This monster set has been the subject of rumour and discussion on many occasions and as I have access to someone who would know the “real story’, I thought I’d ask someone who’d know - his coach at the time, Josh Stern:
Ha.
The rumours are funny.
I think 10:00 intervals became the story because it averaged out to faster than 10:00 per 1000.
What really happened is this - some Aussie Open water 10/25K swimmer was in Boston during the summer and he did a set at a summer club pool that was 20 x 1000 Free.
We heard about it and Erik wanted to go farther - thought 25 was good but "anybody" could do that so we decided 30.
We knew we needed 5 hours so he came in 3 hours early for practice (which was 3 & 1/2 hours back then).
We started at 1 on 11:00, 1 on 10:00, 1 on 9:50, 1 on 9:40, 1 on 9:30
Then 1 on 10:15 and 3 on 9:45, 1 on 9:30
Then 5 on 10:00 and so on
Around #17-#19 we realised that Erik hadn't eaten anything (ANYTHING!) before he came in to train.
So we threw a 11:00 1000 around #21 or #22 and shoved a granola bar down his throat with some sports drink or water.
He hung tough through #23 and #24, and blasted through the last 6 where the intervals stayed at 10:00.
He finished well under 5 hours even with the 11:00 food interval (I think he was 3-5 min under) so that's probably where the whole 10:00 interval came from.
His slowest 1000s were around 18-22 but he was never slower than 10:00 on any of them except the first 1000 he did which was 10:10 or 10:15 on the 1000 #1 on 11:00 - he was under on all the 10:30 as well as the 11:00 food stop.
I wrote all the times down when he did it - as well as the 500 splits - and kept every split during each 1000 to keep count.
He did negative split every 1000 - I don't think he even remembers that - except towards 18 or 19 when he started to have trouble counting... that's when we realised he hadn't eaten anything before training. (ugh) He started to phase out mentally until we got some food in him.
Man, what a great kid Erik was. Just a great, great kid.
The rumours are better - much easier to follow and understand. The reality was that the set was much, much harder than 30 x 1000 on 10:00.
It probably would have been better if we did the 10:00 intervals for all of it. I just wanted him to change speeds more and control every swim.
So there you have it. Certainly one of the ‘all time’ workouts!
Ha.
The rumours are funny.
I think 10:00 intervals became the story because it averaged out to faster than 10:00 per 1000.
What really happened is this - some Aussie Open water 10/25K swimmer was in Boston during the summer and he did a set at a summer club pool that was 20 x 1000 Free.
We heard about it and Erik wanted to go farther - thought 25 was good but "anybody" could do that so we decided 30.
We knew we needed 5 hours so he came in 3 hours early for practice (which was 3 & 1/2 hours back then).
We started at 1 on 11:00, 1 on 10:00, 1 on 9:50, 1 on 9:40, 1 on 9:30
Then 1 on 10:15 and 3 on 9:45, 1 on 9:30
Then 5 on 10:00 and so on
Around #17-#19 we realised that Erik hadn't eaten anything (ANYTHING!) before he came in to train.
So we threw a 11:00 1000 around #21 or #22 and shoved a granola bar down his throat with some sports drink or water.
He hung tough through #23 and #24, and blasted through the last 6 where the intervals stayed at 10:00.
He finished well under 5 hours even with the 11:00 food interval (I think he was 3-5 min under) so that's probably where the whole 10:00 interval came from.
His slowest 1000s were around 18-22 but he was never slower than 10:00 on any of them except the first 1000 he did which was 10:10 or 10:15 on the 1000 #1 on 11:00 - he was under on all the 10:30 as well as the 11:00 food stop.
I wrote all the times down when he did it - as well as the 500 splits - and kept every split during each 1000 to keep count.
He did negative split every 1000 - I don't think he even remembers that - except towards 18 or 19 when he started to have trouble counting... that's when we realised he hadn't eaten anything before training. (ugh) He started to phase out mentally until we got some food in him.
Man, what a great kid Erik was. Just a great, great kid.
The rumours are better - much easier to follow and understand. The reality was that the set was much, much harder than 30 x 1000 on 10:00.
It probably would have been better if we did the 10:00 intervals for all of it. I just wanted him to change speeds more and control every swim.
So there you have it. Certainly one of the ‘all time’ workouts!