Everyone needs speed-work for their swim. Even distance and open water swimmers.
Just like an athlete goes to the track to work on running speed, you have to do the same in the pool. Obvious? Perhaps. Often overlooked? Yes. This set was written for my open water swimmers and distance group. High intensity efforts, with a work to rest ratio that allows for plenty of rest.
In the main set, on the shorter efforts, we’re looking for more rest than effort, and on the longer efforts (100’s) we’re looking for :30 seconds or more rest. So not full recovery on the longer repeats, but enough to keep the intensity up. And as you can see, we do play with the send-off a little bit. On the 2nd set of 50’s it does start to become more of a speed endurance / threshold set. Depending on the needs of your athletes, you can shift that send-off to be longer.
Workout
Warm up:
300 easy swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
4 x 50 descend 1-4 @ 1:00
4 x 100 1-2 cruise easy, 3-4 build to hard over the 100 @ 1:45
Main sets: Speed
4 x 50 Build to sprint pace over the 50 @ 1:15
> 1 min rest
6 x 50 Burst 25 meters sprint. Easy for remaining 25m @ 1:15
> 1 min rest
4 x 50 Max effort @ 1:30
> 1 min rest
4 x 50 Max effort @ 1:15
> 1 min rest
4 x 100 @ 1:45 – Best pace
Cool down:
400 easy
Workout Total: 2900
This workout was provided by Podium Training Systems Coach Dave Burgess.
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