Thoughts on my swim workout?

Critique my swim workout…I’ve been working on a lost of distance, but am starting to gear my workouts to a little more speed. I’m trying to do 2 to 3 speed workouts per week. Is this too little? Less rest? More rest? More yardage? I do variety of workouts, but was looking for some feedback on this one. I was kind of short on time today or may have done longer warm-up and cool-down.

500 straight easy 13 strokes per 25 yards

Main set

8 x 50 sprint (:35 sec) leave on the :45

right into a 200 yards pull easy

1:15 rest

8 x 50 sprint w/ fins (:31 sec) leave on the :45

right into a 200 yard pull easy

x2

500 drills/easy

its an ok set if you are training for sprints

need more long yards faster, getting faster at 50 yds intervals does not help much because you never race that short. you need to be fast for longer distances in addition to being able to have long endurance.

loose the fins for the main set and put them where they belong in the drill or unless you just finished with a 3 hour bike ride. my best advice is to join a master swim club taylored to triathlete. they will hurt you in way you did not think possible

examples from a recent week speed interval
warm up
200 kick to get heart rate up
4x100 sprint 1:20 , with 10 sec rest
4 x 500 faster on front end and descending 100’s
1;30 min rest then an easy 100

FFF,

I think the workout would be enhanced by instead of holding constant on the mainset 50’s, instead try to descend teh 50’s 1-4 twice through. This will really help for top end speed under distress. if you are looking for a raw speed workout, then i’d change the 8x50s to 4x100 adn increase the interval for some more rest. that’ll be a good lactate threshhold workout.

bill

Hmm…so no fins during intervals…I thought I read it was good to incorporate in every once in a while? Helps exagerate the feeling of high hips and legs while swimming fast. Also seems to get the heart rate up.

Sprint workouts for distance swimming should be 500s, 50s are a waste of time if you want to swim a faster swim split.

500 warm-up

8 x 500 sprint

500 warm-down

Just that simple.

When I was a miler, we’d do something longer than 400s fewer than five times a year. Coach got good results from us too.

So how far are we talking for a sprint workout, maybe 2000-2500 yds/M?

How about:

500 warm-up first 250 super easy free, second 250 easy free or easy drills

8x125 aerobic hard- 100 free/25 stroke- interval that gives you 15 seconds of rest per rep when you’re doing them right (even on sprint days, throw some aerobic work in there)

3x50 on :55; 3x50 on :50; 3x50 on :45; 3x50 on :40- straight through the set. hold 33 or under

8x25 on :45 all out. From a dive if you’ve got a shallow one and pool rules permit.

200 warm down- nice and easy

Unless he is swimming sub 5 for the 500, that is not a sprint workout. 200’s are great sets. Sounds to me like you aren’t that slow if you are consistently holding 35 for your 50’s. Work on some longer sets such as 4 X 100, 150, 200. Do these by building each set with the last 50 almost as fast as you can realistically hold. Also, try to find a club team you can train with. They’ll work you alot harder than a masters tri team. Just realize you will get your ass handed to you by 12 year old girls swimming 50’s for the 100.

they do. that is why you do it during your drill to help refine your body position and stroke.

Big mistake, always start out with the toys but finish with unassisted swimming. So the sprints with fins should come before the “free” sprints.

8x500 for a sprint? What are you, fric-ken Greg Louganis or whaaat!?

8x500 sprint

I should have said:

8x500 race pace (for 1 mile)

Obviously you can’t do a 500 at a 50 sprint pace.

Louganis was a diver, not a swimmer.

I have nothing to add about the workouts, though, as I’m just trying desperately to swim 60 minutes for an IM swim with wetsuit and drafting.