I feel good sprinting 1:10-1:05 100's and no way could do 10x... real swimmers are fun to watch. I think there's a SwimSmooth youtube vid with a guy gliding along at 1:15-1:10 and then he kicks it up sub :50. It's like some kind of foreign language I'll never be able to learn. :)

This.

I can only dream of having trials cuts, so if I knew people who had them, I'd be all like "can I just split your lane for a bit? please?" so I could rub elbows with that awesomeness.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Well, if he's got a 5:17 PB pre-growth spurt, then he's got a pretty good potential.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

The scarier version is there are two girls coming up on that club team who look to be even better....only time will tell. I'm just hoping like you that some of the awesomeness of those swimmers is left in the pool b/f I stink it up with my snail pace. Doesn't seem to translate:/ No matter I love swimming for the exercise I accept my place in the pool hierarchy....a bottom slug!

I could join him on interval 100. Race him. And lose by 10 seconds.

They're just people.

One of the guys on the club was a medalist at CIS Champs (Canadian version of NCAA's) a few years ago. Now he has kids, comes out maybe once a week when time allows, and usually just floats along at the back of the lane.

Another friend of mine I've never actually swum with, but he would have trials cuts if he was American.

Both guys are really cool dudes, so that's why I like (or would like) swimming with them. Not because they're fast.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Definitely not taken as a criticism on my end.

One correction though. His times are actually fairly consistent with others swimming similar times over similar distances.

Nationally, the kids who are swimming around 50 (there are about 15 twelve year olds going 50 or faster - a couple of 49's out there). All of them are swimming between 4:55 and 5:00 for the 500. There also swimming between 1:48 and 1:52 for the 200.

You've got to love the swim times database on USA Swimming's website.

I get that about the times, I'm just talking in generalities about what is likely to happen as he matures. The sprints "should" improve a lot more than the distance stuff....

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

We have a lot of kids who are going to Trials, plus a couple of visiting college kids training here. Fun to watch them swim!

Our Masters coach has a gold medal from the Atlanta Olympics, and, she's just as good of a coach as a swimmer.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Holy geeepers a goldie!! Who is it if you don't mind? That would be crazy to be around that I got to shake Summer Sanders hand once....I forgot most of the entire experience I wanted to ask her to marry me and also to touch.....the medals.

I was thinking the same thing. This just looks like an easy endurance set. Most real swimmers would think this is junk.

If you want a real kick in the pants, get smoked by a guy doing breaststroke while you're sprinting and come to realize he's only swam in college; never at the games.

Those were almost exactly my times as a 17 year old in high school
56, 2:02, 5:20
I was 5'6" and 130 lbs wet.

Walked on D1 and ended up
53 (split of a 200, thought of myself as 50 point capable)
1:47
4:50

Bulked up to 5'9" 170 lbs

Sounds like Jr has a lot of potential

Workouts like this were common in the 80s and early 90s.
It is not that hard nor that uncommon.
Personally- I suspect that I could have come close to making this workout. I did something similar (but shorter) once.
I couldn't even make the conference finals and I was nowhere near Olympic trials times.

Exactly. I have a buddy who qualified for two Olympics (80/84) and we talked about sets like this and he said its not worth getting in the pool.

Session from World's best distance free coach:

800 meters (150 free/50 form stroke x 4)no intervalPre-Set8 x 150
2 x 150 free (breathe 3, 5, 7)
2 x 150 free/polo/free
2 x 150 free/fly/free
2 x 150 free/back/free(on 2:15):Pre-Set8 x 50
(2 x drills/2 x stroke count/2 x drills/2 x build)on 1:00:Main Set30 x 100
(10 at 30 beats below maximum heart rate, 10 at 20, 10 at 10)
on 1:40

Warm-DownSwim-off:
2 x (3 x 100/4 x 50 at :45)Drill SetFins: 3 x (200 kick/scull/drill/stroke),
4 x 50 explosions with 25m sprint on 1:00Warm-Down200Notice no crazy send off times...

My PRs: 5:17.9, 51.3 and 1:53.05. Nice estimate on your part (but I was not a distance swimmer. And I was 32...)

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"Go yell at an M&M"

The best man at my wedding swam in Kentucky back in the 70s. At one point, he held every state record in the freestyle or something like that, from the 50 (IIRC) to the 1650. One day, a coach brought up this young girl whom the coach wanted to meet my friend. "Steve, this is Mary Meagher..."

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"Go yell at an M&M"

"real" swimmers would think it is junk? Well, I agree that to this guy it is probably an easy endurance set since he finished 3rd in OW 5k nationals in 55:35, 1 second behind first. That's an average pace of 1:01/100yds. Who qualifies as a "real" swimmer if he does not?

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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I'm not saying "real" swimmers wouldn't do it... and I sure as shit wasn't implying this guy isn't a real swimmer. I'm simply saying that fast swimmers tend to think endurance sets are junk because they don't offer the stimulus they think they need.

Our HS club team would do 100x100 every December with intervals from 1:20 down to 1:05. I made them all on 1:05 three different years holding 1:00's the whole way along with a few other guys. A number of distance girls made all 100 on 1:10. A guy I swam with who was close to 15:30 in the 1500 at his peak tried to make them on 1:00 one year but only got to about 30 or so if I recall. The set above is pretty easy for young swimmers that are doing 80k+ per week.

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Strava

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. ;-)

100x100 was a pretty rare workout for most of us back then. I did it once per year, usually in metres. I wasn't a distance swimmer though. And doing repeats on 1:00 at the end of that practice is pretty hard for most. The top guys may not be worried about making the interval, but it's not like you can just float through that.

ETA - the entire practice isn't hard. But 100's on 1:00 isn't truly "easy"...

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

You really can not always tell much about a set just by looking at the white board. You need to factor in the swimmer too.

100's on the 1:10 are a completely different workout if you are going 1:09's versus 55's ;-)

Not sure when you swam, but olympic trials is a completely different animal now -- 150+ people swimming in each event.

There is a splash and dash event (1000y swim/5k run) in my community that has a 17 year old that almost always wins. He is an ok runner but he always puts 3-4 minutes into the competition on the swim. The most recent race he put down a 10:23...now I have no idea if this is great in the swimming world...I know I have heard some people say he's not even one of the best on his swim team, which may be BS...all I know is watching him swim next to triathletes is an absolute delight. As others have stated...he makes it look like he's not even trying and is just calmly lapping everybody.

I clearly am way too impressed given everyone's comments here, but to put that 10:23 in context to the workout in my OP, intervals 80 to 90 would be 1000 yards 23 seconds faster, including rest!

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook