Anyone have suggestions for a good swim set to mimic the start of a race where you go hard for 300-500 yds to get on some fast feet and then settle into a more comfortable pace. Looking for something that trains you to go anaerobic (or close to it) long enough to stay with the strong swimmers you want to draft off without blowing up before the pace slows a bit.
Have someone of the same ability jump in the pool 15 seconds before you and then try to catch him within 4 laps.
jaretj
10x100 at threshold pace - 10", 5" rest
5x500 at threshold pace
(threshold pace: race a 1000 time trial, all out. Divide your time by 10 to get your average pace per 100)
or mix them up would be very effective,
500
100
500
100
500
100
Do you really need to do this type of workout? I’m finishing a 1/2 IM swim in 32’ - 30’ with little effort and I never sprint. I would only work on this area if I was already so fast and efficient that I had nothing else to work on.
I do alot of fartlek swims. 25 fast, 25 slow (recovery speed), 50 fast, 50 slow, 75 fast, 75 slow, 100 fast, 100 slow, rest, repeat. I know this doesnt neccisarily mimic race start, but it does get you used to going out fast, slowing down, and maybe bridging to a faster group.
el
Friel has a workout like this in his book. The main set has a bunch (18?) of 200’s. Each 200 consists of a sprint segment, a fast segment and a normal or recovery based segment. Obviously, one segment is 100 and the other two are 50’s. The workout takes you through a logical progression starting with
100 normal
50 fast
50 sprint
50 norm
100 fast
50 sprint
50 norm
50 fast
100 sprint
100 sprint
50 norm
50 fast
etc.
Would depend on what distance you are racing, your ability and where you are in your training. Assuming you are above average, going long (1/2 IM or greater) and in build period, I like either a) 5 x 400 (200 hard/100 cruise/100 easy) or b) 4 x 500 (200 hard/200 cruise/100 easy). Both tough main sets unless you are true fishie.
One of the last things I do in my swim workout is decending intervals. Based on a 45 sec 50 yd repeat, I’ll swim 200, 150, 100, & 50, then repeat (as many times as you want/need). So, start the clock, swim 200. At 3:00 start the 150. At 5:15, start the 100. At 6:45, start the 50. At 7:30, start your next 200. (Adjust interval to suit your speed.) That second 200 should be about how you feel after the initial sprint to the buoy. It’s important to concentrate on form while pulling strong.
I think the best way to do it would be a hard 300 in a long course, with five of you in one lane starting at the same time, constantly kicking the crap out of each other for position.
Clif Bar has a video training plan right here.
http://cmac.smugmug.com/photos/23569/23569-Original.mpg
Good luck
Dave
For Sprint Race of 500-700 swim - Good warm up THEN 5x50m going 95-100% @ :05 rest THEN 250m @ “perceived Race pace” THEN 100-200 EZ - Repeat as tolerated.
For Olympic Distance of 1500m - Good warm up THEN 5x50 going 95-100% @ :05 rest THEN 5x100 @ “race pace +” @ :10 rest THEN 500 at “perceived race pace” @ :15-:20 rest THEN 1x250 at “perceived race pace”
For Long Course - Good warm up THEN - 4-6 x 500 meters with first 200 @ faster than perceived race pace then “settle” to perceived race pace. Rest = :15-:30
How about Karate sparring?
4x200 no warm up on :20 rest.
Then 500 at race pace.
Rest 1’ then 6x200 at race pace with :20 rest.
100 cd.
Play hole check in a game of waterpolo…
I used to belong to a masters club that put 5 of us in one lane for 100 intervals. We’d all start at the same time and fight for position. It was fun. You didn’t want to get to the first turn first, as you’d get clobbered coming off the wall unless you went deep (not enough air down there). We stopped doing that when we started showing up at work bruised.
Rocketboy
If you play on my team, you play point, and then turn the ball over…alot (like me). If you get down the other end first, you get to be D-hole!
Actually an idea that seemed to work for some swimmers I trained with this past year:
a set of 3 x 600yards broken as such:
1 x 100 all out free, no holding back (adjust the sendoff so that you get no more than 10 seconds rest after a very hard 90-100% effort) I held 1:01-1:03 so the send off was 1:10
2 x 200 on race pace. (again, adjust sendoff so that you get 5-10 seconds rest) I was shooting for 1:17-1:18/100yards, (I was training for IMF) I was able to hold 2:32-2:35 with an RPE of 6-7/10, send off of 2:40. Initially I went by RPE, and it took a couple of weeks to get the sendoff down to 2:40, I think we started out at 3:00.
2 x 50 all out, attempt to hold the same pace as the first 100. Take the 100 sendoff and halve it. I usually did these on :35.
Rest 2:00 and repeat
The middle part of the set was Ironman race pace for me, but you can insert any race pace you feel like.
You can change the distances for any part of the set, it doesn’t have to be 600 broken, it could be 300 or 800, whatever floats your boat.
The all out pace in the first part of the repeat made the 80% I took it out in the raceday swim seem pretty managable for a couple of minutes. Now all I need to work on is swimming a straight line…
I used to do a broken 1000m farily regularly when I was doing a lot of sprint and Olympic distance racing (I’ll be resurrecting this one again for next season!).
400m all out sprint (I actually set my 400m pb at the beginning of this set) - 40 second rest
300m at race pace - 30 second rest
200m at race pace - 20 second rest
100m all out sprint
Other thread just reminded me of the virtues of water polo when it comes to getting you ready for open water swim racing. Lots of short bursts of speed, lots of bumping and jostling, lots of manouvering quickly in the water. If you’ve got 10-12 people, you just need a ball, and you can improvise a goal from a lifeguard’s pole placed over two chairs placed about 8 feet apart.
1000 assorted warm up
4(550 at 95% (ideally 5 sec rest) i go on 40, 5100 at 85% - 5-10 sec rest (i go on 1.30’s) 1 min rest btwn sets)
500 cool down
4500 m total
basic, crude, hurting… but it works