Workout Wednesday: Swim with Speed

Don’t underestimate the need for speed sets in the pool while training for longer distances, even the 4 km swim of the full distance. While it’s important to log endurance sets in the pool and open water during your base training, a swim PB also depends on logging time spent doing quality sprints. This set will help you practice your speed work at race pace and faster. You’ll get in some good swimming at a fast tempo but since the intervals aren’t too long and you’ll have plenty of recovery in between, your technique shouldn’t be compromised. The pull sets are especially useful to get you used to swimming hard with an efficient stroke.

Speed work should be integrated into your swim training at least once a week. The paces for these sets can be adjusted to fit your swimming ability. You can tailor “Nothing over 200” to meet your weekly training needs by scaling back each set as needed.

Total: 3,750 m 

Warm Up: 3 x 100 continuous swim with a five second rest between

Main Set:

2 x 100 swim with a long, smooth stroke on 2:00

12 x 50 m swim (1 to 4 getting progressively faster) on 1:00 

6 x 25 m all-out sprint on :30

200 m pull at 90 per cent effort

100 m choice easy

4 x 100 m sprint on 1:45

4 x 100 m swim (getting progressively faster every 25 m so that the last  25 m is all-out sprint)

6 x 50 m on :50

4 x 25 m all-out sprint on :30

200 m pull at 90 per cent effort

100 m  choice easy

2 x 100 m swim with long, quality strokes on 2:00

6 x 50 m swim on 1:00

4 x 25 m all-out sprint on :30

Cool Down: 3 x 100 continuous swim with five seconds rest between