Courtesy of James Fike, Founder and CEO of Fike Swim.
Six years ago, I completely changed my training in what I thought was a last-ditch effort at 36 years old to accomplish what I couldn’t in college- break the :55 barrier in the 100 yard breaststroke. I turned away from traditional training to work on high-intensity, short-distance workouts that mimicked the stresses of racing. I gave up on every other race, including the 100 meter breaststroke. Fast forward to today and I’ve accomplished that goal and then some- hitting 53.1 in the 100 and 1:56.6 in the 200 (down from 2:02.1), but I am once again struggling. This time, it’s that long 100 that I swore off so many years ago. My unsuccessful attempt to qualify for this year’s Olympic Trials has turned my focus to long course. And although I didn’t qualify, I have learned some lessons about long course that may help me, and you, continue to drop time.
Body Weight
Part of my transformation six years ago was adding weight. I was told in college to maintain a weight of 195lbs at 6’3”. That was when I went 55.2 in the 100 yard breast. When I went 53.1 last year, I weighed almost 220lbs. Adding muscle can be tremendously helpful in short course, where the addition of more power increases wall speed and carries you through the few strokes you have to take before turning around and doing it again. We saw this work wonders for Liam Bell this year at NCAAs, where he took months of heavy weight room training and bulking and turned it into an American Record in the 100 breast. But in long course, the loss of half of your walls creates a greater dependency on endurance and being lean enough to stay high on the water long after the loss of wall speed.
At the urging of Coach Kim, a breaststroke guru at Metro Aquatics, I dropped to 200lbs. I was skeptical at first. After all, I was dropping time in long course at a heavier weight, albeit very slowly and nowhere near enough to get the ridiculously fast Trials time of 1:02.19 (I dropped from 1:04.8 in college to 1:04.1 last year). I knew I had to play every card I could, and dropping lots of weight was one of them. The results have been incredible. No, I didn’t qualify, but I finally broke 1:04 (1:03.7) in a flawed race that coulda shoulda woulda been a 1:03low, and I could absolutely feel the impact on my body position as I rode higher on the water. Not only that, I had way more speed than ever. I figured dropping weight might help the overall time but hurt my top-end speed, because dropping weight would impact my strength. Instead, my 50 breast time fell from 29.0 to 28.3!
Yardage & Technique
I will always be a proponent of lower yardage and a “Less Is More” philosophy. That said, the number of meters I was doing in the winter on heavy swim training days three times per week (about 2,600), while great for short course, was slightly insufficient for long course. Given my propensity to lock up at the end of the long 100, I decided to play another card I had long been reluctant to use- more yardage. No, I did not go back to the traditional grind of 6,000+ per practice. However, I did increase to about 3,600, including some practices with Coach Kim at Metro Aquatics once every few weeks that would put me close to 5,000.
I have to give another shout out to Coach Kim, who is the best coach I’ve ever worked with and who gave me a fresh look at breaststroke training. Technically, he helped me transform from a battleship forcing my way through the water to something resembling the young jet skis on either side of me in a race. I developed greater hand speed and higher hips, in no small part because he took the time to inform me and then, most importantly, follow up and stay on me until changes were made.
In terms of conditioning, his sets exposed weaknesses in my pull endurance and kick speed. All too often, we look at problems like locking up at the end of a 100 and default to sets like 10×200 to try to fix it. Although his practices nearly double the distance of my own and look quite different from my short burst, long recovery sets, they manage to be very purposeful. For instance, one of my favorite Kim sets is 3×400 breaststroke pull, because of the way it progresses. The first 400 is with a partner holding on to your ankles, the second is with just a buoy, and the third is with fins, and in all three the goal is to hold a strong tempo. Or we might do 48×50 long course on :40 broken into four rounds and in the order of two free 50s and one breast 50, so that you are able to build endurance for the back end of a race while executing higher-intensity, higher-quality breaststroke than you could if you were doing all of it breaststroke.
Strength Training
As I said, size is my friend in short course, but lifting huge amounts of weight only takes you so far in long course. I was much stronger than I needed to be, so I began cutting back the lifting sessions from three times per week to two and replacing the third day of lifting with a longer swim day, which bumped my weekly average from roughly 10,000 to around 15,000. The loss of 20lbs from my frame did impact how much I could lift, but not nearly as much as I expected. Some of the big lifts only suffered 5-10% loss, while most other lifts stayed the same or even continued to improve, such as pull ups.
The types of lifts and duration of lifting changed slightly as well. For instance, a typical day of upper body work in the fall and winter included a press, a pull, a row, bicep curls, tricep extensions, and core work that all lasted around an hour and twenty minutes. In the spring, the training shifted to include more lighter-weight speed work with fewer reps and fewer movements, such that the total time decreased to an hour. It was good work that mostly maintained strength and still improved on explosiveness.
Could Less Weight, Less Lifting, and More Yardage Work for Short Course?
Unfortunately, I think the answer depends on who you are. I have had too much success in short course to completely turn my back on weighing more and getting stronger. I know without a doubt I could not propel myself off the walls and through the breakouts at my college weight and strength level like I did at 220lbs, but there are plenty of guys with faster times who weigh 40lbs less than me. So, the answer might lie somewhere in the middle. I can absolutely make strength gains, particularly the kinds that are most relevant to swimmers, at weights less than 220lbs, so I don’t see a need to go back to that just yet. But it does appear I’ll be going through periods of fasting and bulking each year until I find that perfect weight-to-strength ratio that allows success in both courses.
If you have thoughts on this that could help, please feel free to send me an email. As always, I hope my journey and exploration can help you find your own path to best times. Good luck, SWIM DIFFERENT!
And keep up with the latest from Fike Swim here:
About Fike Swim
“We design products exclusively for the toughest sport in the world. We unapologetically place swimmers on a pedestal. The rigors they embrace on a daily basis can only be understood by another swimmer and they deserve a company focused 100% on helping them succeed. Whether you’re just starting out or training for Los Angeles, we stand behind you.”
–James Fike, Founder
Fike Swim Products was born when founder James Fike put a brick on top of a kickboard and transformed just another legs-only kick set into a total body workout felt into the next day. Since then it’s been our mission to create unique swim equipment with the single-minded goal of making you faster. We don’t sell toys. We create tools to help you reach your potential.
