SwimSwam wants to give you an inside look at what a normal day-in-the-life looks like for any given swimmer, and how that differs from team to team or city to city. We send our head of production, Coleman Hodges, to be a fly on the wall at practice, then relay what he discovered back to you over pancakes. Or at least breakfast.
With Christmas training just wrapping up, most college teams are in the thick of their workload for the season. Being home for the holidays in Columbia, Missouri, I had to go see what the Mizzou tigers were up to.
The day I came, coach Andy Grevers ran a simple but effective set: 20×50 @ 2:00. Go. Fast. I love watching sets like this because the key as an athlete is being consistent, but that’s not always necessarily what happens. Things can differ from 50 to 50, and you can get into a groove that means really finding your speed.
It can also lead to some really fun battles, when you and another person both get into a groove and push each other to the limits. Needless to say, fun ensues at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.
Used to do this set in college as well, must be pretty standard. good prep for 100/200
FWIW the academic community stopped using “lactate tolerance” about 10-15 years ago since it doesn’t exist. Lactate is just an inefficient store of the remaining energy available from glucose. “Metabolic acidosis” is an overarching term used to indicate an increase in H-ions in the blood and/or muscle, the lower capillary density in working muscle, global oxygen deficit, and/or a deficiency in oxidative enzymes (catalysts). The body doesn’t “tolerate lactate” better with this “type” of training; the athlete’s energy delivery architecture adapts over time by improving one or more of the metabolic capacities listed above. It’s not a mental thing, it’s purely physiological. You can’t will yourself to tolerate more lactate.
If anyone cares…
Thank you for this. I went into this idea from a different angle a few years ago in my Viking Manifesto right here on SwimSwam. The goal of “building lactate tolerance” is kind of dumb. :).
Great infos – thanks for the effort of explaining the details . Its very interesting
It’s a known fact that some people are lactate intolerant and some people are not.
Just so we are clear about facts:
You’re referring to 1) Lactose, which is different than Lactate 2) Renal failure, which is a serious medical condition not related to general training effects or 3) an untrained state when a person hasn’t worked out in a while.
Or you are joking.
Is Coach Andy Grevers part of the Matt Grevers family ? just curious …..thanks again for a great P & P Coleman .
Yep, Andy is Matt’s older brother. Andy swam at Northern Illinois.
no kidding…. how tall is andy?
Not as tall as Matt, but taller than DeSorbo.
thanks Braden 👌
Sounds like Rhody might be another victim of Administrative BS. He is one of the truly great men and coaches we have in college sports.
Jim Tressel lied to the NCAA. Baurle broke the rules to keep Chase eligible. Both were and are considered great people and leaders before their incidents and after their incidents.
If it sounds like he was another victim of administrative BS, what did you hear about Rhodenbaugh?
Have heard nothing about this case. Good you mentioned Tressel and Baurle. All three are awesome. It is more just knowing all three are believing they, while flawed like all people , are amazing for our sport.
20 x 50 @ 2:00 are they tapering for SEC swimming championships now?
Everybody tapers for practice & pancakes. Probably does more good for recruiting and long term health of the prrogram than moving from 4th to 3rd at SECs.
You don’t understand swimming sets!
Try doing that set and then come back and call it tapering lol. That will take days to recover fully from.
The set is as hard as you make it. If the swimmer is giving the prescribed effort on this set for all 20 repeats, they’re gonna get a really good workout. If you think it’s easy, you didn’t work hard enough.
Coleman. Any word on Rhodenbaugh’s status?
Investigation is still ongoing. The first thing they said when I hit campus was that they were strictly forbidden from talking about it. Seems like Andy is doing a great job as interim and the athletes are handling the situation well.
Thanks. Agree they have excelllent assistants and the kids are in good hands!