Tri Swim Training

Saturday Swim Session: Broken 800’s

Longer reps such as this workout of Broken 800s are a great way to develop stamina and enhance your efficiency. This session is perfect for Ironman and Olympic distance triathletes or people doing longer Ocean Swims.

Each Saturday I will post a Swim Session, most weeks I will load three options up for you to do. Option A is for swimmers who are after a workout between 1,000 & 2,000 metres. Option B is for swimmers who are after a workout between 2,000 & 3,000m and Option C will be greater than 3,000m.

Option A

  • 200m WU;
  • 800m, 60sec RI; 4x 200m 20sec RI;
  • 200m CD (2,000m)

Option B

  • 400m WU;
  • 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
  • 800m, 60sec RI; 4x 200m 20sec RI;
  • 200m CD (2,600m)

Option C

  • 400m WU;
  • 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
  • 2x 800m, 60sec RI; 4x 200m 20sec RI;
  • 200m CD (4,200m)

Start the workout with a Warm Up (WU) covering 200m (Option A) or 400m (Options  B and C). During the warm-up feel free to stop and stretch as needed.  It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.

Next up for Options B and C (Option A skips this and goes straight to the Main Set) is a drill set of eight repetitions of 50m Drill/Swim, where you do a drill for the first 25m of the repetition and then normal swimming for the next 25m swimming. Feel free to use fins whilst doing the drill/swim set.  Do the drills below, twice through:

  1. Kick On Side (KOS) left side 
  2. Kick On Side (KOS) right side 
  3. 6/1/6 
  4. 6/3/6

I wrote an article about swimming drills previously. Click here to read and watch it.

The Main Set is made up of one (Options A and B) or two (Option C) reps of a Broken 800. A Broken 800 is made up of two parts: the first part involves swimming 800m continuously; the second half involves swimming another 800m broken up as four reps of 200m. Take a 60sec Rest Interval (RI) after the 800m continuous swim and a 20-second Rest Interval (RI) between the 200m swims.

For the Cool Down (CD) swim 200m. Unlike the previous sets which have to be freestyle, the cooldown (like the warm-up) can be any stroke you wish to swim.  You can also stop and rest after any length.  I encourage you to stop and stretch during the cool-down.

If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.

I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi Coaching.

I specialise in assisting first timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.

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If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published 12 months ago.

Saturday Swim Session: Individual Medley Set to Improve Your Triathlon

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