ABSTRACT
The 7 200-m incremental protocol devised by the Australian Swimming Inc. Sports Science Advisory Group (1997) has been widely adopted around the world. In 2003, Lakomy and Peyrebrune issued an adapted version of the protocol on behalf of British Swimming. Improvements in fitness are proposed from shifts in the heart rate-speed and blood lactate-speed relationships. Studies suggest that training increases the swimming speed at the lactate threshold and at absolute lactate concentrations around 2 mmol·l1 to 6 mmol·l1
from well-trained to elite swimmers, although these changes may or may not be associated with improvements in competition performance (Touretski, 1993; Olbrecht, 2000, p. 81; Pyne et al., 2001; Thompson et al., 2003). It is widely accepted that a highly developed aerobic metabolism and a highly efficient stroke technique are required to be successful in most of the competitive swimming events.
