Workout Wednesday: Pacing Practice

Triathletes should practice pacing on a regular basis during swim workouts. While it’s important to get in speed work and longer sessions, the only way to master the distance you’ll be swimming in your next race is to pace properly. For this workout, pick a distance you can comfortably swim multiple times at increasing and decreasing speeds. For some triathletes, at might be 50 metres at this point in the training season. For others, 200 is manageable. We have used 100 metres in this workout, but swap it accordingly.

The sets in this workout should feel different. Set times that allow you to swim comfortably for the first few and almost sprinting by the last one. Doing these sets will help you better understand your current swimming level. You’ll know how to set your paces accordingly in other swim workouts. You can also revisit this workout in a few months to see how your fitness has improved, by logging how hard the final set feels at your given pace time.

You will need to watch the clock for this workout to make sure you are accurately hitting your pace times. Use the pace clock at your pool or your swim watch.

Warm-up

300 metres — 100 swim, 100 pull, 100 kick (10 seconds rest between each)

8 x 50 — increase speed 1 – 4, 5 – 8 (10 seconds rest between each)

Main Set

Twice through, 30 seconds between rounds:

5 x 100 — 2:00/1:55/1:50/1:45/1:40

100 hard

Cool down

200 easy