Sprint training (lactate tolerance training)

Sprint training has been given too little attention by coaches and athletes because they were concerned with endurance training. Increased aerobic endurance contributes more to improved swimming performance in all events of 100m and longer than any other physiological adaptation. Adaptations tha occur through sprint training contribute to improved performances in all events, not only in sprints but also in middle distance and even distance swimming. Improvements in speed and power provide long sprint and middle distance swimmers with what is known as easy speed, tha ability to take races out faster with less effort. They also provide middle distance and distance swimmers with what is termed a finishing kick, the ability to sprint faster during the final portion of their races. Sprint training can be used to increase the maximum swimming speed so that swimmers can take races out faster and to improve buffering capacity so that sprinters can maintain a speed in races closer to their maximum sprinting speed. There are three types of sprint training: lactate tolerance (Sp-1), lactate production (Sp-2), and power training (Sp-3).

Lactate tolerance training

Lactate tolerance training involves swimming long sprints with medium to long rest periods or short sprints with short rest periods. The goal is to produce acidosis in the working muscle fibers and thus stimulate an increase in muscle buffering capacity.

Training effects

• Increase in muscle buffering capacity
• Improvement in the ability of swimmers to maintain good technique in spite of severe acidosis
• Improvement in the ability of swimmers to tolerate the pain of severe acidosis
• Increase in the amounts of glycogen, ATP, and CP stored in trained muscle fibers
• Increase in the rate of lactate removal from the muscles and blood
• Increase in VO2 max
• Increase in the rate of anaerobic metabolism

Guidelines for constructing lactate tolerance repeat sets

• Set length: 300 to 1200m. The optimum set distance for sprinters is 400 to 800m. Middle distance and distnce swimmers can swim longer sets.
• Repeat distances: Distances of 100 to 200m are optimum for repeats on long rest. Distances of 25 to 100m are optimum for sprinters on sets with medium and short rest intervals. Middle distance and distance swimmers can increase repeat lengths to between 200 and 500m, although it is not necessary to do so.
• Rest intervals: Rest intervals should be 3 to 10 min on sets in which the goal is to produce severe acidosis with each repeat, between 15 sec and 2 min when swimmers do repeats on a moderate send-off time, and very short, between 5 and 30 sec, for sets done as multiples of the race distance.
• Speed: Training speed should be faster than threshold speed and sufficient to push muscle pH down to the point that causes severe acidosis.

Adaptations to lactate tolerance training take place rapidly. Significant improvements in muscle buffering capacity can occur within 4 to 6 weeks. Middle distance and distance swimmers have no need to engage in lactate tolerance training. They can use time trials, overload endurance training, and race pace training throughout the entire season to improve buffering capacity and pain tolerance. Sprint swimmers should emphasize on lactate tolerance training late in the season as the adaptations need only 4 to 6 weeks to take place.

Any of the common methods for increasing the overload - increasing repeat speed, reducing the length of rest intervals, or increasing volume - can be used effectively with lactate tolerance swimming. An increase in the average repeat speed for a set is a good indication that anaerobic muscular endurance is improving.