Your ability to sustain a fast pace is effectively determined by your Threshold pace. Make an improvement in your threshold swimming pace and find yourself swimming faster for longer (assuming you have the prerequisite stamina). This is a great session for triathletes and open water swimmers to do to build their sustained speed.
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
- 300m W/U;
- 8x 25m Drill;
- 12x 100m Swim on T+20sec;
- 200m C/D (1,900m)
Option B
- 400m W/U;
- 12x 25m Drill;
- 18x 100m Swim on T+20sec;
- 200m C/D (2,700m)
Option C
- 800m W/U;
- 12x 25m Drill;
- 24x 100m Swim on T+20sec;
- 200m C/D (3,700m)
For the Warm Up (WU) start with a 300m (Option A), 400m (Option B), or 800m (Option C) swim. 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. There are eight (Option A) or twelve (Options B & C) 25m repetitions. Feel free to use fins whilst doing this set. Do the drills below twice (Option A) or thrice (Options B & C) through:
The main set is made up of twelve (Option A), 18 (Option B), or 24 (Option C) reps of 100m, swim these at as fast a pace that you can maintain for all the reps. You will swim these reps on your T-Time plus 20 seconds. So, if your T-Time is 1:50min you will start each rep on 2:10. If you swim the rep in 1:43 you will end up getting 27 seconds of Rest Interval (RI), but if you swim the rep in 1:57 you will only get thirteen seconds Rest Interval (RI).
Read more about T-Times below but make sure you have worked out your T-Time before doing this session:
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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