Triathlon Swimming Q&A: David Thompson Swimming Workout

June 1 , 2009

Q: I have a question about a David Thompson workout. On his website, www.thompsontri.com, he refers to goal 50's, with a one minute send off. You refer to his 50 yard workout, but with the 2 minute send off. Are these 2 different workouts?? Also, do you think it is safe to do these weekly? More often??

A: The workouts sound very similar (same repeat distance and repetitions with different intervals), but they serve a fundamentally different purpose.   As Thompson indicates, a faster goal pace throughout the season on a 1-minute sendoff will give you confidence of continuous improvement.  But it doesn’t do a great job of developing speed.  That is because 30 seconds is not enough time for the human body to recover from an all-out anaerobic effort.  If you sprint as fast as you can, you will still feel tired after 30-seconds, forcing you to drop the intensity on the next repeat or accept a crash-and-burn a few repeats later. 

A 2-minute send-off gives the body enough time to recover, but not enough time to flush out the lactic acid from the muscles.  Thus, you can hold a much higher intensity for more repeats.  Because of the lactic acid buildup, the sprints become extremely uncomfortable.  Your body (and particularly your nervous system) adapts at an accelerated rate because you are swimming a long time at a faster speed and under high stress.  In short, a 2-minute send-off makes you a faster swimmer, while a 1-minute sendoff confirms you are a faster swimmer.  Mix and match these workouts according to your own athletic goals. 

As for safety of these intense workouts, you should really consult your physician.  Intense training is something you should only do if you know you are healthy enough.  But it is a lot of fun!  It creates excitement and breaks up the monotony of endless laps.  And as bad as the pain is, it is over with so quickly that you will still finish smiling!  Hope this helps!

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