Wow, that’s a tough one for sure. I think I would implode somewhere in the SI - 20.
Here’s another one I did last year with the swim team kids I swim with sometimes. It helps to have a coach on deck keeping track of when to leave.
? x 50 on 1:01 and the only rule is that you have to finish each 50 before the clock gets back to the top. So, first one you have 60 seconds to finish, next one 59, next 58 and so on. I made it to #29.
Tried this today – super set. And really great for kids – you’re always racing against yourself.
Some ideas about the set if you’re coaching:
Good to try as a fitness test for a kids team – beginning and end of season?If I were doing this solo again, I might try to hold at my last ‘failure’ – keep (let’s say) :29 as a sendoff for a few more reps, OR do the set as a ladder, working backwards after ‘failure’ so the sendoff creeps back towards :01.Start the set on the hour (or 10 mins, or 20 mins): that way each sendoff’s minute and second correspond: 1:01, 2:02, 3:03, 4: 04… Easy to keep track of that way.
I bet you’re a fun coach. Thanks for sharing this set.
Favorite swim set: just get it over with. Efficiency!
50 warm up or whatever warm up floats your boat
1650 or 1500M time trial
track your times at each 500
listen to the water; it sounds different when you are swimming faster
descend your next 500’s
if doing a 1650, sprint the last 150 (ie, kick!)
warm down and get out of the pool. 1700-2000 max yardage.
I will promise you that if you do this once/month over the course of ~ 3 months, your mile swim time will drop markedly.
The other key thing is it trains your body/mind for race conditions. You get to know when you are 1/3 done, 2/3rds done and, as a result, how to apply more speed as you progress through a race.
The fast kick at the end also simulates race conditions.
On-topic: after having given up a bit an improvement in swimming by only swimming 2-3 times a week with a total of 4 km or so per week, I ended up this July with a 1:42 swim in IM Austria (wetsuit not allowed). As a result I sat like a wet bag of trash on my bike and it was horrible.
So after analyzing this and after a tip from someone I decided to add days with long intervals as the one I posted, not to get quicker but at least to sit less exhausted on the bike.
In the following Ironman (known generally as the back door brag one) I noticed the changed training although I had a bad day that day (1:26). In the training-swim the week before I did 1:18 though which I would never have succeeded without the changed training.
In the beginning these intervals were horrible but after some of those it became more comfortable and that’s why they are now actually my preferred (on other days I do things like 40*50).
So now I do about 8 or 9 km a week.
