Rushton v Phelps

An email from Elliot Rushton to his parents and siblings.

On Thursday John and I went up to the University of Michigan. John talked to the Women's coach and observed their dryland to compare to ours (they were designed by the same guy). I was to gain the worldly experience of swimming with the Men's team.

The varsity team was doing relay starts mid-way through practice, so they said it would be better for me to swim with the Club Wolverine guys. We introduced ourselves to Jon Urbanchek who just hangs out and keeps the CW guys occupied so that Bowman can deal with the varsity team. Urbanchek was incredibly friendly, but still had this devilish look about him that made you think he was a pint-sized Satan.

The CW guys there that day were Andrew Hurd (Canadian record holder in the 400 Free, who I knew already), Klete Keller, Michael Phelps and Ben Michaelson (NCAA Division 2 record holder in the 100 Free and 100 Fly). I didn't recognize who Ben was until a bit later, so when Urbanchek introduced me to the group by saying "Guys, this is Elliot.... Elliot, that's Micheal and that's Klete, we call him Cleteus." it didn't really help. Because, I mean, who the hell doesn't know who those two guys are?

So off we go. Warm up was an 800 done as 50 free, 50 stroke. Lane one is Keller, lane two is Hurd, lane three myself, lane four Phelps, and lane five Michaelson.

My logic on this set was as follows: I don't want to look like a chump, and I'm next to the world record holder in the IMs. So I should obviously do backstroke on the stroke 50’s and pretty quickly so that they don't have to wait for me. However after 200 yards or so my logic quickly turned to: “Holy crap how do they move so slowly? I'd better do the slowest, ugliest breaststroke I can so as not to win warm-up.” A little later it also evolved to include sitting on the bottom of the pool every 50 and waiting them out.

Alas, despite my best efforts I won warm-up. Urbanchek runs over to me and says "You beat them!" still not sure of what was going on I replied "Uhhh, yeah. Maybe I miscounted?"

• Next: 16 x 50 Kick: 4 on :50, 4 on :45.

We're just kicking along. I'm listening to them joke back and fourth about nothing, insulting each other, etc.. Phelps likes to stop constantly and smack his board down on the water to make a smacking sound. Keller tries to do it when we're at the wall but can't get the angle right and has very little sound. Urbanchek taunts him "Cleteus, that sounds pretty feminine, keep up the good work." After a few 50s Urbanchek gets bored and realizes that I've been beating Phelps.
"Michael, what the [expletive deleted]? He's Div. 3!! You're letting a Div 3 swimmer beat you? You pussy!!" We do some more 50's.

I'd lost count. Not sure if we were on number 12 or 13, I kind of had to watch and see when everyone else left while also watching the clock.
Phelps leaves, so apparently we just did one on :45. After I push off I realize he's still at the wall laughing, taunting me "I got you!!" Obviously feeling a bit stupid, but realizing my way out I look at him and say "Did you?" This ruins the whole set now. Apparently I was the only one paying attention to the interval. Now all five of us are floating around on our kickboards trying to figure out how many we have left and when we should leave.

• 400 IM: 50 drill, 50 swim.

Phelps yells "On the bottom!!" but everyone but me leaves at random. Not me though, oh no. I had a plan. I was going to email you all and tell you I had beaten Michael Phelps at a head to head 400 IM in practice. Sure, he would be going easy and half of it was drill, but I could still say "I beat Michael Phelps at a 400 IM head-to-head," without lying.

I still had to act casual though. I couldn't make it apparent I was being a jerk. I did the fastest smoothest single arm fly I could, and the lamest backstroke drill, with my arm barely pausing at the top of the stroke. I had a huge lead at the half.
However, no matter how easy Phelps goes and how un-easy I go on breaststroke we're still a little unbalanced. Going into the freestyle we were dead even. For the whole first 300 I was laughing my ass off while swimming. Thinking how funny I could make this email sound and how I could boast about it for the rest of my life. Barely dragging the nail of my middle finger on finger-tip drag freestyle I noticed something un-ordinary:
Phelps was trying. Oh shit. He was kicking and had picked his stroke rate up. I was boned. I picked it up a little, still trying to NOT look like I was trying to usurp the world record holder. Blatantly obvious by this point was the fact that Phelps knew what I was up to; apparently he takes pride in the 400 IM. He finishes with me a stroke behind, I'm laughing uncontrollably now, I just got beaten at being a jerk by the world record holder. As soon as I finish Phelps yells in my face "I WIN!!".

• 2 x (400 Pull "casual", 4 x 100 Pull on 1:05 "strong")

Urbanchek finds me a pull-buoy and Phelps lends me his smaller paddles (Reds, he uses the Blues). I notice that he uses the wrist straps on them and consider teasing him about it: "Wrist straps 'eh? I thought those were for little girls?" I decide against it as I didn't want to anger him and motivate him to set a world record in some event I swim just to piss me off - which I wouldn't put past him.

Distance and stroke swimmers break apart. Distance is Keller, Hurd and myself. Phelps, Michealson and Chuck Sayao, who came in late, do the stroke set.

• 2 x (4 x 200 Pink @ 2:20, 3 x 200 Red @ 2:15, 2 x 200 Orange @ 2:10, 200
EZ @ 3:00)

Michigan uses a similar colour system to Kenyon, but that set above is written in Kenyon colours for the sake of your understanding. Urbanchek decides upon my "targets" for each 200 (what we call 'zones' at Kenyon). Around 2:01, 1:59 and 1:54 for the three colours; Hurd and Keller are to be around 1:51's on the Orange 200s. (CR explanation for readers – these zones equate to aerobic overload, HR 150/155, anaerobic threshold, HR 160/165, lactate clearance, HR 170/185).

I wish I could tell you I held my own on this set, won my share of the 200's against Keller and Hurd. I didn't though. I did well, for me, hit my "target" every time, which was worth it just to hear Urbanchek say "Right on TARGET!" On the second round I figured I'd throw in whatever I had. My first 200 Orange on the second round was a 1:52 - "Below target! GREAT!!" Well, last one. I really threw in what I had left and busted out a 1:49. Good, for me, though from how far back I was it felt more like a 2:05. Keller won with a 1:42, and Hurd was just behind him with a 1:43. Urbanchek was thrilled because "America beat Canada!!!!" something he had been throwing around the whole set.

That was that. We warmed down and John and I drove back to Gambier.

I think it could have very well all been a dream.

-Elliot

Why It's Called The Animal Lane

Consider this session described on the excellent Waves Swim Club website by Andy Adair reporting from Mission Viejo:

Just 8,500m this morning but two of the toughest sets I have seen Bryn do – ever.

5 x 600 Free on 7.00 – that’s right 30 x 100 on a base of 1.10 – I don’t give many much chance of making this but Bryn just changes down a gear and is going to give it all he has – oh and if you don’t get 10 seconds rest then you have to drop 50m’s off the distance.

He goes 6.46, 6.41 – misses 5 seconds rest because he has to lead – 6.47, 6.53 and 6.50 to finish – only four “soldiers” left standing to fight another day.

10 x 50 Fr on 1.00 – only 4 breaths per 50 as “recovery” THEN…….

The following ladder on another 1.10 base:

100, 200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200, 100 all Free on a 1.10 base????

Bryn goes 1.06/7’s per 100 for the whole set – swimmers dropping like flies but five make it – the most awesome performance I have ever seen in a swimming pool – talk about tough.

Standard Test Sets

The Youth newsletter which went out yesterday set deadlines for the results of the Standard Test Sets (STS) to be returned to SNZ:

• 10 x 400 + 30 and K5 x 200 - 6 August
  
• 10 x 200 + 30 and K5 x 200 - 31 August
  
• 10 x 100 + 30 and K5 x 200 - 16 September
  

These dates are also noted on the golongdistance calender at the top of the home page.

At the recent MfG Workshop in Wellington I distributed tables of these STS scored against FINA points. The calculations are extrapolated from the actual FINA points system but you will find they serve as a useful tool for comparing the diferent sets and different swimmers. They show 50-point increments from 500 to 1,000 and try to emulate a training equivalent of the actual FINA points race standards.

As usual click for a bigger view.















To read them you have to make a decision on the 'best' race distance of the swimmer; 400, 800 or 1,500m because each will have a different relationship to the sets. A 400m swimmer doing 10 x 400 is covering ten times their preferred race distance so it's an extensive set for their muscle fibres, whereas a 1,500 specialist is covering less than three times their preferred distance. In a similar vein a 1,500m swimmer doing the 10 x 100 is covering less than their preferred distance whereas the 400m swimmer is still swimming 2.5 times their distance. This explains the difference in time standards for each points level as you go from 10 x 100's to 200's to 400's for each 'type' of swimmer.

Ziegler's Logbook

One of the slackest things in NZ swimming is logbook keeping. These are examples from Kate Ziegler's over the past few years. It looks as if her Coach prints out his sessions for each swimmer with their times added after the workout and then they add their own comments for their own logs. The quote at the top of each day is also a nice touch, although the first two and the third and sixth have the same quote as each other (12 months apart). He seems to follow a 'plan' of doing the same session on the same (or nearly the same) day each year.

These are extensive sessions but they do not take long to complete, eg #1, 2h 26m for 11.4k and #5 under 3 hours for 15k; it's all a question of good design. As always the most revealing things are the swimmer's comments. (Click on the image for a full-sized view.)

6 June 2001, 2h 26m, 11.4k



5 June 2002, 2h 26m, 11.5k



4 May 2004, 12.05k




12 September 2004, 2h 19m, 10k



7 November 2004, 2h 47m + 300 cool-down, 15k,
YES! 15k

Her comment here is, "Good - today was extremely long & tough. But I felt strong the whole way through. It went by pretty fast."



3 May 2005, 12.15k

Critical Velocity

This first few posts are to get the threads started, then, hopefully, the site will be self-sustaining.

I recently wrote an analysis of Kate Ziegler's world record in the 1,500m. You can check it out here. I also looked at Grant Hackett's 1,500's in Fukuoka and Athens which show slower SR's than Ziegler's. As I said to Andy Adair, many of the top guys are around 45/minute but Hackett, of course, is eighteen feet tall so to go 45’s with his usual 2.7/2.8 SL would mean he was repping around 48 seconds for each 100!!! I found the comparison between the WR and the 2004 gold fascinating. He is going to be in real trouble (as he was of course in Melbourne) unless he gets the SR back up.

Click the image for bigger view.

... Get Set!

Posting and Comment Protocol
These are the ‘rules’ of using this site. Some may appear condescending but they are standard web protocols.

You are allocated a registration by the Distance Programme Manager, Clive Power. This registration allows you to post articles and discussion topics to the site and also to make comments which appear with other users’ posts. The registration must be used appropriately. Any users abusing the protocol will have their registration withdrawn. Users can ‘flag’ what they view as inappropriate posts or comments using the 'flag blog' button at the top of each page which will alert The Clives.

Rules and Advice

1. Discussion is always useful.
   
2. Be considerate; you are responding to human beings who also have their good and bad days.
   
3. People will disagree with you, people will post stupid comments, people will read and never post a comment.
   
4. Be prepared for the consequences and accept responsibility for each thing you publish.
   
5. Always be as accurate as possible. Use a spell-checker on your content. Every person has a different tolerance for spelling problems and they will not match with yours.
   
6. Write content that is useful not just to you but that gives benefits to the readers. Remember your personality and character are reflected in your words.
   
7. Do not reproduce more of an article than is necessary to make your point.
   
8. Attempt to provide links to the material you quote and to material of interest. Be clear and specific in descriptions of links. Tell your visitors where you are sending them, eg, ‘Read the Ziegler article here,’ is OK, but ‘Read this, it’s great,’ is not because it doesn't tell you where you're going. See the 'how to ...' later.
   
9. If at all possible never import images from another site; they don’t belong to you. It is OK to link to those images at will – a subtle but important difference. See the 'how to ...' later.
   
10. Ethics: Adopt a ‘living room doctrine’. Any comments you would find threatening or offensive if said to you in your living room are inappropriate on the site. It’s fine to disagree, because that’s OK in your living room, but unbridled hostility, name calling etc. is not allowed. Anonymous comments or posting are not allowed. All posts and comments must be signed by the registered author. Spam and off-topic comments are not allowed.

How to...
Use the calendar
The calendar will appear at the top of every page. You can go through to any date you choose and there's infomation there right through to London 2012! Please let The Clive's have any additional calendar information you think is relevent (eg, your club's Annual Animal Lane Championship dates). We will attempt to keep it as comprehensively up-to-date as possible but it's your responsibility to check date accuracy etc.

Comment
Once you are signed in and viewing you can click the 'Post a comment' links at the bottom of each article which will take you to this screen.



Add your comment and hit 'publish your comment'; simple as that.

Post an article or start a discussion
Same as commenting but this screen appears:



Make sure you give your article an appropriate and descriptive title, 'Great Set' is not as descriptive as '12k lungbuster!'.

Links
Links are easily added – first copy the web address of the article you want to reference, then type the text you want to use, highlight it, click on the add link button and paste the copied address into the pop-up space. Be careful with the http:// because it has a habit of appearing twice and that screws up the link.


Images
Uploading your images is easy, Simply click on the add image button and then follow the instructions in the 'Add an image from your computer' section on the left-hand side of the pop-up window. If you want to link to an image on another site follow the instructions on the right-hand side.


When you've completed the instruction the image code will appear at the top of your post text! It's a stupid bug in the blogger software which will scare you but its quite innocuous providing you treat it nicely. You will have to cut and paste it to wherever in the text you want the image to appear. Make sure you cut and paste all the code otherwise it will not work.

Bold
Emphasis can be added in bold by simply highlighting the targeted text and hitting Ctrl+B

Italic
Emphasis can be added in italic by simply highlighting the targeted text and hitting Ctrl+I.

If you want bold and italic do it in two operations but make sure you only highlight the text (not the code because you'll probably get it wrong) on the second operation.