Your favorite 3000 yard swim workout

Triathlon Forum
1

My coach usually provides me a few swim workouts every couple of weeks that are roughly 3000 yards each in length (allows me to swim at lunch). It was great when I was swimming only a couple of times a week. Now that I am swimming 4-5 times a week, these workouts are getting a little repetitive and boring. So what are your favorite workouts (or make one up for me). I’ll likely do about 400 yards of warm up/cool down. So have fun with the remaining 2600 yards. I would like to incorporate a pull set with paddles. And I can work with any stroke although anything more than a 25 of butterfly at a time is probably asking too much. Thanks in advance ST Fish!

Jeff

2

Get in the pool.
Start watch.
Swim 1 lap. Repeat 59 more times.
Stop watch.

3

I would have to swim 119 more times. I did a 2000 straight swim yesterday. I think I will break it up today like I do normally. And please tell me that you made that up and that is not your favorite 3000 yard workout.

Jeff

4

500 warm-up insanely easy pace

4x100 or 8x50 transitional set- up the tempo here and get the blood flowing for the main set

Main set:
4x100
3x200
2x300
1x400

either steady pace or decending throughout the set

100 warmdown

I like it because you’re always moving onto the next thing, rather than getting stuck at repeat #27 of whatever

400 warm-up
5x300 aerobic pace
8x125- 75 free/50 stroke
100 w/d

400 warm-up
5x100 free transitional set
4x(50-200-200-50) 50 should get you about 5 seconds of rest, 200 with 10-15 seconds of rest while going aerobic hard. I know I’m getting into shape when I go the 50s on :45, and the 200s on 2:45 and the 200s feel easier than the 50s do
100 warmdown

5

Umm…Actually I didn’t make that up. (But I figured nobody else actually swims that way and would take it tongue-in-cheek.)

I don’t come from a swimming background, so I just get in the pool and swim…lap after lap. (I know you swim experts are cringing at this, but I don’t know any real drills or anything.) FWIW, I’m a 35 min HIM swimmer.

6

Thats just how i swim!!
Got a half on Sunday, aiming for around 35 -36 mins for swim.

7

all swim workouts are my favorite

(I have to go to class but I’ll get back to you!!!)

.

8

Umm…Actually I didn’t make that up. (But I figured nobody else actually swims that way and would take it tongue-in-cheek.)

I swim like that on occassion. If I’m feeling particularly cranky and just want to disappear for awhile, I’ll ask the lifeguard to wave a kickboard at the end of my lane after an hour or so, and then I dive in and just flip back and forth between the walls with that nice, don’t-mess-with-me-freestyle stroke until I feel like being part of the world again :slight_smile:

most of the time I do workouts.

9

I find my most effective both physically and mentally are 500m or yard sets, so 6x500 with 1min max rest in between trying to gradually swim faster.

I’ve gone from about 32min 2km this year to sub 28min last weekend.

It works for me as I really get to practice keeping my stroke smooth as I get more tired.

Andrew

10

Jill has a few good ones nothing wrong with them.

Here is a build our own type of set up. Pick and choose the sets you like that fit the total time you have.

Warm up Options

500 swim- mix in some kicking

800 SKPS (200 of each swim, kick, pull, swim) you can also do 600 SKPS or even 400 SKPS

3x300 :20 rest- #1 swim EZ, #2 drill swim or kick swim, #3 Build- skip the transistion set

Transition sets

8x50 descend sets of 4 on about :15 rest
6x75- Build on about :20 rest
5x100 last or first 25 fast :20 rest

Main sets

20x50 cycle sets of 5 with the 5th being the fastest possible interval you can make, #4 +5 Sec, #3 +10 sec, #2 +15, #1 +20 sec- Example if you think the fastest you could go was a 37 round up to 40 as your base #1 would be on 1:00, #2 on :55, #3 on 50, #4 on :45, #5 on :40.

25 to 200 ladder set doing the 200 twice them back down, try to do the back half faster than the front -1800 yards FYI- so its 25,50,75,100,125,150,175,200,200,175,150,125,100,75,50,25

4x50
4x100
4x150
4x200 Descend each set of 4

4x500 #1 swim, #2 Pull , #3 faster, #4 Puke

3x5x100 #1 100EZ, #2 25 F, 75EZ, #3 50F, 50EZ, #4 75F, 25 EZ, #5 100 Fast
100EZ between sets of 5

Cool down 100-300 ez

11

A little more than 3K, but still my favorite:

http://nisbet.net/images/aerial01.jpg
.

12

After warming up,

10 x 300, with the odds as straight 300s and the evens as 2 x 150 (twice), 3 x 100 (twice) and 6 x 50. Interval set so that I get between 10 and 30 seconds rest on the 300s.

Don’t really warm down that much, and looking at paddles makes my shoulders hurt so never use them and can’t help you there.

13

Very nice! Nothing beats that one!

14

Not a lot of room for warm up or cool down for a 3000 yard total.

15

The USMS forum has daily swim workouts posted going back several years. They all seem to be around 3-3.5k yards.

16

hmmm…last night I had 40 minutes, so I wanted to get a good quality workout in during that time:

400 Warm-up
200 Pull
2x100 Build

5x200 on 2:30 hold best avg

no break

200 Pull @ longer swim pace (ie i guess zone 2 type pace, but it is more a recovery 200)

200 Pull ALL OUT

100 long swim, but don’t break form, just relax but no stopping. sort of like speed workout on track, no walking, you must run the recovery portions…

200 Pull ALL OUT

300 EZ Cooldown

2800…I was hoping for 3000, but I had some friends who I saw and we ended up talking a bit in warm-up…oh well

***Key parts of workout = 5x 200s best average and 2x200 pull at all out effort

17

Here’s another option:

500 Easy
200 Pull
3x100 Build

12x100 hold best average (work to rest ratio is between 3:1 and 2:1)

100 easy swim (not bounce on bottom of pool)

60 seconds rest

500 ALL OUT

Warm-down
.

18

Once a week I do the following:

ladder 1 to 11 lengths (1650) - freestyle medium effort, 5 seconds between each rung.
ladder 10 - 1 lengths (1375) - pull the freestyle on the odd rungs, IM on the even rungs. Same effort and rest interval.

19

5x200 Swim/Kick/IM/Pull/Swim
4x200 Pull (or 800 pull continuous)
3x200 IM
2x200 Kick (or 400 kick continuous)
1x200 cooldown
.

20

I find my most effective both physically and mentally are 500m or yard sets, so 6x500 with 1min max rest in between trying to gradually swim faster.

I’m partial to descending 400s- 500s too.