Sports Science Topic - June 16, 2009

I've been introducing heart-rate sets with the Masters team that I coach. We're using the zone designations: White Zone is relaxed and aerobic. Pink Zone is still aerobic but a bit more effort. Red Zone is right at anaerobic threshold. Blue Zone is above anaerobic threshold, but not all out. Purple Zone is at a pace you could sustain for only 20 to 45 seconds. The swimmers have taken to this very easily and are kind of fascinated at being able to study their performance in a way that's measured not by the pace clock, but by their internal clock. In a way, basing a set totally on your own heartrate takes your mind off of the clock and makes you focus on how YOU are feeling. They also seem to like having "permission" to swim at an easy, aerobic pace. I think they don't do this often enough, and I try to have them use the White Zone to work on swimming "perfect" and swimming "pretty."

As a coach, when I give these sets, I have to remind swimmers not to worry about the others in their lane and whether they're keeping up or not. Have to remind them to focus on themselves.

On a personal basis, when I go into taper mode for a meet and start doing speedwork, I stop worrying about sendoffs and start using heart rate to tell me when to do another fast effort. I usually wait until my HR is 100 or lower to start another Blue-Zone or Purple-Zone swim. (PS, I'm 57. Younger swimmers might wait until the HR is 110 or 120.)

Bottom line, we use the Zone system, but within the system, each swimmer has to find his or her own parameters, based on age and fitness.

Go get a snickers....

Pulse Rates (PR) or Heart Rates (HR)

PR’s can be used in a variety of ways:
As a training intensity regulator (see Barbara’s post)
As a training recovery indicator
As a training readiness indicator

You can use a variety of means to get your PR.
Wear a HR monitor under your suit. Easy for the women, but not as comfortable or maybe socially as acceptable for the guys.
Leave the HR monitor band at the edge of the pool, wear the watch, and then slap it on your chest when you get to the wall. This is easy to do if you stand at the end, not as easy if you can’t. It was always my choice with my men.
Take your pulse rate by counting the beats on your carotid artery on the neck. You have other options, but feel that this is the best option.

In general pulse rates can be fairly accurate if taken consistently, and I have used them for many years as a tool to measure all three areas as stated above. To calculate your PR using the carotid artery you have time duration choices of 6, 10 or 15 seconds. In my book 6 seconds can lead to too big a margin of error since you’re multiplying by 10 to get the actual total. 15 Seconds is too long, and the swimmers pulse rate has already changed in the middle of the selection period. (x4) So the middle (10 seconds x6) is the ideal time period to measure PR. When calculating your PR make SURE that the first number is zero (0). So count 0,1,2,3,4 and so on until you reach the 10 seconds mark. Also I never needed to multiply the numbers out, just used the base numbers when reviewing where they were.

Idiosyncrasies that occur when using pulse rates:
Not everyone is the same, so develop PR ranges that are specific to each athlete. Oddly enough I found that swimmers from Iceland had a lower range of pulse rates than the norm. Now I don’t know if that endemic of Iceland, but the ones that came through my program were always a beat or two lower for the same intensities.
When you first start this concept I’d have them practice it a few times on dryland… let them get used to how you want it done. That will make things easier when they come in after a hard set and their concentration isn’t all that great. Also make sure that your swimmers are giving you THEIR pulse rates. So make sure you have eye contact with them and get a sense of whether they are involved or just throwing out a number that they think will please you. I’ve had swimmers in the past who avoided eye contact with me… didn’t volunteer their pulse rate till the end of the lane and then gave me a number that was smack in the middle of the group. They always delivered it with a big smile that said… right where you want me right coach! Wrong zoobreath!!!
Age affects PR ranges… so the older you get the lower your max will be. There are standard ways of calculating Max Heart Rate, but I see so much variety that it’s better to develop your own variables and work with them rather than do a calculation and then wonder why you can’t get to your max heart rate. Might end up like Billy and wonder if you’re working hard enough.

As a training intensity regulator
Barbara did a great job of talking about the training side so will leave her post as is.
As a training recovery indicator
I found PR to be a great tool to measure recovery at the end of sets. Since I believe that we are limited by our ability to recover effectively, knowing this parameter is an important tool that coaches should use in day to day training. To get a valuable look at the swimmers recovery profile, have them take 3 PR’s after the set ends. So take PR measurements at 0, 30 sec’s and 60 sec’s post set. Be consistent with how you do this. What this does is give you a profile of how they are recovering, and you can use these numbers as:
As a measure of the response to the set
As a profile that can be measured against a similar intensity set during the season
A measure of how they are progressing or possibly regressing during the season.
When doing high intensity sets I use the 3 measurement process to get a sense of how the different systems have recovered. So use the recovery of the difference between 0 and 30 to gauge the level of anaerobic recovery, and the difference between 30 to 60 as a gauge of aerobic recovery. I also look at 0-60 as an overall aerobic recovery indicator.
So after a threshold based set I’d be expecting these kinds of numbers: (Remember that I use the 10 second count and don’t multiply out the numbers)
Early season – 26, 21, 16
Mid season in shape – 26, 18, 12
Potential aerobic fatigue – 26, 21, 18 which looks a lot like early getting in shape numbers, so you have to use your brain on that.

For a high intensity set I’d expect these kinds of numbers
Early season – 29, 25, 22
In shape – 31, 25, 18
Possible fatigue – 31, 28, 22

Anyway, these can be used after all kinds of set variations, and each profile will be specific to both the athlete and the set variation. What you need to do is develop an understanding of each variation, and how that individual profile fits into that variation.

As a training readiness indicator
At the extreme training end, I was always making sure that my athletes were ready to go. I used a combination of tools to do this.
Basal Heart Rate. (BHR)This has to be taken before they really move at all when they wake up. So before you sit up, roll over and watch the clock and count your heart beats for 60 seconds. If you have a digital clock, wait for it to turn over, then start counting. Don’t forget to start with zero. I’d keep a daily record of this to track changes to their BHR. You’ll find that they will develop a fairly stable pattern based off their week plan, and what you will look for will be variations to their results. You’ll note that after high intensity days their BHR will be higher, and after aerobic days it will be lower. This is a normal pattern. Anything that steps out of what is normal should raise a red flag, and cause you to consider changing the intensity of the practice.

Training readiness test set results
I’d start each high intensity workout with a very specific test set that I always repeated before that kind of work out. From that test set I would measure stroke efficiency, PR recovery, lactate recovery.
Using those three in conjunction with their BHR would give me all the insight I needed to figure whether they were ready to go. As always this is very individual, will change as the season progresses, and be a great indicator when athletes are heading into a fatigue state.

The key to all of this is understanding that swimmers are very individual and trying to use a cookie cutter approach is IMO borderline dangerous. So start with small things, build up your knowledge of how to monitor and manage the information, and track everything about your athletes. In time you will know exactly what is good for each swimmer, and be much better at getting them to the meet ready to go.