With that amount of time and the goal of 70.3 you could try this main set:

500 @ 70.3 pace
100 as 50 back, 50 breast
400 @ 70.3 pace
100 as 50 breast, 50 back
300 @ 70.3 pace
100 as 50 back, 50 breast
200 @ 70.3 pace
100 as 50 breast, 50 back
100 @ 70.3 pace

Gives you 1900m of continuous swimming (1500m @ goal race pace), with the back and breast as recovery and stretch out time. Add a warm-up in there and you have about 40 minutes.

Gives you 1900m of continuous swimming (1500m @ goal race pace), with the back and breast as recovery and stretch out time. Add a warm-up in there and you have about 40 minutes. //

I like your set, but you must have missed the part where he said he does 100m repeats on the 2;15? Just the set alone will put him well over his 40 minutes, never mind any warm up beforehand. Maybe if you just make it a 50 back easy between he might be able to make it...Guessing his 70.3 pace is near the 2 minute mark per 100, and guys like that take forever to do any sort of stroke stuff... (-;

[/quote] I fail to see much point of 100’s at +/- 1:55 pace on a 2 minute interval. Might as well just swim continuous, as that little recovery doesn’t really allow you to swim at anything substantially different that continuous pace.

100’s with ~30 seconds rest could be very productive, as long as the pace was something a fair bit quicker than “70.3 pace.” I honestly think that’s a good idea for one of the two weekly 40 minute workouts, as long as there’s a push for progression. Call it the “power set.” Don’t just swim the same pace every week, try to do each week a little faster. If you can to the point where you’re able to hold 1:40’s for 16 straight 100’s on 2:15, advance the interval to 2:10 and see if you can hold 1:42’s on that. Once you can, start progressing the pace again. This is to build swimming strength. Also helps you build the muscle memory for a “higher gear” should
you need to deploy it temporarily in a race swim leg to get out of troublesome traffic and/or latch on to a potential draft opportunity .

For the other 40 minute session, I’d do 40min straight at “70.3 effort.” Get accustomed to swimming at that effort without stopping.

For the longer workout, I’d be working on something like 16x200 at slightly faster than 70.3 pace with intervals that allowed for something like 15-20 seconds rest. Again, the goal here is progression. This is the set where we try to build the muscle memory of swimming slightly faster than our current race pace, hoping to eventually make it your race pace.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

An eye-opening thread, so far.

My interest lies with the rest intervals.

And also with my kindred "hydro-sloths" with bad form.

As many of us decent runners + cyclists can attest to, our stroke will break down, months before our cardio does, and in that, I think lies the danger + inefficiency.

It's a pretty personal thing, as different aspects of "poor form" can accelerate overall slowing down. And of course, the darn near - inevitable injury.

10 seconds rest on a 100 for someone may be excessive, but inadequate for some. I guess the same can be said for 20 seconds per 100.

Here's my question, is there ANY physiological value of the occasional over-distance swim (be that 1.5 K or 4 K) when a person's form, clearly is deteriorating?

Fire away

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

As I understood it, he's swimming the 100s in 1:44. 2:15 is his send-off time. If he's doing multiple 100s at 1:44 pace I would expect his 70.3 pace to be closer to 1:50/100, which would give him plenty of time to complete the set. I did this set myself yesterday and it took 36 minutes, and I am not a fast swimmer! I agree, if he's struggling to complete the set, cutting the recovery sections to 50m back only would be the way to go.

I don't separate the physiological from the psychological benefit. Having to focus and hold your form together when tired is as much about concentration as anything else. For me, this is where most of the benefits of the long continuous swim lie. Learning to relax the mind and body while still focusing on form and body-awareness is a valuable skill, for racing and life in general. When you add in the recuperative/regenerative nature of continuous swims (and subtract the psychological toll of constantly swimming hard intervals against the clock) you get more benefits (both psychological and physiological). Location matters too: I do all my over-distance stuff in the lake, and there are lots of other added benefits there.