Being able to swim fast is useful, but being able to control your pace and deliberately change gears is an equally important skill. This week’s Saturday Swim Session develops exactly that ability by repeating a simple three-step progression: steady, hard, maximum effort.
Every three 100m repetitions, you’ll progressively increase your pace before backing off and starting the sequence again. The challenge isn’t simply to swim the maximum-effort repetitions quickly. It’s to create three genuinely different intensities, recover enough during the steady repetitions to repeat the progression, and continue swimming with good technique as fatigue accumulates.
Each Saturday I post a Swim Session, and most weeks there are three options to choose from. Option A is for swimmers looking for a workout between 1,000 and 2,000 metres, Option B is between 2,000 and 3,000m, and Option C is greater than 3,000m.
You can read my article explaining Swim Intensity if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology used throughout these sessions.
Today’s Goal
The goal of today’s session is to develop your ability to control your swimming intensity and progressively increase your pace across repeated groups of three 100m efforts.
Each three-repetition sequence follows the same pattern:
100m Steady → 100m Hard → 100m Maximum Effort
After the third repetition, you return to steady and begin building again.
This gives you repeated opportunities to practise changing pace rather than simply settling into one intensity for the entire main set.
Why You’re Doing This Session
Endurance swimmers and triathletes don’t always get to swim at one perfectly even pace.
You might need to increase your effort at the beginning of an open-water swim, accelerate around a buoy, bridge across to another swimmer, respond when the pace of a group changes or put in a short surge to find better feet.
To do that effectively, you need more than fitness. You need pace awareness and the ability to deliberately change intensity without losing control of your stroke.
This workout develops that skill in a very straightforward way.
The steady 100m gives you controlled swimming. The hard 100m requires a definite increase in pace. The maximum-effort 100m asks you to produce your fastest technically sound swimming.
Then you back off and do it again.
As the session progresses, repeating those changes becomes increasingly challenging.
Session Inspiration
Like last week’s Alternate Swim & Pull 200s session, this workout comes from the Guide to Triathlon Swimming, a supplement published with Triathlon Plus, Issue 46 in October 2012.
Option A is the original workout from the supplement: a 300m Warm Up followed by 12 × 100m building the intensity over every three repetitions, then a 200m Cool Down for a total of 1,700m.
I’ve used that original session as the foundation and developed two higher-volume versions following the same concept.
Option B extends the main set to 18 × 100m for a total session distance of 2,500m, while Option C uses 24 × 100m to produce a 3,400m workout.
Whichever option you choose, the purpose of the main set remains exactly the same.
Today’s Workout
Option A – 1,700m
- 300m Warm Up (WU)
- 12 × 100m (Build 1–3) – 30sec RI
- 200m Cool Down (CD)
Option B – 2,500m
- 500m Warm Up (WU)
- 18 × 100m (Build 1–3) – 30sec RI
- 200m Cool Down (CD)
Option C – 3,400m
- 800m Warm Up (WU)
- 24 × 100m (Build 1–3) – 30sec RI
- 200m Cool Down (CD)
What You Should Focus On
The key to this workout is making each of the three intensities genuinely different.
The first repetition should be steady. Don’t make the mistake of starting too quickly simply because you’re fresh.
Increase your pace for the second 100m. This should be a hard effort and clearly faster than the first, but you’re still building towards the third repetition.
The third 100m is your maximum effort.
Once you’ve finished it, reset the progression. The fourth repetition returns to steady, the fifth is hard and the sixth is maximum effort.
Continue following that pattern throughout the main set.
Technique remains important at every intensity. Increasing your pace shouldn’t simply mean increasing your stroke rate while your catch, body position and stroke length deteriorate.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Starting The Steady 100m Too Fast
If you swim the first repetition hard, you’ve immediately compromised the progression.
There needs to be room to increase your pace twice.
Control the steady repetition so you can produce a clear difference between steady, hard and maximum effort.
Making Steady And Hard The Same Pace
The purpose of the workout is to change gears.
If your first and second repetitions are virtually identical, you’re missing an important part of the session.
Saving Too Much For The Maximum Effort
The second repetition is supposed to be hard.
Don’t deliberately hold it back so you can produce an impressive third 100m. You’re building the intensity across all three repetitions rather than simply swimming easy, easy, fast.
Forgetting To Reset
After every maximum-effort 100m, the progression starts again.
That means repetitions 1, 4, 7, 10 and so on are steady.
Use them to regain control before beginning your next build.
Sacrificing Technique For Speed
Maximum effort doesn’t mean thrashing your way down the pool.
You still need to maintain good body position, establish an effective catch and propel yourself efficiently through the water.
Tips For Completing The Workout Successfully
Think of the main set as a collection of three-repetition blocks rather than 12, 18 or 24 individual 100s.
Your pattern is always:
Steady → Hard → Maximum Effort → Reset
If you’re recording your times, this workout provides some useful feedback.
Rather than expecting every 100m to become progressively faster throughout the entire set, compare repetitions performing the same role.
For example, compare your steady 100s with one another. Do the same with your hard repetitions and your maximum-effort repetitions.
Ideally, you’ll see three distinct groups of times while also maintaining reasonable consistency within each intensity.
When swimming the maximum-effort repetitions, go as fast as possible while continuing to swim with good technique and staying consistent with pace. You don’t want your early maximum-effort repetitions to be dramatically faster than those towards the end.
Workout Breakdown
Begin with 300m for Option A, 500m for Option B or 800m for Option C of mixed swimming.
Include a range of strokes during the Warm Up and gradually prepare yourself for the harder swimming ahead. Feel free to stop and stretch whenever required. The Warm Up doesn’t need to be continuous.
The main set is then 12 × 100m for Option A, 18 × 100m for Option B or 24 × 100m for Option C.
Take a 30-second Rest Interval after every repetition.
Build your pace across each group of three:
Rep 1 – Steady
Rep 2 – Hard
Rep 3 – Maximum Effort
Then repeat:
Rep 4 – Steady
Rep 5 – Hard
Rep 6 – Maximum Effort
Continue following the same pattern for the duration of your chosen workout.
That gives you:
- Option A: 4 complete Build 1–3 sequences
- Option B: 6 complete Build 1–3 sequences
- Option C: 8 complete Build 1–3 sequences
The main set is completed as freestyle.
Finish the workout with a 200m Cool Down.
Unlike the main set, your Cool Down can include whichever strokes you wish. Swim easily, stop and rest after any length if required, and take the opportunity to stretch during the Cool Down.
After Your Swim
Take a moment to think about how well you controlled the different intensities rather than judging the session purely by your fastest 100m.
Ask yourself:
- Could I clearly distinguish between steady, hard and maximum effort?
- Did I leave enough room to increase my pace from rep one to rep three?
- Could I bring my intensity back down for the next steady 100m?
- Were my maximum-effort repetitions reasonably consistent?
- Did my hard repetitions remain hard as fatigue accumulated?
- Did I maintain good technique during the fastest swimming?
- Did the differences between my three intensities become smaller towards the end?
The real measure of this workout isn’t one exceptionally fast 100m. It’s whether you can repeatedly move from steady to hard to maximum effort, reset, and then do it again while maintaining control of your pace and technique.
Want 8 Weeks of Swim Sessions Like This?
If you enjoyed today’s workout, why stop at just one?
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