POOL PROGRESS?

QCould you prescribe a swim fitness test to gauge my current level, please? Brian Statham

AAs with any testing, it’s important to know what you’re looking to find out and what that means. The thing with tests is that it gives you a snapshot at that moment in time – but does not have to be the be all and end all. If you’re having a bad day, feeling under the weather or just not eaten enough, this may skew results. All I am saying is that don’t stress too much about what these tests might show.

In these tests, all you require is a pace clock or a stopwatch. If you have someone else around who can do the timing for you, even better as you can focus on swimming.

The current favourite test in triathlon swimming is a critical swim speed (CSS) test. This equates to something like your FTP – basically the quickest that you can swim without exhaustion. To do a CSS test, you need to do a 400m time-trial as fast as possible, followed by a 200m time-trial. In between should be plenty of recovery (8-10mins is recommended). These times are then plugged into an equation (there are plenty of CSS calculators online) to give you a time that can be used as a baseline to train with. As you grow fitter, that time will come down. You may find that your pace over the 200 and the 400 becomes closer together.

A good test for general aerobic fitness is a T-30 minute swim, with the idea being that you swim as far as you can in 30mins. You want to swim as hard as you can but also as consistently as possible over the whole duration. As should be reasonably evident, as you get fitter, you should be able to swim a longer distance.

Alternatively, you can always work off your target race pace. USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training) is about doing small chunks of work at your race pace with short recoveries. The further you can get into a set, the closer to achieving your target you are. For example, for a sprintdistance triathlete wanting to swim a 12:30min 750m (1:40min/100m), you may target swimming 20 x 100m off 1:50mins, trying to hold 1:40mins. If you miss your target more than a couple of times then you stop there and swim easy. John Wood