I got this email this morning from one of my tri buddies who swims at one of our local private swimming and fitness clubs. I don’t swim there, so I only know the slow pokes out at the Y. So I’m checking to see what he’s doing, and he says:
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"Booth -some of my emails to you got rejected…do 100’s on 1.30 send off…come in at 1.20 rest 10 seconds and back out
…we did 45 of these the other day.
No pain (at the start) - no gain. You will never get faster doing long swims without intervals…it will only make you sluggish. Don’t give yourself as much rest as you set forth below…You will progress by swimming long, hard and fast - no other way."
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45 100s on 1:20!
I generally plod out a mile in 30 minutes or so (35 laps, 25 yard pool) with no open turns, then maybe stop for about four or five minutes, catch my breath and then do 5 100s on 2:00, and I can barely do five of those. I will come in 1:22, 1:25, 1:35, and slowly edge up to 2:00 before I die.
I could probably do one 100 in 1:15, but that would have to be the first thing I would do after jumping in, and then, after doing it, that would be it for the day—assuming some major heart attack didn’t hit me, on the second 50.At any rate, I can’t imagine doing 45 100s on 1:20. No freaking way. That’s just insane.
So if you are asking what your equivalent should be to his 45 100s the short answer is there isn’t. He has obviously been swimming a while in life - however he makes a valid point that intervals are a great way to improve swim fitness - however like the bike and run you need to be aware of goal of the set as well as the pace - no need to do intervals at 100% effort - perhaps consider something like 10x50 on 50 or 55 - the objective to be getting around 7 to 10 secs rest on these. Then progress to 2 sets. From there perhaps sets of 100s and so on. During the seaon I try to swim around 3 to 4 times a week and aim for the following type sessions:
1 session with a fair number of either 50 or 100 repeats in a short course pool rest from 5 to 10 secs
1 session with a fair number of 200 to 400 repeats in a long course pool - rest from 20 to 30 secs
1 long swim - start of the season this may be around 800m building to 5k -
1 session working on a combination of technique and speed
Notice I don’t advocat what a fair number is as it varies per person…
One of you “hard cores” or Hawaii Ironman qualifiers or “fishies” give me your reaction because I think he has to be pulling my leg.
45 freaking 100s in 1:20.
I can see, maybe 15 or even 20 of them, but not 45 of them.
Actually, I can type that I can do 75 200s in 3:00. Hold on a minute and let me try: “Hey, I just did 75 200s in 3:00.” Yep, I can type that. Can’t do it though.
I think this is what he’s doing: typing, maybe not doin!
45 x 100 on 1:30 isn’t out of this world. For an experienced swimmer it’s a good low HR aerobic set. My swim partner and I do 20x100 on the 1:15 interval every couple of weeks for lactate threshold.
Absolutely possible, especially if he’s been swimming for a long time. Remember, if he’s able to swim 100 free in under 50 seconds, 1:20 should feel like a walk in the park; add in 10 seconds of rest, and he should be able to maintain that pace for quite a while. For reference, check out some of the distance free workouts for jr./sr. national level swimmers on swiminfo.com:
He’s not pulling your leg. I’ve done a couple IM swims under 50: and have been swimming for 20+ years. My normal summer test set is 20-30 x 100 yds starting on either 1:20 or 1:15 sendoff and dropping the sendoff for the last 10. It gets tougher every summer…probably because my pooltime per year is inversely related to my # years swimming
A friend of mine is good buddies with Sheila T. I can’t remember the exact details, but she told me Sheila does a similar workout on the 1:10’s!!! Sheila is obviously a bad ass in the water, but that is just plain sick. I couldn’t move that fast on a Jetski.
45x100 on 1:30 (holding 1:20) is not hard for a decent swimmer.
Friend of mine (he’s 43) will be doing 100x100 on Dec. 20; no breaks, all on between 1:20 and 1:30/100; mixing in free, IM, and backstroke. He did an hour swim by doing 500yd repeats on 5:50 and 5:55 (he did over 5100yds).
(following are all SCY, after age 30, and I didn’t start swim training until I was 26) I’ve done 100/200/300/400/500/400/300/200/100 on 1:20/100, holding exactly (within one second) 1:10/100 Done 10x200 on 2:30, holding ~2:21/200 Did 4765yds in an hour swim (that’s 47x100 on ~1:16)
I’ve heard of a world class swimmer doing 100x100 on 1:00. Dave Wharton (former world record holder in IM?) once did a 16000IM long course (that’s 4000 fly, 4000 back, 4000 breast, 4000 free; don’t try this at home!)
If we are talking yards this set is very doable for a swimmer. I am an ex-swimmer who is now relatively fat and out of shape (in a Sept Oly race I had a 63 minute 10k) and I would find this set fairly easy - in fact I usually use a 1:20 repeat time (hold 1:12 or so) for my medium effort long sets. There are at least 10 people in my masters group that could complete this set (including one 60 year old but he is a freak of health). Metres this is doable but would be a tough set with only a couple of us completing it.
I’ve been swimming for about 3/4ths of a year, and can probably do 3 or 4 100s on 1:20. I can swim about 2 miles without stopping though. And, by the way, after my first tri, I don’t think any of this stuff makes any difference. I think Karate or wrestling would probably help me better. Anywho…
I was just amazed at the quantity of the 100s. I of course am just starting this stuff, really, and the books I read, like TI or the other four or five I have, they’ll say something like 8 100s on 1:30 or so.
Forty five of them! I don’t read!
I will be a freak, too, this is just a small psychological scare here (45 100s on 1:20…gulp).
that’s a bit sick… my guess is that he comes from a swimming back round.
I mean 45 100’s on 1:20…that’s a long freaking workout! I’m training for Half IM’s and my coach never has me swimming over 3000 yards and I’ll usually finish the swim between 28-32 minutes in farily calm water.
Doable for competive swimmers, even some of the more talented highschooler freestylers… but Man…
From time to time I’ll finish my swim workouts, and just watch the highschoolers doing their morning workouts, as they are gearing up for regionals. A nice reminder of how fast I was… unfortunately a reminder of how far I’ve fallen Just can’t seem to find the time to swim 3,500 to 5,000 yards per day, like I did back then. Then again, I now have my own car… and I can buy my own beer.
Booth- to an experienced swimmer, piece of cake. I went to Long Beach State in Southern California and the mascot is the 49er. As a punishment for being late to practice our water polo coach used to make us to swim 49 x 100 on 1:20. Mind you this was not a masters swim workout with circle swimming. This was 35 guys lined up across the pool with no lane lines. I’d say we did this about once a month. If you want to hear about the impossible ask me about BS 50’s. It’s the hardest swim workout I know of.
No matter, swimming is a small piece of the puzzle. Intervals are very important, so build up to something you feel comfy doing, like 15 x 100 on 2:00.
A thoroughly average high school swimmer can hold 100yds on a 1:30 sendoff almost indefinitely. I’m way out of pool shape, never was fast (have a mediocre 58.7 100 yard free best time), and still consider a nice 10x100 on 1:30 (finish 1:20-1:22) as phase two of warm up. I think the worst 100s set I ever did was:
1x100/1:30, 1x100/1:25, 1x100/1:20, 1x100/1:15
2x100/1:30, 2x100/1:25, 2x100/1:20, 2x100/1:15
3x100/1:30, 3x100/1:25, 3x100/1:20, 3x100/1:15
Or maybe it was 10x100yds on 1:15 set. You get some rest on the 1:30s and 1:25 for the other one. And I was in one of the middle lanes those days, nowhere close to the fast people. I think there were some people in the barracudas lane that end up on 1:05 sendoffs at the end of the decending 100s set.
The people who grew up as fishies do tend to have a decidedly different in-waterpain threshold than the typical triathlete. And if we ever stopped in the middle out a set because “our stroke felt funny” coach would have drowned us on the spot. You were supposed to work through those sorts of problems at high speed darn, it!
“No pain (at the start) - no gain. You will never get faster doing long swims without intervals…it will only make you sluggish. Don’t give yourself as much rest as you set forth below…You will progress by swimming long, hard and fast - no other way.”
Exactly! And once you get going, a lot of times you realize that the Big Scary Set on the Chalkboard is a lot more managable than you thought it would be. Mental breakthroughs like that are Good Things.
