Tri Swim Training

Saturday Swim Session: 200’s

200m is a great distance that can be used to develop sustainable speed. 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

  • 400m WU;
  • 8x 50m Drill/Swim;
  • 4x 200m on 2T+30sec;
  • 200m CD (1,800m)

Option B

  • 400m WU;
  • 12x 50m Drill/Swim;
  • 6x 200m on 2T+30sec;
  • 200m CD (2,400m)

Option C

  • 1,000m WU;
  • 12x 50m Drill/Swim;
  • 8x 200m on 2T+30sec;
  • 200m CD (3,400m)

Start the workout with a Warm Up (WU) covering 400m (Options A and B) or 1,000m (Option C). During the warm-up feel free to stop and stretch as needed.  It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.

Next up is a drill set of eight repetitions (Option A), or twelve reps (Options B and C) 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 to make eight reps or three times through to make twelve reps:

  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 200m reps. Complete four reps for Option A, six reps for Option B and eight reps for Option C. Do these on twice your T-Time plus 30 seconds.  Read this article here to find out more about T-Times.

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 – Endurance Sports Consultant.

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. Make sure you sign up for my informative newsletter.

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

Saturday Swim Session: Sets of Four Hundreds

Coach Ray is the author of the successful 12 Weeks to an Ironman Swim PB – Swim Faster with Smart Training eBook.

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