Being back in Perth means that today I was back in the normal routine of heading down to Claremont Pool to help/watch Paul Newsome with the Friday morning sessions.
Today for Threshold Friday Paul planned something a little different. This morning was all about 50s, and a bucket load of them too.
The session looked something like this:
12 x 50m - every 4th one fast
9 x 50m - every 3rd one fast
6 x 50m - every 2nd one fast
3 x 50m - all fast.
While the number of steady 50s between the efforts decreased as the set progressed the amount of rest between each 50 conversely increased. By the last set of 3 x 50m people were getting at least 14 seconds per 50, which meant they were getting enough recovery that they were able to focus on laying down the efforts. Which they did.
We don't often do pure 50 sessions down at SwimSmooth, so I think everybody appreciated the change. Well they appreciated it at the start. I am not sure they appreciated the change so much by the end as the session hurts surprisingly much. Since you can really concentrate on swimming fast, you can push yourself quite hard. Combined with a solid 900m build set, the lactic was starting to pinch by the end.
A session of high intensity 50s is not necessarily an obvious match for Threshold Friday, which is a session aimed at going fast, but not flat out. However, sometimes sessions can be deceptive. Despite appearances, the session actually wasn't that different in the end to a normal Theshold Friday. It certainly wasn't an easy session. And whilst the session was similar to a sprint session, the amount of rest was smaller and the intensity lower than you would expect for a pure sprint session. As a result the set was still quite an effective threshold one.
Also sometimes the why of a session is less about the physiology of a session and more about the psychology. Getting yourself down to the pool in the middle of winter during school holidays can be a real struggle. Motivation can start to get low when it is cold and dark outside. In order to help people stay motivated it is important to try and keep the sessions interesting. Paul is very proud of the fact that the SwimSmooth sessions are rarely the same week in/week out. Sessions may be similar, but they are rarely ever identical. All the same, sometimes people need to change it up and do something a bit different. That is what this morning was about. Giving people something different.
Giving people a mental break while still achieving the aims of the session, that is what I call a well planned session. Part of the magic of SwimSmooth.
On an entirely different note, it should be a good stage in the Tour tonight. Last night was certainly quite exciting and I think if Bardet has his way, tonight could be quite exciting too. Can Froome bounce back or did last night show a crack in his facade? I think tonight should give us a better idea. In the end Bardet and Aru are riding well, but they are going to need a good minute on Froome by the end of next week if they hope to hold him off in the final TT. Getting a minute over the Pyrenees and the Alps may be possible, but they are going to need to get some more significant gains if they have dreams of overall GC victory. I have no idea if them gaining a big enough buffer over Froome is possible, but it should be very exciting finding out over the next week and a bit, particularly tonight.
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