It depends on your goal race, but my default would be to add another session or make one session 6K. I don't think you gain much by making every session say 3.5K - 4K instead of 3K. I find that in 3K I can basically do everything I would do in 5K. I just have more filler outside my main set and my main set just gets a touch shorter and maybe a touch easier.

I don't think it matters which you do but going to 6 sessions sounds like a waste of time especially getting to the pool twice in one day. 3k per workout is not that much and not hard to add to when you are doing 5 workouts per week.

I'd add more meters to each session and add it mostly to the main set.

As far as Dev's comment: I find that in 3K I can basically do everything I would do in 5K.

I don't understand this as I can definitely feel the difference between a main set of 10 x 100 versus 20 x 100.

I think what Dev is saying is that he wouldn't necessarily change his main set if he had 3-3.5k vs 5k to swim.

Ie, on a 3k day, 500wu + 20x100 hard + 12x25 sprint + 200cd, vs on a 5km day, 1500 of warmup + 500 kick set + 20x100 hard + 500 of sprinty stuff + 500 of technique and cooldown.

So, more extra stuff, but the meat of the workout stays the same.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

My main set is probably going to be around 2000-2500m anyway regardless of whether I am swimming 5K or 3K. If I swim 5K I will do a whole bunch of other technical focused stuff and my main set will probably be a bit less intense. To me its like the difference between a 60 min run and a 90 min run....my main "set" in the run is going to be more or less the same, the 90 min run will just have more easy volume thrown in around the main hills or intervals.

Now if I do a 6500m - 7000m swim, there will be two different set around the filler. That's going to be a lot tougher swim with probably the same amount of "filler easy stuff" as the 5K swim, but another set of around 1500m-2000m.

OK, I see. I wouldn't do it like that. As Dev said, it's mostly adding filler. I prefer to increase distance by increasing the main set(s) although in reality I occasionally also add a little more fluff to get extra distance. But as far as the OP's main question, I'd still rather increase each of 5 workouts a little rather than add a 6th.

What would the second set consist of? If it is just going to be to add volume then I would say skip the doubles and just make a few of the workouts 5-6k with longer warmups and add like a long pull set or something at the end.

When I trained with a university swim team and did a couple of doubles with them. Morning practice would be 2 hours ~6.5-7kk and usually have a main set of something like 10x400 at a tempo type effort. Afternoons would be 1 hour swim + 1 hour dryland. The swim would be sprints and "race technique" so a lot things like dive 25s, turns where we would go 10m hard into and out of the wall with video, etc.

What's your goal?

What's your typical training session like now?

You say you're explosive, but lack endurance. Can you quantify those two statements? How fast can you swim a 100, and what's your time for a longer swim (800/1000/1500/1650)?

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

without knowing anything about you other than 5x wk for ~ 15, at 3k if you do 500 warm up and 200 cool down that's leaving you with about 2300 for a main set.
I'd increase my main sets to 3-4k a few days per week.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

As others have said an extra workout involves 30-60 m of extra effort (driving etc)...of time.

Increase density IMO if you are an AG athlete, basically our work outs are Highly dense because no one has time,

for us...often the warm up is "main set starts when I get changed and lane ropes are set up"

IE 3-400 W/U then main set then 100 C/D.

as DD said don't be afraid to hit a higher degree of main set.

Maurice

good questions! my normal session now is like 1000 m warm up, then something like 7x200 m or 10x100 m and then some pulling untill 3000-3500 m. Sometimes main set is 10x200 m zone 2.

I have no new data on anything else, I would go sub 1.20 for 100 m I think. 50 m I have done at 37 s in some set. Maybe I can get down to 35-36 (not diving) doing max.

Let me start by saying that I think 5 x a week, +/-3k per workout, is plenty enough time in the pool to reach just about any goal short of becoming an elite level competitive swimmer. So, to answer your basic question, no, you don't need another session. You need to structure your current sessions to be in line with your goals. So we now have an idea what your workouts are like, and we have some baseline measurements for sprint speed. But your goal is still vague. It seems you want to improve your improve your endurance, but how would you quantify that goal?

To help you in establishing reasonable goals, here are some rough ideas of how that 100 speed of 1:20 should project out over longer distances:
200 = 1.12 x 100 speed = ~1:30/100
400 = 1.22 x 100 speed = ~1:38/100
800 = 1.30 x 100 speed = ~1:44/100
1500 = 1.36 x 100 speed = ~1:49/100


If I were to have to give a suggestion based on what little info you've given, it would be to do a 2000 yard set, 3 times a week, at that 800 pace. Maybe, to start, you have to do 40 x 50 on a 1:10 interval, with a target time of :52. The idea is to swim as close as possible to :52 every time. Doing the early ones at :48 doesn't really help if it means you can't hold the :52 target time later in the set. Consistency is what you're after....besides building the actual physical endurance, you're trying to build muscle memory of swimming at that pace. Now, if you miss an interval, you skip the next interval to rest. It's better to rest a little, then resume swimming at the targeted pace, than to continue swimming slower and slower because you're exhausted and can't hold good technique.

If you miss the interval 3 times before getting to the 2000 yard mark, you stop. Do an easy 300-400 recovery swim/set, and move on. Try again next workout.

If you can get all the way to the end of that set, or even close (say 32 reps), you can add 26x75 to the rotation. Same pace, rest always in the ~20 second range. So you'd be on a 1:40 interval, with a target time of 1:18. Same rules for failure to make the targeted pace.

Once you're getting to the end of that set, or close, you can start adding 20x100 to the rotation, interval 2:05, target 1:44. You can also try to do the 75's on a 1:35 interval instead of 1:40.

If you can do 20x100 at that pace, or even 16x100, I guarantee you can swim an 800 straight at that pace. There will be carry over effect up and down the distance scale, as well. Your capacity in the 400 and 1500 will improve similarly to your improvement in 800 capacity. Once you've "mastered" a pace on the 100's, you increase the pace and start the process over.

Speaking of 400 and 1500, that's what I'd work on the other two days. 20 or 25 x 50 at 400 pace (similar rules for interval, target, failure) one day, and a 2400-3000 yard set at 1500 pace the next (like 24-30 x 100 or 16-20 x 150).

Other Suggestions:

• I'd shorten the warm up. I do 500-600 yards, then get right into the race pace stuff.
• Pick up another stroke to work on when you've exhausted your freestyle capacity for the day. You're better off doing a small set of quality breaststroke or backstroke at the end of practice, than swimming some ragged, slow freestyle
• Time trial yourself occasionally. Know what you can do for a maximum effort swim across a range of distances, so you can verify whether or not your workouts are actually helping you improve.

[EDITED to correct pre-coffee math errors]

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"