It's amazing how badly short stuff can hurt ain't it? Today was Rocket 25's and 50 build to sprint. I'm gonna sleep like a baby.

Ha - wheels is one of my go-to's. My two favorite hard sets are both courtesy of Byron @ UofT:

5 x (100 on 1:30, 2 x 100 on 1:25, 3x 100 on 1:20, 4 x 100 on 1:15). The first time I swam this I misunderstood the directions: I thought we were supposed to swim the first 100 on 1:30, the second one on 1:25 and so on, for a total of 2k. And yes, it would be a bit painful swimming 100 LCM on 1:15, but then you could just roll into the easy one. That was a pretty painful misunderstanding.

The second set is 12 x 200m. The idea is to pick a pace time that's hard... Not quite a stretch time, but close. Then add 25 seconds to that time, so if your goal pace is 2:10, you'd swim the first 200 on 2:35. The second one is on 2:30, then 2:25, 2:20, 2:15 and 2:10. The goal for all of those is just to make the pace - but that starts off very easy, and finishes being pretty hard. Then you take a minute break, and swim those pace times in reverse - so, start on 2:10, and increase the intervals to 2:35 for the last one.

The catch is that whereas you just make pace on the first half of the set, the last 6x are all swum as fast or faster than the fastest 200 in the first half. So, if you swam the 6th 200 in 2:07, you have to swim 2:07 or better for each of 7-12. The second catch is that the 8th one (ie, the second 200 of the second part of the set) is going to be swim off 3 seconds rest or so, and although your rest increases as you go through the set, so does your fatigue.

Those ones look awesome, I'm coming up with new workouts right now as our club plans for summer. During the summer ours masters sessions are uncoached, we just grab the workout of the day from the website and do that. I can modify those pretty easily to fit our target metres and pace times.

I did go to a couple of Byrons workouts back in the day. Damn near killed me.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

I did a fun workout yesterday - main set was
3 x
50 fl/ 25 bk/50 br/ 25 fr
25 fly / 50 bk / 25 br / 50 fr
50 fr / 50 stroke / 50 fr

I did this in scy on 2:30. I would pick an interval that gives you :15 - :20 rest.

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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

I'm a total swim-set beginner, so please bear with me, but I would have read it the same way you misunderstood. The way I read it, it's:

100 @ 1:30, then
2 x 100 @ 1:25, then
3 x 100 @ 1:20, then
4 x 100 @ 1:15 | Rest

Repeat the above 4 times?

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

My weekly benchmark swim set is

200 Warm Up
100 Kick

6x50 hard every 45 seconds
50 Kick
10x100 every 1:45
50 Kick

100 Cool Down

Callin'

The way you wrote it is the way it's supposed to be done, so you swim (100, then 2x100, then 3x100, then 4x100 on a descending pace time) five times around for a total of 5k. The way that it was written on the workout sheet was along the lines of #1 on 1:30, #2 on 1:25, #3 on 1:20 and #4 on 1:15, which I read as 4x100, first one on 1:30, second one on 1:25, third one on 1:20 and fourth one on 1:15, for a total of 2k. Like I said, it was a pretty painful misunderstanding. I couldn't figure out why everyone else looked so down when they saw it, since it seemed so straightforward. It was only when I pushed off 5 seconds early on the third one that I realised what was going on. In my defence, we did it after 2,500m of IM "warm-up", and as the second workout on a Friday. I was so tired by the finish that I couldn't even get out of the pool - I just hung off the lane-rope. The funniest part was that the coach, Byron, had hopped up onto one of the starting blocks to give a speech while I was lying in the water dying.... the gist of it was that we had come to the end of our LSD phase, and the time had come for some focus, some aggression, some bite. And since that was what he wanted from us, we should expect to see the same from him. "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!!!!"

You swam for UofT? How long ago??

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Those ones work really well in a club setting. When I've used them for masters, I've adjusted the pace times for the first couple of lanes, then cut the distances for the slower lanes (12 x 150), and finally reduced the number of times through for the other side of the pool (10 x 150). They're pretty adaptable in terms of giving everyone the same sort of training load over a given time frame.

Another pretty good set, although very different in intent, is 5 x (6 x 50) w. 100 float between the sets. The pace time is very fast, and the idea is that you get about 5 seconds rest between the 50's. If you don't get 5 seconds, you sit the next 50 out, and then go again. So, if you were swimming these on 35s, you have to swim each of them in <30s; swimming 31s for the third one (say) would see you miss the fourth, and then go again for the 5th and the 6th rep. The idea is to swim fast: if you're too tired to swim fast, then you take a break until you're recovered enough to go quick again.

The final one that springs to mind as a fun set is one from Red Tide in NYC: 4 x (200 @ 3:00, 150 @ 2:10, 100 @ 1:20, 50 @ 0:35), with the pace times adjusted so that you're recovering on the 200 and the 150, but swimming pretty hard for the 100 and the 50. If you don't want to give anyone too much recovery, you can stipulate non-FR for one of the slower bits.

Thanks Gord, that helps. I'm just starting to really get into swimming and enjoying the workouts!

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

Callin'

Just noticed one detail on your earlier post: there isn't a rest after the 4x100 on 1:15 - you just roll straight into the easy 100, and use that (and maybe the 2 x 100, depending on how fast you are) to recover. FWIW, I started swimming pretty late relative to a lot of people, and there was a pretty long period during which I couldn't have told you anything about a single set that I was doing - I waited 5 seconds after the person in front of me pushed off, and did exactly what they did until I saw people stopped at the wall. My "friends" still tell jokes about how I looked when I first got in the water.

Jason,

I swam there from 2002-04, but I don't want to overstate my contribution to the team. On my good days I was a utility freestyler; more often I was something between comic relief and an ego boost for the other guys. Also, I was probably 10 years older than anyone else on the team (UofT was my 4th school), so there was a lot of hilarity at my "rookie" status.

interesting, will have to try this out!

This was a good one today, starts off not too bad, but gets tough by the end.

6x50 @ 55 - 50 easy
5x50 @ 50. - 50 easy
4x50 @ 45 - 50 easy
3 x 50 @ 40. - 50 easy
2 x 50 @35 - 50 easy
1 x 50 @ 30 - 50 easy

Early rounds are all at 400 pace, until 400 pace won't make the interval. Then it is just go fast enough to make the interval.
To make it tougher, increase the number of reps at each rest interval.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

One of my favourites is:
3x (1x200/2x100/4x50).
Rest is ~ 15 seconds after the 200, ~10 seconds after the 100's & 5-7 after the 50's. Rest between sets is between 30 & 60 seconds - depending on where the clock hand is when you finish the last 50.

6x(150 tempo + 100 threshold + 50 vo2max) all freestyle, all with 15" recovery (no extra rest inbetween)

6x400 on 6:00 description 1-6 pull will paddles

It has been the set my coach would give me whenever I was having a back week of training since I was 15 and now 18 years later it is still my go to set when I am in a slump.

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"Strive for perfection and achieve excellence"
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50's Fail Point Set

3 x 50 on 60
3 x 50 on 59
3 x 50 on 58
3 x 50 on 57
3 x 50 on 56
3 x 50 on 55
3 x 50 on 54...
Keep following the same pattern.

See who can make the most 50's before they miss the interval.

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I swim fast because I'm afraid of sharks.

This one is fun, and not too scary. Set intervals or rest periods if you like. It's a nice way to get in some yards in all strokes.

I counted 1300 for the set, repeating the middle row of all 50s would give you 1500.

25 FL, 25BK, 25BR, 25FR 100
25 FL, 25BK, 25BR, 50FR 125
25 FL, 25BK, 50BR, 50FR 150
25 FL, 50BK, 50BR, 50FR 175
50 FL, 50BK, 50BR, 50FR 200
50 FL, 50BK, 50BR, 25FR 175
50 FL, 50BK, 25BR, 25FR 150
50 FL, 25BK, 25BR, 25FR 125
25 FL, 25BK, 25BR, 25FR 100

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Suzanne Atkinson, MD
Steel City Endurance Coaching

Here are two that I've been doing a lot lately:

easy to gauge progress week to week
2x (400, 300, 200, 100)

this one seems helpful for the olympic distance and simulating a fast start race
10x25 sprint, 10x50 hard, 10x100

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Race Reports, etc -- Bob's Bikes

Curious as to the rest intervals on the second set. Assume fairly long on the 10x25s and shorter on the 10x50 and 10x100. Thanks.

Usually it's something like this:

10x25 on 0:30 (in around :16-:17)
10x50 on 0:50 (in around :36-:37)
10x100 on 1:30 (in around 1:17-1:19)

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Race Reports, etc -- Bob's Bikes

Makes sense, will probably give that a go in the morning (modified a bit for my slower 100 pace). Thanks!

I know this thread has been silent for a long time, but quick question. How important is it to have the short rest interval and why? I understand to an extent but I just want to hear a little more of an explanation.

Do you mean having a short rest interval as opposed to no rest (ie a straight continuous swim)? Or short rest as opposed to a longer rest?

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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