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Bang for your buck swim sets?
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Our pool time is restricted to 45 minutes/session which when you're as slow as me isn't really all that much time. My most recent session I managed 18 x 100 on 10s rest and that pretty much used up all my time.

Suggestions for workouts so I minimize rest time but still get enough to not be a flailing mess by the end?
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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I'm a fan of pyramid workouts. 100,200,300,400,300,200,100 is a favourite for me. If I don't go all out on the intervals, 20-25sec rest is enough. You can mess around with the distances to make it work for the amount of time you have.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [edbikebabe] [ In reply to ]
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Oooh, good idea. Gonna try it out tomorrow.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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3 X 500 with 1st on 25 fast/25 ez
2nd 50 fast 50 ez
3rd every 4th length stroke.

Also I include some IM, stroke work to add intensity.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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That's a good workout. 20-ish 100s on 5-10 sec rest are threshold workouts and do have a lot of bang for your buck. I'd do that on one day, and some other ideas are

1. sprint 100s and 200s with like a 50 easy kick between them
2. 5-8 x 200 best average (keep the times pretty consistent, interval should give you :20-:30 rest... so I'd do them on 3 minutes holding about 2:35s)
3. 3-5 x 300-400 fast with lots of rest (vo2 max, pick a distance that gets you 3-5 minutes of VERY HARD gut-wrenching swimming)

It's not all about minimizing rest unless you just want to pack as many yards as possible into the 45 minutes. The more limited the pool time, the more I'd use it for the very intense sort of repeats that are harder to pull off in open water.

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
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Dr. Tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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Great ideas, thanks!
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Dr. Tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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Dr. Tigerchik wrote:
That's a good workout. 20-ish 100s on 5-10 sec rest are threshold workouts and do have a lot of bang for your buck. I'd do that on one day, and some other ideas are

1. sprint 100s and 200s with like a 50 easy kick between them
2. 5-8 x 200 best average (keep the times pretty consistent, interval should give you :20-:30 rest... so I'd do them on 3 minutes holding about 2:35s)
3. 3-5 x 300-400 fast with lots of rest (vo2 max, pick a distance that gets you 3-5 minutes of VERY HARD gut-wrenching swimming)

It's not all about minimizing rest unless you just want to pack as many yards as possible into the 45 minutes. The more limited the pool time, the more I'd use it for the very intense sort of repeats that are harder to pull off in open water.

This is a good point. It's hard to not be swimming when I only have 30min in the pool though. Feels like I'm not getting my money's worth. I think a combo of some longer/steady state and some hard intervals would be good for me.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [edbikebabe] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
It's hard to not be swimming when I only have 30min in the pool though. Feels like I'm not getting my money's worth.

Yeah, 45 min is a vast improvement over 30 minutes.
You could try doing fast 200s and go right into a 100 kick (I do a lot of breaststroke kick laying on my back) so you're still accumulating yards while doing fast stuff.

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
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Dr. Tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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Dr. Tigerchik wrote:
(I do a lot of breaststroke kick laying on my back)

This is a skill level that I am yet to unlock. My breaststroke kick is so uneven it'd probably get me DQ'd; I can't even contemplate doing it on my back.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
(I do a lot of breaststroke kick laying on my back)
This is a skill level that I am yet to unlock. My breaststroke kick is so uneven it'd probably get me DQ'd; I can't even contemplate doing it on my back.

What I do on my back might be described better as elementary backstroke kick.
From a streamlined position:
drop your heels toward the bottom of the pool
spread your legs like.... 30 degrees? definitely no more than 45 degrees
snap your thighs and heels together

sidestroke kick also works well for "very easy yardage while resting arms between fast stuff"

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
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Dr. Tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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Dr. Tigerchik wrote:
Quote:
It's hard to not be swimming when I only have 30min in the pool though. Feels like I'm not getting my money's worth.

Yeah, 45 min is a vast improvement over 30 minutes.
You could try doing fast 200s and go right into a 100 kick (I do a lot of breaststroke kick laying on my back) so you're still accumulating yards while doing fast stuff.

Did some "fast" 200s today. It was perfect. 30sec rest was just enough to go again, but not so much I was ever fully rested. Planned on 6, but decided my body would be happier if I did the last one as a cool down.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [edbikebabe] [ In reply to ]
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nice!

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
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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There is an open water club out of San Diego that does this pool work out. You could adjust based on time available and abilities.

2 broken miles. Swim the number of lengths shown with 5 or 10 sec rest. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11. Then, reverse to 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. If you need a little more work, swim the last length of each as butterfly.

Such a Bad Runner
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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Might try a USPRT type set with some modifications.

At :10 rest you're holding 2:20 leaving on the 2:30 or so for 100s at 18 for 45 min, which is about :35 per 25. That's what I'm basing all my math below on, adjust if it's too easy

Try swimming the 25s or 50s . 25s hold :30 leave on the :40. Although if you have a tempo trainer I think a better send off would be :38-:39. That's just harder to manage on a pace clock. You can also use the tempo trainer to make sure you're swimming these all the same pace.

for the 50s hold 1:02 leave 1:10

If you did 75s hold 1:35 leave 1:48 if a tempo trainer or 1:45 or 1:50 on the clock

this would allow you to hold a higher velocity for when you're swimming which should in turn help you get to 19 then 20 100s in the same amount of time over the next month or so.

If you're finding that you feel kind like death on these, do 8-10 repeats, take an extra :20 between groups of how ever many repeats, then start again.

Hope that helps

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Last edited by: desert dude: Nov 11, 20 9:03
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [desert dude] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks that's really helpful. It's the kind of workout I'd never normally think to do myself so I appreciate your tips on how to structure it.

I've managed to improve a bit since August - our numbers are going back up though so hoping the pools stay open for me to keep building on it.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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Here's another workout you could try. (i just wrote this main set for someone's schedule next week)

however many times through (25,50,75 all on the same interval) You might set it at the 1 or 1:05. You get almost no rest on the 75 (shoot for :02-:04) then a ton of rest on the 25. Everything is swum pretty fast.

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Last edited by: desert dude: Nov 12, 20 7:35
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [desert dude] [ In reply to ]
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desert dude wrote:
Here's another workout you could try. (i just wrote this main set for someone's schedule next week)

however many times through (25,50,75 all on the same interval) You might set it at the 1 or 1:05. You get almost no rest on the 75 (shoot for :02-:04) then a ton of rest on the 25. Everything is swum pretty fast.

Ohhh - I like the look of this.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [desert dude] [ In reply to ]
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Tried the 50s today. Broke it into 3 sets of 10 x 50 on 1:10. My pacing isn't the best but after a couple of faster starts to each set I settled into about 59s/50. Definitely kind of felt like death but it was fun in a perverse sort of way. Thanks!
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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Scheherazade wrote:
Tried the 50s today. Broke it into 3 sets of 10 x 50 on 1:10. My pacing isn't the best but after a couple of faster starts to each set I settled into about 59s/50. Definitely kind of felt like death but it was fun in a perverse sort of way. Thanks!

The sure sign of a good workout.
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [Scheherazade] [ In reply to ]
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Scheherazade wrote:
Tried the 50s today. Broke it into 3 sets of 10 x 50 on 1:10. My pacing isn't the best but after a couple of faster starts to each set I settled into about 59s/50. Definitely kind of felt like death but it was fun in a perverse sort of way. Thanks!

Glad you, um, enjoyed the set!

Pacing is the hard part to get down especially if you've not swam growing up. I have athletes, who grew up AG and some of them swam in college, that if I tell them to go do 20x50 holding :36.5 - :37 leaving on he :45 they'll swim all between :36.5 and :37.00.

One big benefit of being able to dial in a pace is you an start to feel what effort gets you what time.

Let's say you can start to nail 400s on the 5:00 (to just choose a time). You start to know within the first 50 or 75 of each repeat if you're on pace based on how you feel for that effort. Now you get into a tri and you can dial in your effort based on the expected distance & duration of the swim.

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Last edited by: desert dude: Nov 23, 20 8:27
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Re: Bang for your buck swim sets? [desert dude] [ In reply to ]
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part of my morning - two rounds of this (these are scm intervals)

150 pull on 2:30
3 x 100 desc on 1:45
50 kick on 1:30
150 pull on 2:30
3 x 100 hold fast pace from last 100 on previous 100s on 1:45
50 kick on 1:30
50 easy on 1:00

you could also have a longer interval on the 100s and make them really really fast. Anyway, it was a fun set.

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
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