Including a number of short intense reps with a shortish rest period will develop your sustained speed (but not your pure 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.
I’ve written these sessions for a 33⅓ metre pool, but a lot of the older style pools are 33⅓ yards long (100 feet), so simply interchange the metres for yards and do the session.
Option A
- 200m Warm Up;
- 6x 66m (33m Drill/33m Swim);
- 8x 100m 20sec RI;
- 4x 33m on 1/3 T-Time + 10sec;
- 200m Cool Down (1,767m)
Option B
- 400m Warm Up;
- 12x 66m (33m Drill/33m Swim);
- 10x 100m 20sec RI;
- 6x 33m on 1/3 T-Time + 10sec;
- 200m Cool Down (2,600m)
Option C
- 800m WU;
- 12x 66m (33m Drill/33m Swim);
- 14x 100m 20sec RI;
- 8x 33m on 1/3 T-Time + 10sec;
- 200m CD (3,467m)
Start the workout with a Warm Up covering of 200m, 400m, or 800m (Options A, B, or C respectively). 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 repetitions (Option A) or twelve repetitions (Options B and C) of 67m Drill/Swim, where you do a drill for the first 33m of the repetition and then normal swimming for the next 33m swimming. Feel free to use fins whilst doing the drill set. Do the drills below once through for Option A and twice through for Options B and C:
I wrote an article about swimming drills previously. Click here to read and watch it.
After the Drill/Swim set remove your fins.
The first main set involves eight (Option A), ten (Option B) or fourteen (Option C) reps of 100m. Swim these as fast as you can maintain for all your reps with only a 20 seconds Rest Interval (RI) between.
The next set is made up of four (Option A), six (Option B) or eight (Option C) sprints over 33m. Start each rep on third of your T-Time plus ten seconds. Read more about T-Times in the link below.
Complete the workout with a 200m Cool Down. Feel free to pause and stretch when needed and/or include stretching as part of each break until the distance is covered.
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, I published a similar session previously.
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