Cruise Paces

Keeping track of 16+ athletes in one training group is a big challenge for any coach.  It's important that we teach athletes to be self-sufficient and think for themselves during training, so that every instruction from the coach -- no matter how small -- is put to use by each athlete during the practice.  As athletes get older and more experienced, they should be able to go to meets and training camps without their coach, and still get the job done. 

During the fall of 2012, I plan to use this "Cruise Pace" chart with my athletes 1-3 times per week.  I hope that my athletes will take a guideline like this chart, understand it, and then use it to their advantage. Most likely I will use this chart for one major set, plus two secondary sets.  The "Cruise" paces were calculated, initially, based off what Coach Bob Treffene of Australia called "Critical Speed" pace; to get this pace for any athlete take their 200 PR, divide it, and add 4 seconds.  For T2 Aquatics' "Cruise Paces" we use this method as well (you can see that this method is what led us to our 100 "Cruise Pace").  We've taken it a step further and come up with paces for different distances (100, 125, 150, 200, and 300).  I've used my head and experience with certain athletes to determine the paces for anything above a 100.  It's not a perfect mathmatical formula (I rounded and estimated a bit to create this chart) - but I think the chart will serve its purpose.

I believe it's appropriate to find an athlete's pace between "race pace" and "maintainence pace" -- and train it with great stroke technique.  Generally with this sort of thing, the athlete's tempo (stroke rate) will be somewhat above what they will use when racing.  They will be going pretty fast, but not so fast that they would consider it a "Max" effort....and they should be able to repeat this fast but relaxed pace more than once in a row during practice.

I will use the chart in two ways.  First, as a set with speeds approaching race pace:

Example 1:
4 rounds: {3x100 Free (115) at "cruise pace" + 1x100 easy (130)}
Once the athlete hits the cruise pace they can simply hold it while working on little things like walls (no breathing in or out) or breathing patterns (every 5th) -- or really, any kind of "detail" work the coach finds appropriate.  This way, the athletes are performing at a strong but not overly-hard level, and the coach is watching them perform the swims with the best possible stroke technique.


Second, as a set with speeds in the "Threshold" pace area:

Example 2:
10x300 (330).  Hold Cruise 300 pace for 7 300s, then descend the final 3 of the set to cruise pace minus 4.  This method gives the athlete something to hold throughout the set that should be right in the "Threshold" area based off their 200 PR.  Adjustments can be made for athletes whose Threshold pace seems to be a bit faster or slower than the indicated time.

With large groups, I hope this "Cruise" sheet will give coaches some pace times which we can use to keep all of our athletes honest with their efforts.  It takes away the guessing game for submaximal training ("how fast should I go?"), and it will give the athletes a standard to which they can aspire during a given set.

*For anyone who would like a copy of this sheet, send me a comment with your email address -- and I'll send you a sheet over the weekend.