Monitoring Your Swim Training
My aim with this blog is to expose critical swim speed (CSS) for swimming. Explain how to measure CSS and then explore examples of how I recommend you should use the information to set your swim sessions. And finally, to instruct you on how to set up your swim zones in Training Peaks (TP) so you can easily record the swim training stress score (sTSS) which will enhance your perspective of how well you are training.
What is CSS
CSS is an approximation of your swim speed at Maximum lactic steady state (MLSS). MLSS is the highest intensity you will be able to maintain a steady state for. CSS is not exactly the same as MLSS but it will be extremely close and plenty accurate enough to guide your training. Going harder (or faster) than CSS will always result in you accumulating more and more lactic acid which will inevitably force you to slow down significantly. Depending on your swim speed, going flat out for 1000m to 1900m will be roughly the same speed as CSS.
How to find your CSS
You could do a continuous swim as described above. If you choose to do a flat out long swim (lets say 1250m for arguments sake) all you need to do is divide the time in seconds by the amount of 100m’s. For the guy that does 1250m (12.5 hundreds) in a time of 22 minuets 55 seconds (1375s) the calculations would be:
1375s / 12.5 = 110s, and 110s displayed as minutes is 01:50. So your CSS is 01:50/100m.
Whilst it is the most straight forward way, the problem using the above test is you may find it hard to count accurately or get held up in your lane.
Another simple way you can find your CSS/100m pace is doing two shorter swim tests. You need to perform a 400m and a 200m swim, as fast as possible (FAP!). There are various ways you could incorporate these time trials into a swim set. To be most fresh, you may find you can do better by performing them on different days, at the start of your swim, after a warm up.
For the less mathematically minded athletes out there, don’t worry, the actual sum isn’t that bad. However, I recommend going over to the swim smooth website (http://www.swimsmooth.com/improve/intermediate/css-training) and plugging your results into the calculator.
The swim smooth calculator has the option to perform the tests in a variety of pool lengths: 20m, 25m, 25y, 50y, 50m or 3.3m, which is very handy. The actual calculation is:
CSS (m/sec) = 200 / (T400 - T200). Where T400 and T200 are your 400 and 200m times in seconds. You convert your speed from m/sec into time per 100m and end up with CSS/100m.
A swimmer plugged in 05:45 for his 400m and 02:50 for his 200m. He was in a 25m pool. His CSS/100m was calculated as 01:28/100m which, more accurately, would be 21.88 seconds per 25m.
Whilst the above two methods work, another accurate measure of CSS is to time yourself swimming distances of 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m. Plot your results on a spreadsheet graph with a line of regression against time (5). As the line flattens out you will have an individualised CSS. However, this final method would be the more difficult and time consuming method of measuring (4).
Examples of how you can use CSS in a swim session
Using your new CSS pace is simple. Every time you set off to do a rep you time yourself. Now you will be able to work out how close (faster or slower) than CSS you swam. To be super accurate in training it is best to invest in an underwater metronome. This can be set to beep at a specific interval so you can stay swimming your desired swim pace by meeting the beeps at the end of each length.
There is no need to aim to swim at CSS pace on every rep you swim. In fact, whilst this training has its place, you are better off swimming well below or above CSS to get the best training effect (4).
Training below CSS - at an intensity that lactate has not started to acumilate - you will develop your aerobic endurance and fat burning capacity. You will improve your hearts pumping capacity. Most of your training should be below CSS if you are training for an endurance open water swimming event. Swimming below CSS requires discipline. Many swimmers will measure their CSS and try to go faster than it because it feels too slow, feeling guilty for not working hard enough.
Studies show that all high performing triathletes and swimmers (not to mention other endurance sports) spend the majority (at least 80%) of their time well below CSS (1). Furthermore, it has been noted that endurance training is more enjoyable than high intensity training and regular endurance training is more likely to motivate consistent training than high intensity (2).
When you swim slower than CSS you can really focus on your technique. Below CSS you are recruiting more oxidative type one muscle fibres (slow twitch) which are the type that can repeatedly contract with the same force for long durations. The body will adapt to this training by managing a faster pace at the given effort.
After a warm up, an example of one of my endurance main sets is:
Training above CSS and anaerobic sprinting (lets call this ‘MAX’ training) will increase your VO2max and your vVO2max (2) - the fastest you can go using your entire aerobic capacity, below the point of simply sprinting. Whilst this will less directly effect your endurance (which is what most triathletes and open water swimmers want), training this hard will ‘raise the roof’ that could be withholding your CSS getting any faster. This training, in the short term, has very positive effects on endurance fitness and performance (2).
Other physiological adaptations of MAX training, in addition to endurance training, appear to enhance performance by an improved ability of the muscles to generate ATP (the body’s energy currency) aerobically in the mitochondria (cells) (3) and better venus return of blood to the heart. You will develop better ‘ feel for the water’ at higher speeds and adapt your muscular-nervous system to the increased forces associated.
A good example of one of my MAX sessions, to follow a good warm up, is:
Measuring your fitness in Training Peaks
With a TP account and a sports watch that works for swimming and syncs to TP you can measure your fitness gains over time. To measure sTSS you need to set your session metrics up you show: distance swam, duration, normalised pace (NP), intensity factor (IF) and sTSS. To do this, click on the gear icon in a session then drag and drop them in.
You will need to set up your swim pace zones using your CSS. To do this, in calender view, go to to the gear icon (settings) and select ‘zones’ from the left menu. Scroll down to the speed/pace section. Add ‘swim’ zones and select CTS field test and CTS swimming zones (5). Input your CSS in seconds and click apply.
Now TP will calculate your sTSS based on your swim pace. The benefits are that you can monitor your fitness gains over time and adjust your training load to minimise excessive fatigue and maximise performance. The oversight with sTSS is that it will be subjective to incorrect measures whenever you train with swim aids or change the type of swimming (a kick set or doing breaststroke, for example) because the watch doesn’t pick it up and it is not applicable to sTSS. However, as a gauge sTSS is fairly good and worth setting up to keep an eye on.
Be adaptive to be better
Monitoring sTSS in your performance management chart over time will help you adapt your training plan to avoid over training but continue increasing fitness. In addition to this, it is important to track your health metrics on a daily basis too. Don’t be afraid to change your plans. Put health and recovery first. This very act alone is enough to make you be a better athlete.
References
1. Seiler, Stephen. "Seiler’s Hierarchy* of Endurance Training Needs.”
2. Foster, Carl, et al. "The effects of high intensity interval training vs steady state training on aerobic and anaerobic capacity." Journal of sports science & medicine 14.4 (2015): 747.
3. Laursen, Paul B. "Training for intense exercise performance: high‐intensity or high‐volume training?." Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 20 (2010): 1-10.
4. Maclaren, D. P., and M. Coulson. "Critical swim speed can be used to determine changes in training status." Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming VIII. Eds: Keskinen, KL, Komi, PV and Hollander, AP Jyvaskyla: Grummerus Printing (1999): 227-232.
5. Wakayoshi , K, Ikuta, K., Yoshida, T., Udo, M., Moritani, T., Mutoh, Y. & Miyashita, M. (1992a). Determination and validity of critical velocity as an index of swimming performance in the competitive swimmer. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 64, 153-157.
My aim with this blog is to expose critical swim speed (CSS) for swimming. Explain how to measure CSS and then explore examples of how I recommend you should use the information to set your swim sessions. And finally, to instruct you on how to set up your swim zones in Training Peaks (TP) so you can easily record the swim training stress score (sTSS) which will enhance your perspective of how well you are training.
What is CSS
CSS is an approximation of your swim speed at Maximum lactic steady state (MLSS). MLSS is the highest intensity you will be able to maintain a steady state for. CSS is not exactly the same as MLSS but it will be extremely close and plenty accurate enough to guide your training. Going harder (or faster) than CSS will always result in you accumulating more and more lactic acid which will inevitably force you to slow down significantly. Depending on your swim speed, going flat out for 1000m to 1900m will be roughly the same speed as CSS.
How to find your CSS
You could do a continuous swim as described above. If you choose to do a flat out long swim (lets say 1250m for arguments sake) all you need to do is divide the time in seconds by the amount of 100m’s. For the guy that does 1250m (12.5 hundreds) in a time of 22 minuets 55 seconds (1375s) the calculations would be:
1375s / 12.5 = 110s, and 110s displayed as minutes is 01:50. So your CSS is 01:50/100m.
Whilst it is the most straight forward way, the problem using the above test is you may find it hard to count accurately or get held up in your lane.
Another simple way you can find your CSS/100m pace is doing two shorter swim tests. You need to perform a 400m and a 200m swim, as fast as possible (FAP!). There are various ways you could incorporate these time trials into a swim set. To be most fresh, you may find you can do better by performing them on different days, at the start of your swim, after a warm up.
For the less mathematically minded athletes out there, don’t worry, the actual sum isn’t that bad. However, I recommend going over to the swim smooth website (http://www.swimsmooth.com/improve/intermediate/css-training) and plugging your results into the calculator.
The swim smooth calculator has the option to perform the tests in a variety of pool lengths: 20m, 25m, 25y, 50y, 50m or 3.3m, which is very handy. The actual calculation is:
CSS (m/sec) = 200 / (T400 - T200). Where T400 and T200 are your 400 and 200m times in seconds. You convert your speed from m/sec into time per 100m and end up with CSS/100m.
A swimmer plugged in 05:45 for his 400m and 02:50 for his 200m. He was in a 25m pool. His CSS/100m was calculated as 01:28/100m which, more accurately, would be 21.88 seconds per 25m.
Whilst the above two methods work, another accurate measure of CSS is to time yourself swimming distances of 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m. Plot your results on a spreadsheet graph with a line of regression against time (5). As the line flattens out you will have an individualised CSS. However, this final method would be the more difficult and time consuming method of measuring (4).
Examples of how you can use CSS in a swim session
Using your new CSS pace is simple. Every time you set off to do a rep you time yourself. Now you will be able to work out how close (faster or slower) than CSS you swam. To be super accurate in training it is best to invest in an underwater metronome. This can be set to beep at a specific interval so you can stay swimming your desired swim pace by meeting the beeps at the end of each length.
There is no need to aim to swim at CSS pace on every rep you swim. In fact, whilst this training has its place, you are better off swimming well below or above CSS to get the best training effect (4).
Training below CSS - at an intensity that lactate has not started to acumilate - you will develop your aerobic endurance and fat burning capacity. You will improve your hearts pumping capacity. Most of your training should be below CSS if you are training for an endurance open water swimming event. Swimming below CSS requires discipline. Many swimmers will measure their CSS and try to go faster than it because it feels too slow, feeling guilty for not working hard enough.
Studies show that all high performing triathletes and swimmers (not to mention other endurance sports) spend the majority (at least 80%) of their time well below CSS (1). Furthermore, it has been noted that endurance training is more enjoyable than high intensity training and regular endurance training is more likely to motivate consistent training than high intensity (2).
When you swim slower than CSS you can really focus on your technique. Below CSS you are recruiting more oxidative type one muscle fibres (slow twitch) which are the type that can repeatedly contract with the same force for long durations. The body will adapt to this training by managing a faster pace at the given effort.
After a warm up, an example of one of my endurance main sets is:
- Aim: improve body position in water - Twice through
- 6x 50m kick focused on straight legs and horizontal body - with 30s rests
- 6x 100m pull focused on good body roll, breathing every 3rd stroke - with 20s rests
- 6x 200m at CSS+8, maintaining the focus on body roll with legs kicking straight - with 10s rests
- Aiming: to hold a quality stroke and stay with the beeper - Twice through with the metronome, with one beep recovery
- 600m at CSS+12
- 500m at CSS+10
- 400m at CSS+8
- 300m at CSS+6
- 200m at CSS+4
- 100m at CSS+2
Training above CSS and anaerobic sprinting (lets call this ‘MAX’ training) will increase your VO2max and your vVO2max (2) - the fastest you can go using your entire aerobic capacity, below the point of simply sprinting. Whilst this will less directly effect your endurance (which is what most triathletes and open water swimmers want), training this hard will ‘raise the roof’ that could be withholding your CSS getting any faster. This training, in the short term, has very positive effects on endurance fitness and performance (2).
Other physiological adaptations of MAX training, in addition to endurance training, appear to enhance performance by an improved ability of the muscles to generate ATP (the body’s energy currency) aerobically in the mitochondria (cells) (3) and better venus return of blood to the heart. You will develop better ‘ feel for the water’ at higher speeds and adapt your muscular-nervous system to the increased forces associated.
A good example of one of my MAX sessions, to follow a good warm up, is:
- Aim: improve feel and purchase for water at fast and slow pace - Twice through
- 300m FAP - rest 30s
- 4x 50m easy, alternating (25m streamline kick / 25m swim, breathing bilateraly, good rotation) - rest 20s
- 300m FAP - rest 40s
- 4x 50m pull (15m scull 1 / 35m full pull focused on a good catch) - rest 30s
Measuring your fitness in Training Peaks
With a TP account and a sports watch that works for swimming and syncs to TP you can measure your fitness gains over time. To measure sTSS you need to set your session metrics up you show: distance swam, duration, normalised pace (NP), intensity factor (IF) and sTSS. To do this, click on the gear icon in a session then drag and drop them in.
You will need to set up your swim pace zones using your CSS. To do this, in calender view, go to to the gear icon (settings) and select ‘zones’ from the left menu. Scroll down to the speed/pace section. Add ‘swim’ zones and select CTS field test and CTS swimming zones (5). Input your CSS in seconds and click apply.
Now TP will calculate your sTSS based on your swim pace. The benefits are that you can monitor your fitness gains over time and adjust your training load to minimise excessive fatigue and maximise performance. The oversight with sTSS is that it will be subjective to incorrect measures whenever you train with swim aids or change the type of swimming (a kick set or doing breaststroke, for example) because the watch doesn’t pick it up and it is not applicable to sTSS. However, as a gauge sTSS is fairly good and worth setting up to keep an eye on.
Be adaptive to be better
Monitoring sTSS in your performance management chart over time will help you adapt your training plan to avoid over training but continue increasing fitness. In addition to this, it is important to track your health metrics on a daily basis too. Don’t be afraid to change your plans. Put health and recovery first. This very act alone is enough to make you be a better athlete.
References
1. Seiler, Stephen. "Seiler’s Hierarchy* of Endurance Training Needs.”
2. Foster, Carl, et al. "The effects of high intensity interval training vs steady state training on aerobic and anaerobic capacity." Journal of sports science & medicine 14.4 (2015): 747.
3. Laursen, Paul B. "Training for intense exercise performance: high‐intensity or high‐volume training?." Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 20 (2010): 1-10.
4. Maclaren, D. P., and M. Coulson. "Critical swim speed can be used to determine changes in training status." Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming VIII. Eds: Keskinen, KL, Komi, PV and Hollander, AP Jyvaskyla: Grummerus Printing (1999): 227-232.
5. Wakayoshi , K, Ikuta, K., Yoshida, T., Udo, M., Moritani, T., Mutoh, Y. & Miyashita, M. (1992a). Determination and validity of critical velocity as an index of swimming performance in the competitive swimmer. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 64, 153-157.
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