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Good day, I come asking to learn. I might be mis-interpreting something, or have the wrong mental model.
The ST* and STT* workouts generally have a format of 250 @ z1 jumping right into a long z3 or max effort TT. That 250 yards/metres is only 5-6 minutes of moving and doesn’t seem sufficient for a warmup, especially if you’re looking at a max effort TT.
When I look at FTP tests, as an example, it’s not 5 minutes of z1 cycling right into a 20′ session. It’s a longer warm up with some z3/z4 intervals and an anerobic dump that’s 5′ long. Looking at most cardio sports, there’s a format of a decent warm up before a hard effort. I wouldn’t do a quick 5′ z1 job before a 5k race or an LTHR test.
So my questions are sort of wrapped together: Why is the warm up so short? Am I the one who is wrong? Is there a better protocol to warmup?
R, it’s a great call-out. That was my decision based on my experience with athletes performing the test. With swimming, many adult athletes fatigue pretty quickly and my athletes with non-swimming background did better on this test with no warmup than with a deep warmup. The 250 warmup is the compromise for the “typical” athlete. I don’t see the same anomaly with bike and run warmup, so they remain longer.
Of course, there is a warmup sweet spot for every swimmer. Some is 0 yards some is 1,500. You can absolutely adjust the warmup to your perfect distance before the test and take it off another workout later in the week.
David
Thanks for the follow up. That makes sense why would you take that approach.
Is there a protocol you would recommend for a bit more of an in-depth warm-up prior to a 400/200 all out effort?
Thanks!
A 10-20 minutes warmup has been found to be the most effective duration for most athletes, with a few short bursts of 10-15 seconds at Zone 4.
I think I would model it exactly as we do our RTa workout, which modified for swimming would be is:
500 Z1, 6 x (20″ Z5/40″ rest)
David
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