The ability to swim at and maintain your threshold pace is a critical component of fitness for triathletes and long-distance open water swimmers. This is a great session for triathletes and open water swimmers to do to build their top-end 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.
The inspiration for today’s workouts come from a Beginner’s Guide to Triathlon published by Triathlon Plus and was free with Issue 42 in the Summer of 2012. The workout comes from Doug Hall of RaceOffRoad.co.uk.
Option A
- WU 2x:
- 50m F/S;
- 50m K;
- 50m Pull;
- 50m F/S;
- 2x 100m 60RI;
- 8x 50m Pull 30RI;
- CD 2x
- 50m F/S;
- 50m Bk;
- 50m Br;
- 50m F/S (3,000m)
Option B
- WU 3x:
- 50m F/S;
- 50m K;
- 50m Pull;
- 50m F/S;
- 4x 100m 60RI;
- 12x 50m Pull 30RI;
- CD 2x
- 50m F/S;
- 50m Bk;
- 50m Br;
- 50m F/S (3,000m)
Option C
- WU 4x:
- 50m F/S;
- 50m K;
- 50m Pull;
- 50m F/S;
- 8x 100m 60RI;
- 20x 50m Pull 30RI;
- CD 2x
- 50m F/S;
- 50m Bk;
- 50m Br;
- 50m F/S (3,000m)
For the Warm Up (WU) start with a series of 200m of swimming broken into four reps of 50m. The first rep is Freestyle (F/S), second rep is kicking (K), the third rep is Pull and the final rep is Freestyle (F/S) again. Option A swims twice through the set, Option B swims three times through the set and Option C swims four times through.
This first main set is made up of two (Option A), four (Option B) or eight (Option C) reps of 100m. Take a 60 second Rest Interval (RI) after each rep.
The second main set is made up of eight (Option A), twelve (Option B) or twenty (Option C) reps of 50m. Take a 30 second Rest Interval (RI) after each rep.
For the Cool Down (CD) swim a 200m set similar to the Warm Up, broken into four reps of 50m. The first rep is Freestyle (F/S), second rep is Backstroke (Bk), the third rep is Breaststroke (Br) and the final rep is Freestyle (F/S) again.
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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