A short background - entering my 3rd season. Re-learned to swim 2 years ago. Started slow, getting better - 100 yards in 1:26, all out sprint for 25yd in a little over :17. I’m not going to be real competitive in longer distance events this year (1/2 or full iron) but I am getting closer in sprints, so I’m doing a few early season. Slow and steady for a long distance I can do, fast for 500 to 750m I struggle with. What are the best workouts I can do to gain sustained speed in these shorter races? Do I just keep swimming the distance and try to make it faster each time, or should I be doing intervals of 50s or 100s with minimal rest in between? I’m not a real swimmer so I could use some guidance here.
Threshold sets - you want :05-:10 rest per 100 - example would be 20 x 100 :05 rest, though you are probably not ready for that yet, maybe 10 x 100 :05 rest.
And some “best average” sets - 5 x 200 on an interval that you get :45-:60 rest or so - goal being hit the same, fast pace for all the 200s (as opposed to having them descend or something)
The best thing you can do, is to keep swim training in general, as your body will develop all the good little neuromuscular patterns and that 800m swim or so will start to feel more natural, then it’s easier to go faster for longer.
I like broken 200’s where you start when the clock is at :45 seconds (15 seconds before the second hand is at the top of the clock) and get 5 seconds rest each 50. Go out real hard on each 50, the short rest will be real challenging (as tigerchik points out). Because of the three 5-second rests between each 50, you read your finishing time as it is - that why you start at the :45. Your finishing time is theoretically what you should be able to hold for a 200 flat out. Some smart coach figured this out a long time ago, I guess, since it seems to be popular with all our local master’s coaches.
I’m sure people will come up with some great sets but remember that you will get most benefit from holding on to your technique.
Whatever you’re doing, only do it as quickly as you can whilst holding your length, catch, rotation, head position etc. If you go from swimming through the water to wrestling with the water, you’ll lose a lot of the benefit.
I know, I know, “focus on technique” is a cliche but for some reason people *massively *underestimate how fit and fast you can get simply by swimming long and relaxed and thinking about your technique. I wasn’t a convert until I gave it a shot for a few months (I was keeping a better swimmer company and thought “what the hell”) and dropped a couple of seconds from my 100m time.
This guy is exactly right about technique. You must hold proper form and you must be able to go max pace without breaking form. That is, you should be able to go max speed and maintain the same stroke count and breathing pattern.
Another “ditto” for the technique part. While Tigerchick et al are correct, you’ll probably come apart, formwise, doing those workouts. I’d say count your strokes and when you find yourself adding 3 or more strokes in any one lap, stop, chill then start again.
A great speed-builder that you could do would be 25s or 50s all out with long rest intervals (45 sec or even more) so that you can hold technique on every swim.
I also love 25 no-breathers either straight up with enough rest to repeat or followed by a 25 easy recovery.
A broken 200 is fantastic if you are training to swim in meets, I don’t think that’s very specific to tri swim training though.
two cents
“I’d say count your strokes and when you find yourself adding 3 or more strokes in any one lap, stop, chill then start again.”
Great call. This is what I do most of the time when I’m training. Generally I just set a distance though (say swim 275 free, swim 25 back, 10 seconds rest, repeat) and monitor my stroke count as I’m doing it. Your method is better though. Mine is a throwback to habits formed swimming with a squad and needing to swim the same distance as everyone else.
To the OP: Do what Cousin Elwood has suggested as regularly as possible for a month or so then try a race or a time trial. You’ll be shocked at how far you’ve come.
If you do go this way, be wary of lowering your stroke count by slowing down to much (extending your glide or whatever). Remember the end goal is to race fast so efficiency is the key. I think it’s enough to just be aware of this but if you want to be really anal you can monitor time as well as stroke count and take a break if either one drops more than a few per lap.
You can get an amazing work out swimming like this even though your pulse never really elevates much. If you’re doing it properly you’ll be seriously tired at the end of a session even though you weren’t even puffing while completing it. As you might be figuring out, I’m a bit of an evangelist for this sort of session. I just love how fast you can get, and so easily! It’s great to train next to people huffing and puffing and flogging themselves, thinking that you’re slack swimming slowly next to them, only to kill them on race day.
I was put onto this sort of session by a good mate who won 3 medals over 2 Olympics. He did most of his base this way. No hard work, just long and moderate working technique. I know many top Olympians who do / did similar sessions. I feel a bit uncomfortable writing that and I’m not doing it to try and seem important. I just know from experience that it’s hard to believe and really commit to giving this sort of training a shot. We’re all too used to thinking that flogging ourselves is the way to go.
Convert and you shall see the light 
count your strokes in a speed interval??
are you guys all zen masters or something? cuz it takes a heck of a lot of focus to count strokes when your muscles are on fire.
It’s a good idea, though i’d prefer to let someone else do the counting for me.
The stroke count work Elwood is talking about is swum very moderately. The intervals are a different set.
Of course I’m sure many of the swimmers have done push start “efficiency” 50’s where you add your time to your stroke count (eg. 28 seconds, 29 strokes = 57). You then try to reduce your total by either going a second faster or doing one less stroke.
“it takes a heck of a lot of focus to count strokes when your muscles are on fire.”
-
- Actually it’s a pretty good distraction from same. A few years ago my coach, the great Tim Sheeper, jumped my case at the Pacific Masters Short Course Championships for increasing my stroke count from 16 to 26 in the last 25 yards of a 100 free in which I underperformed badly (by trying way too damn hard to sprint home). After several weeks of counting my strokes during gut-busting intervals including long-course 100s done absolutely all out on 2:00 rest sharing a lane with an age-group world record holder, I took first in the 100 free at the long-course championships.
All I know is it works. Technique is so much more important in swimming than any non-swimmer could ever fathom.
- Actually it’s a pretty good distraction from same. A few years ago my coach, the great Tim Sheeper, jumped my case at the Pacific Masters Short Course Championships for increasing my stroke count from 16 to 26 in the last 25 yards of a 100 free in which I underperformed badly (by trying way too damn hard to sprint home). After several weeks of counting my strokes during gut-busting intervals including long-course 100s done absolutely all out on 2:00 rest sharing a lane with an age-group world record holder, I took first in the 100 free at the long-course championships.
count your strokes in a speed interval??
are you guys all zen masters or something? cuz it takes a heck of a lot of focus to count strokes when your muscles are on fire.
It’s a good idea, though i’d prefer to let someone else do the counting for me.
Bah. Try counting strokes per length while maintaining a particular breathing pattern, counting lengths per interval, counting intervals per set, and remembering your splits for each interval. All at the same time.
the worst for me was when i was on holiday over the christmas brake and decided to bring the bungee cord thing with me so i could swim in the mornings in the small hotel pool.
try doing an entire 3-4k workout based completely on stroke count! the fatigue wasn’t just from the swimming i tell ya!
The coaches I had over the years, including a couple with a multiple walls of All-American plaques, never really seemed to have much interest in interpreting meanings of stroke counts, though they would ask us to track them on some sets along with five other variables as a way of encouraging more mindful swimming and being aware of everything you’re doing in the pool. Same goes for drills- they were a way of encouraging us to swim mindfully as you broke up the boredom. (There is a point where a couplf of 50s of double trudgeon crawl can seem like the most interesting point of a workout by far)
I’m going to go against the grain here and say it’s okay to let your stroke get a little bit sloppy when you’re working hard. It’s natural for your stroke to develop little quirks that enable you to adapt and use your unique physiology to best advantage in the pool.
I’d try something like 8x125 with 10 seconds of rest in between each rep. Go 50 fairly hard but not out and out sprint speed and keep technique good without worrying about it being perfect then do the 75 at a comfortable but not slow pace while tightening back up on the technique.
75s, 100, 125s, and 150s would probably be some nice rep distances in general for you right now. Exertion level for most of them should be aerobic pace like you’re going out on a 90 minute+ run- breathing hard but not out of breath. Then try doing about 500 yards of the workout at anaerobic threshold pace- harder than the aerobic pace, but not out and out spirnt pace and with about 20 seconds of rest after every 100.
Two drill that have helped me are
Swim Golf-do a 6x50 with :30 rest counting strokes and adding time to get your score, try to keep score the same for all 6 50’s. Makes you focus on stroke and helps to lengthen your stroke.
225’s (what we call them) do 75 at a moderate pace, 75 at medium pace, 75 at fast pace. we do 4 of these with :30 rest, helps with pacing and increasing pace at the end of a race.
good luck and in the words of my swim coach there is nothing 4-5,000 yds 4-5 times a week can’t fix.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say it’s okay to let your stroke get a little bit sloppy when you’re working hard. It’s natural for your stroke to develop little quirks that enable you to adapt and use your unique physiology to best advantage in the pool.
I second that. The quickest way for a neophite swimmer to improve is make sure that every workout has a set with 5 to 10 repeats that are short enough and done at an intensity such that your stroke starts to fall apart over the last 10 yards or so. Huge improvements can be made through struggling to hold form during those last few strokes.
You don’t want to swim a whole workout this way but even a set of 5 x 50 (or 25s if you can do a 50 all out) done this way every workout will bring amazing results.
“All I know is it works. Technique is so much more important in swimming than any non-swimmer could ever fathom.”
So true.
I also agree with what FLA Jill and STP are saying, if you’re sprinting max effort it is natural for your stroke to deteriorate in the last few metres. But good swimmers will think about little aspects of their stroke and try to hold it together as much as possible. If you just think hard hard hard, everything goes to pain and wrestling with the water. If you think “length length length” or “catch catch catch” or “kick kick kick”. You’ll hold things together better, hurt less and swim faster.
I was hoping this thread would be about tuna or salmon.
I was hoping this thread would be about tuna or salmon.
Cobia would be even better. I wish we could get it for more than about eight weeks a year.
“The coaches I had over the years, including a couple with a multiple walls of All-American plaques, never really seemed to have much interest in interpreting meanings of stroke counts, though they would ask us to track them on some sets along with five other variables as a way of encouraging more mindful swimming and being aware of everything you’re doing in the pool. Same goes for drills- they were a way of encouraging us to swim mindfully as you broke up the boredom.”
I think this is a great point. Drills and monitoring techniques like counting your strokes are all about raising awareness / getting you to think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Amazing how many people do a drill and when they go back to “normal swimming” they forget about what they were just doing and start swimming badly again. As Hobbes said “Live and don’t learn, that’s us”.
Tuna / Salmon… mmmmm. I think Japanese is on the cards for lunch.