Saturday, January 9, 2010

Tough And Brutal Workouts

Multi-world champion Thomas Lurz was interviewed by Swimming World Magazine about the intense two-week long-distance training camp, called Battle Training, that he and other world-class pool and open water swimming superstars (including Trent Grimsey and Chad Ho) are doing in Potsdam, Germany until January 17th.

Thomas said, among other things:

"The training is tough and brutal. We did 102,000 meters in the first week. I had a three-week break [after the season was over] and it is pretty hard. We are going to do 75,000 meters this week, but there are three practices per day for three straight days."

"I sometimes have some shoulder problems when I swim in the waves and winds, but I feel OK. Every session we do a really tough. People are swimming fast [when we do sets like] 20 x 200 or 4 x 800 or 5 X 1500."

"One set was 20 x 200 @ 2:30 with a lactate testing after 10. Paul Beiderman can beat us in the short distance. He was averaging 2:06. I was averaging 2:10-2:12 which is bad for me, but good for the beginning of my season. I train with Jan Wolfgarten, Chad Ho and other good IM'ers, 1500-meter swimmers and open water swimmers. Everyone tries to race [during practice]."

"I will go home after this training is over. My first swim will be a 10K race in Setubal, Portugal in June."

We will be very interested to see the results of the Battle Training come the summer open water swimming season.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

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