Home > Feature

Workout: Mix it up in the pool

Swim training can definitely get monotonous. We stare at the black line for hours each week trying to get faster and improve our swimming. Sometimes it’s fun to mix up the swim set a bit. Even if you do not know other strokes very well, it can still be nice to give them a try and do something other than freestyle.

The following workout gives you some great freestyle training, but it is a little bit different than your typical threshold set. Adding this type of workout once a week will help keep your workouts more exciting. If you know all of the strokes then you can do this set as written, but if you only know one or two other strokes besides freestyle, then just to those on the non-free portion.

Workout Total: 4000

  • Warm up:
    400 swim (every 4th 25 no freestyle)
    300 kick (alternate 50 free/ 50 no free)
  • 300 pull freestyle

First set:

  • 6x 100 with fins – rest 20 seconds between each 100
  • Odd 100’s are swim – 75 freestyle/25 no freestyle (no breaststroke with your fins)
  • Even 100’s are kick- 75 free/25 no free (again, no breaststroke with your fins)
  • 200 easy with NO fins in order to get the feeling of your feet back

Main set: Take about 10-15 seconds rest in between each 100 and each 25

  • 1x 100 free
  • 4 x 25 (one of each stroke IM order* )
  • 2 x 100 free
  • 4 x 25 (one of each stroke IM order)
  • 3x 100 free
  • 4x 25 (one of each stroke IM order)
  • 4x 100 free
  • 4x 25 (one of each stroke IM order)
  • 5x 100 free
  • 4x 25 (one of each stroke IM order)
  • 200 easy

*IM order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle

*If you want to cut down the yards, then do the 400 swim for warm up and then the main set. This will be 2400 total