Plans include gruelling weeks of 80km to 100km a week, including hefty sets such as 10x800m, while organisers in Germany are looking at offering financial rewards and incentives for the ironmen and ironwomen who manage the fastest 10x400m free set. The first camp is scheduled for Potsdam from January 4 to 17 next year. The set challenge sounds like something that could catch on as a spectator sport … for the dedicated, of course.
That looks pretty cool, prize money for the fastest set of 10X400, I love it. That would have been me in the old days in my fly lane. We once did 5X 1000 fly, and I led the entire way. Come meet day, the entire lane smokes me in the 200yd fly. I was an endurance guy before there even was a sport like triathlon. Good thing it came along too, gave people like me some place to do really long workouts, and get a medal at the end…
Maybe we need an ST 10X400 challenge. Do it however you want, any stroke, IM, pulling, kicking ect…Might be fun to see some of the times. I’m just about ready to attempt it as a pull set, maybe a couple more weeks…
Excuse my ignorance, but what is the difference between the fastest 10X400 and the fastest 4000? For a fastest set, does everyone have the same interval and they measure total time spend swimming?
They would do it on a cycle. So perhaps 10x400 on 6 minutes (the cycle they chose would be interesting).
Racing 10x400 with limited rest is *very *different to swimming 4000 straight. Some people recover more quickly than others and it’s swum at a completely different pace.
Basically what FLAJill said but think of it this way; a top distance swimmer might go 39:00 for a 4000yds straight and would be sore the following day. The same swimmer might hold 3:50’s for 10x400yds on short rest like 4:15 and be ready to puke at the end.
For a distance swimmer (and I would argue for a triathlete who wants to swim better) the 10x400 is a better workout than a 4000 straight.
For a distance swimmer (and I would argue for a triathlete who wants to swim better) the 10x400 is a better workout than a 4000 straight.
I totally agree. long (>1K) straight swims are a poor use of time.
I swam at Chico state, so it was a 6 lane 25yd pool, with a 3 1/2ft. shallow end. Don’t rmemeber the interval, but it was probably about 15 or 16 minutes. That is really nothing compared to a set that I think Marky V said he did once. I think it was a 100X 100’s fly, and on some stupid fast interval, holding under 1;05’s I believe. If you were/are a flier, then once you get in some good yardage, it is not that much harder to do distance that free. Its just that so many people never get to the phase where it is just comfortable to swim it all day. I just started swimming about 5 months ago after a really long layoff(2 1/2 years) and just now able to do 100’s fly again. I’m actually working back into it by doing 1 arm fly sets, those you can do all day. Its just about perspective, one mans hard set is another mans warmup.