Swimming: What Interval To Set During Sprint Sets

Well, you're already a fast swimmer... so, whatever it is you are doing

All I know is in our masters the majority of our speed building sets are pretty much maintaining steady repeats at about 80% effort.  I.e., 15 100s at whatever pace you can maintain with 5 seconds or so rest.  Occasionally, we will do it the other way, i.e., 5 100s HARD with a 20 second or so rest.  

For me, that would be 10x100 on 1:20, maintaining 1:15 or below, or a smaller number of HARD 100s on 1:45

Personally, I have found more sustained top speed with the former sets, as my stroke doesn't fall apart as quickly.  I'll be interested to hear what others think

There's no one right way for this as it depends on your goal for the session.  You should do some of each, but probably emphasize the "slower" sprints on short recoveries if your focus is endurance swimming in triathlons. 

And, yes, option 1 is clearly more specific to your first goal and option 2 more specific for the second.  Though they will each help one another as well, so definitely do both types of workouts.

Good feedback, thanks.  I never really set any sort of goal for the 100-yard push-off sprint time, but I was surprised (more like shocked) that I'm within striking range of the 1:00 mark, so now I want to push and see if I can hit that here at some point.  Not that it has any relevance to the sport of endurance triathlon, but it would represent a really cool personal accomplishment if I can pull it off.

I think I will plan a sprint day once a week, and maybe alternate sessions of 200s and 100s on shorter repeats, then maybe switch off the following week and hammer the high speed for just a few sprints after I'm warmed up.

I know there are some fast swimmers around here that can cruise at my pace while going backwards, so chime in with your wisdom.

Doing sets of 100s on 1:30 are more than likely not considered "sprint" sets to improve top end speed for anyone on this forum.  If they are, I'd like to put some of my best pool times up against theirs.

To work on your top end speed, for races where you basically have an all out sprint to the first buoy, you need to sets of 100s where your amount of rest equals your best 100 time.  If you can go 1:00 max.  You need at least 1:00 rest where you are sprinting at almost 100%.  Do something like sets of 8 going as close to you fastest time as you can.

I don't get this.... 1:30 is too slow?  too fast?

Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking.  The two sentences don't seem to go together.

If I understand this, I think the point is for all-out sprints, rest at least as long as your sprint time.  For a 1:00 pace, go every 2:00 or longer.  Going at 1:30 won't provide enough recovery to be able to maintain a pace close to max speed -- unless you're doing 100's @ :45.   Honestly, at max speed, I need even more recovery time than my sprint time or things drop off pretty quickly.

Closer to me?  Sort of, maybe.  You're quicker on the swim, the bike, and the run.   My best 100 time is at about 1:05 if I timed it right yesterday.  If I get off my butt and do some sprints consistently for a while, I'll post back with any progress.  I've trimmed back my swim training by ~50% over the past few months except for this past week, and I've managed to solidify my times in the process.  That's swimming 30-100 minutes a week.  I'm sure I will hit the point of diminishing returns unless I shake things up with some sprints, though.

I like that 30x50 idea -- that's simple enough that I can remember the workout. But I'll probably need to switch to a keyed lock, because I won't be able to remember my lock combination after 30 sprints.   Oh, and they frown on sex in the pool at my gym.

We just did a hard 30 x 50 set last week at masters, broke it up as 5 with :05 seconds rest, 5 with :10, repeat, and maintain same pace throughout.  By 22 I thought my arms were going to fall off.   At 26 I was crying for mommy

I finally came back and re-read my posts and see why I confused people.

By "sprints" I assumed you meant "max effort" training, whether the distances are short (25/50) or long (200-300).

Doing workouts where your training focuses on short rest intervals of less than :20s will help build your aerobic base.  These intervals are done at any distance but each maintains the less than 20 seconds rest.

Workouts done on long rest intervals, most often at equal parts swim, equal parts rest are done to build your anaerobic threshold.  Distances here are normally less than 300 yards.  Doing these distances should be at a pace 1-5 seconds (per 100) below your race pace.  Here you shouldn't just focus on 25s and 50s or just 200+.  It should be a mix.  Note that the rest can be static or doing easy "drill" technique work.  Speed should not come as a sacrifice of technique.

As you reach different parts of the season...  tapering, the amount of rest should go up, the times should drop (higher intensity), but the total distance goes down.  I can remember doing sets of 200s on 6 minutes focusing on goal times / faster than goal times, but only 4-5 of these as you would be gassed.

Hope I did a better job at explaining this time.

I agree with this to a point but I can certainly see how having the ability to put out a short burst of speed would be very relevant/useful.  As someone mentioned above, say it's the beginning of a race and you want to get out ahead of the turmoil for some clear water or if you are in the middle of a swim and spot a group of swimmers up ahead that you would like to draft off of - expend more energy for a short period with the goal of saving energy in the long run by drafting.  I don't think it needs to be a priority but certainly a good thing to have in the repertoire.  

Yeah, 100 sprint times probably aren't super important from an endurance sport standpoint, and I think I mentioned that somewhere in the thread.  This is just a personal ambition now during 2009 that I would like to accomplish.  My opportunity for SBR gains are more on the R and B side of the equation.  But I'd still like to continue making some marginal gains on the swim side with whatever amount of training I budget for the swim.  Perhaps not realistic, but I guess I will see.