Originally posted by
aribloch
1. When you do various drills other than regular swimming
(sculling, 6-1-6, superman, etc
) do you count those lengths towards your pool mileage?
(Presently I don't because anyway they are not on the Garmin
).
Yes, I count any distance swum towards my mileage/workout plan. Not sure why you wouldn't. To be fair though, I don't do those drills. Maybe I should.
2. When does lung capacity improve?
I mean, I find myself short of breath on some drills. Is it simply a matter of doing it for long enough to improve?
Lung capacity improves with time, but only to a certain point. We are human after all. Being "short of breath" is okay. Being "out of breath" means you are trying to swim past your capabilities. To me, you should train at three speeds - your "race pace" - which is a speed you can maintain for a very long distance without stopping. You should train at interval pace - which is a speed you can complete interval work, and need about 10-15 seconds to recover and go again. You may end up waiting longer due to the plan, but you could go at 10-15 if need be. And lastly, speed/hard interval pace - this is basically your max speed that you can hold for 100 yards/meters. Doing sets at this pace should require 20-25 seconds to recover before pushing off again.
I know there are folks on here with much more knowledge on this, just my $0.02