hours. This hurt your 50.

The autonomic nervous system or ANS is made up of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves. The sympathetic nerves speed up various physiological processes such as heart rate and the parasympathetic nervous system slows down physiological processes.

It is possible to measure sympathetic and parasympathetic responses to exercise using heart rate variability. Heart rate variability is the time interval between heart beats and is usually measured in ms.

Scientists use heart rate variability information to study what happens to the ANS during and after exercise.

One particular interesting study is that of Buchheit et al. (2007) . These researchers studied a phenomenon known as parasympathetic reactivation.

When we are at rest the parasympathetic nervous system is the predominant system we use to control normal bodily functions. However, when we exercise the sympathetic nervous system increases its activity and reduces the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system.

So, parasympathetic reactivation is the study of how long the parasympathetic nervous system takes to recover from exercise and return to baseline or near baseline measures.

What Buchheit et al. (2007) looked at was which type of training affected parasympathetic reactivation the most. The type of training looked at was repeated all-out sprints, continuous running or an intermittent exercise session.

The results showed that the activities that placed the highest demand on the anaerobic energy system ie. repeated sprints had the slowest parasympathetic reactivation.

This study really backs up what coaches have thought for a while, that anaerobic exercise places a considerable demand on the human nervous system.

What’s important is that we recognise that it’s not just muscles that need to recover from exercise but the nervous system too. This means we need to take into account rest periods during exercise and throughout training cycles in order to optimise training adaptations.

This point is especially valid when we are competing in sprint and intermittent type activities.

Alan Ruddock CSCS, YCS

That 400 was disappointing based on the work you have done and how fast you have gone in practice. That 1:03 first 100 killed you. I bet a 1:06 would have let you go 1:08's the rest of the way and a shot at sub 4:30.

I'm kicking myself for being too lazy to post when you solicited advice for this 400. I was thinking "Dude, you're a sprinter and you'll automatically go out way too fast. Consciously hold back the first 100, then build your effort from there."

Syd,
thanks the 400 was a starting point
went a little too hard on the front end or wasn't tough enough on the last 100
50 free was just off


hey leslie,

that was my fastest masters 400 time
hoped to go faster but we are where we are and just need to train through to the next level

What suit were most of the swimmers wearing?
saw LZRs, rocket science, PRO's, FS2's, FS1's, & arena

David G. didn't know about the USS rules
wore pro's, wore training suit in his 200 br in finals, wore rocket science

hey

thanks pat
shoulda split my 200 back better

hey chris,
great comments
the heavier workload helped my longer events & hurt my sprints

tjrpatt,
I agree about keeping the last 3 100s even.


rtodd
it's hard to be sharp on back to back events
interesting Ruddock article


hey fres,
the 400 is a new challenge
I don't believe in too fast but defintiely too hard, I think sprinters often misjudge how to pace longer swims, even 200's building effort is a good idea

Ande,

How much time was there between the 400 and the 50? I'm considering doing something similar at Nats and was wondering how much time you had. If you had trouble and there was sufficient recovery time, then I'm concerned.