Tri Swim Coach

Saturday Swim Session – 250’s for Stamina

Swimming 250m reps is a unique distance and is great to develop your swimming stamina. This workout 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;
  • 6x 25m Drill;
  • 3x 250m 30sec RI;
  • 8x 50m on ½T+10sec;
  • 200m CD (1,700m)

Option B

  • 400m WU;
  • 12x 25m Drill;
  • 4x 250m 30sec RI;
  • 8x 50m on ½T+10sec;
  • 200m CD (2,300m)

Option C

  • 800m WU;
  • 12x 25m Drill;
  • 6x 250m 30sec RI;
  • 8x 50m on ½T+10sec;
  • 200m CD (3,200m)

Start the workout with a Warm Up (WU) covering 200m (Option A), 400m (Option B), or 800m (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 six (Option A) or twelve (Options B and C) repetitions of a 25m Drill. Feel free to use fins whilst doing the drill set.  Do the drills below once through for Option A or twice through for Options B and C:

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

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

The next set is made up of 250m repetitions with a 30-second Rest Interval (RI). Option A does a total of three reps, Option B does a total of four reps and Option C does a total of six repetitions.

Prior to the 200m Cool Down (CD) complete a set of eight 50m repetitions done on ½ your T-Time plus 10 seconds. Read this article for more about T-Times:

T-Times for Swimming

With this set try and swim each rep as fast as possible.  The qwiker you go the more rest you’ll get.

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.

Join over 2,306 people who have already signed up to be kept up to date with great workouts and training information in my informative newsletter.

Share this post so your friends can benefit as well.

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

Saturday Swim Session: Swim Time Trial

Get my 4 Weeks to a Faster 1500m With Only Two 2km Sessions per Week through Training Peaks. Results Guaranteed. Purchase here. Use discount code CR25 to get a 25% discount.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.