Logbook information

The information below is designed to help you have a better understanding of your training and help you to fill out your logbook accurately.

Training Type – Many different terms are used across different  programmes around the world to describe the energy systems involved during training. Below is a table that relates these different systems to each other.

 

Training types:

Aerobic

Aerobic training, also known as cardiovascular or endurance training, focuses on improving the body's ability to utilise oxygen efficiently to sustain prolonged physical activity. During aerobic training, the cardiovascular system (heart and lungs) adapts to deliver oxygen-rich blood to working muscles more efficiently, while the muscles themselves become better at utilising oxygen to produce energy. This leads to benefits such as increased endurance, improved cardiovascular health, better oxygen delivery to tissues, and enhanced overall fitness levels. Aerobic training is typically performed at a moderate intensity, with heart rates at more than 40 beats below maximum (BBM) for an extended duration, although it can also include high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for more varied workouts.

Anaerobic Threshold

Anaerobic threshold training involves exercising at intensities that push your body to produce lactic acid faster than it can clear it. This threshold is the point at which the body can no longer clear lactic acid as quickly as it's being produced, leading to fatigue. Training near or slightly above this threshold helps improve your body's ability to tolerate and clear lactic acid, improving endurance and performance.

Lactate Production

Lactate production training typically refers to a form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) aimed at improving the body's ability to produce and clear lactate during exercise.

In lactate production training, athletes perform intervals of high-intensity exercise interspersed with periods of low-intensity exercise. These intervals are designed to push the body to its lactate threshold, where lactate production increases substantially. Over time, with consistent training, the body becomes more efficient at clearing lactate and dealing with the negative effects, leading to improvements in performance. It helps improve anaerobic capacity, speed, and overall endurance by training the body to tolerate and manage high levels of lactate during intense exercise.

Speed

Speed training, also known as sprint training, is a form of exercise aimed at improving an individual's maximum speed and acceleration. Speed training can be tailored to the specific needs and goals of the individual swimmer, taking into account factors such as current fitness level, event specificity, and training phase. Consistent and structured speed training can lead to significant improvements in sprint performance, including faster acceleration, higher top speed, and better overall swimming.

Lactate Tolerance

Like Lactate production, Lactate tolerance training is a form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) that is more focused on improving the body's ability to tolerate and clear lactate during intense exercise. During high-intensity exercise, the body produces lactate as a byproduct of anaerobic metabolism when oxygen availability is limited. Lactate itself isn't the cause of fatigue; rather, it's associated with the production of hydrogen ions, which can decrease muscle pH (make it acidic) and contribute to muscle fatigue.

In lactate tolerance training, athletes perform intervals of high-intensity exercise at or slightly above their lactate threshold, which is the point at which lactate production exceeds the body's ability to clear it. By repeatedly challenging the body to work at this intensity, swimmers train their muscles to become more efficient at utilising lactate as an energy source and buffering the acidity created. This leads to improvements in endurance, speed, and overall performance.

Lactate tolerance training sessions typically involve short, intense efforts followed by brief periods of rest, repeated for several intervals. Over time, with consistent training, swimmers can increase their lactate tolerance, enabling them to sustain higher workloads for longer durations without experiencing excessive fatigue.

Race Pace

Race pace training involves practising swimming at the pace you aim to maintain during a specific race distance. Incorporating race pace training into your regimen helps you become familiar with the speed and effort required to achieve your target race time.

Race pace training serves several purposes:
⦁ Familiarisation: It allows you to become accustomed to the rhythm and effort level required to sustain your goal pace for the duration of the race.
⦁ Mental Preparation: Practising at race pace helps build mental toughness and confidence, reducing anxiety on race day.
⦁ Physical Adaptation: Regularly swimming at race pace conditions your body to perform efficiently at that speed, improving endurance and efficiency.

Race pace training can be incorporated into various types of sessions and considered by many to be an essential component of a well-rounded training program for swimmers aiming to achieve specific time goals in their races.

Heart Rate

As you can probably tell, heart rate training uses your heart rate or beats per minute (bpm) as a guide to help you hit a specific training intensity. Instead of training at a specific pace, you use a heart rate monitor to train at a specific effort level for a set amount of time. The heart rate zones for specific training types are listed in the chart above. To be able to work out if your heart rate is in the right zone you need to know your max heart rate. This can be worked out by simply subtracting your age from 220. Once you know your max heart rate then you can work out what your heart rate needs to be training in the correct zone. This can be a useful way to keep track of your effort level across the set.

VO2 Max

Your VO2 max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. The best way to increase your VO2 max is to exercise near your maximum heart rate, as you can see from the chart, this is just below your lactate threshold. It can also be called aerobic overload, peak oxygen uptake, maximal oxygen uptake, or maximal aerobic capacity but most people use VO2 max simply because it's shorter. You can train your VO2 max most efficiently by working at a high intensity, this is in the heart rate zone of 10-20 BBM. Working near your max heart rate helps strengthen the muscles in your heart and increase the volume of blood it can pump with each beat. This will allow your body to work harder for longer both in training and on race day.

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Hydration

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Training cycles and Target meets

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Comments

The comments section is where you can self evaluate your session or racing. For example after a training session you may want to mention any technical focuses, anything you felt went well, what you felt you could have done better and how you felt, did you feel good or did it feel harder than it should have.

If you are commenting on a meet you have just completed, try to think about what happened for you mentally. The times will speak for themselves but in your comments you can record how you felt, whether you were confident and full of energy or nervous and tired. Be really honest, because it’s the only way to accurately tell where you are at and what you could do to improve.

 

Training cycles and Target meets

The way that all sports people improve their fitness is through a process of overload and adaptation. This essentially means putting the systems of your body (Aerobic, Anaerobic etc.) under stress for a period of time and then allowing the body time to recover. This recovery period is essential for your body to adapt and give you a higher level of fitness. As a competitive swimmer your training programme for the year should be broken down into 3 different types of cycle.

  • The Macrocycle – is the biggest of the cycles and is your whole season of training.
  • The Mesocycle – is the mid sized cycle and is basically a block of training within your season and lasts a number of weeks. The number of mesocycles in your season can vary based on your age and training programme.
  • The Microcycle – is the smallest cycle and is usually a week’s worth of training.

The cycle that we are most concerned with when talking about target meets is the Mesocycle. Your training load will change across the cycle and your performance at meets throughout the cycle will vary based on a number of factors. It’s also very much based on you as an individual, some swimmers will consistently swim well at the end of a cycle whereas other swimmers will have a very mixed bag of results. By keeping track of your race results in relation to the point in your training cycle you can get a better idea of when in your cycle you are racing at your best. This will give you a better idea when you might swim well off the training you are doing and also whether your taper has worked if you have done one.

 

Fitness Tests

Fitness tests can be very useful to measure changes to specific areas of your fitness. Below are the list of tests that swimmers can use to measure potential improvements in certain areas of your swimming. All these tests are performed on land.

Tests for Start Power Improvements:

  • Vertical jump – measure the difference between your standing height arm extended and the height you can reach after jumping
  • Standing long jump – measure how far you can jump forward from a standing starting position

Tests for Turn Power Improvements

  • Drop jump – there are multiple ways to do this test but this is the simplest. Starting on a box, jump to the floor and immediately do a vertical jump and measure the height you reach
  • Squat jump with weight – this test can be performed either holding a weight (Dumbbell, sand bag or plate) or wearing a weight vest. Record the weight and the height reached.

Tests for Strength Improvements

  • Power clean max lift – record weight achieved for 1 rep max
  • Bench press max power – record weight achieved for 1 rep max

Tests for Speed Improvements

  • 20m sprint 
  • 30m sprint 
  • 40m sprint 
  • 50m sprint 

Measuring changes in the time achieved across the sprint tests can help you track changes in your explosive speed and how well you maintain it.

Tracking Improvements across these tests can give you an insight into areas you are improving in and where you may need to focus more of your attention.