Swim sets compared to endurance (Page 2)

One thing to consider is pool swimming DOES NOT equal OWS. Unfortunately for  most of us and especially this time of year OWS is not a practical alternative.

I highly encourage a Masters group if you are able to participate in one simply for the fact that you aren't having to write your own workouts and you are swimming with a group which is going to make you push harder in the water as well as keep you accountable for showing up on a regular basis. To echo what has been posted before, I don't think that we have done over a 500 interval in Masters either. Long continuous swims are best suited for OWS when able, although if you need to swim 2000m/4000m straight to prove to yourself that you can do it then have at it.

Interestingly enough we just installed a current pool and have been doing some research as to the degradation of power on the bike after a continuous swim in the current pool vs the same amount of time and estimated yardage in a regular pool. It is quite interesting to see how much of an advantage that push off has every 25yds/25m/50m vs swimming straight through against a current.

If you have a swim background (i.e. elite HS or college swimmer) then this is often the case. You have a more efficient stroke that is repeatable over the race distance where as inexperienced swimmers or those without solid technique tend to break down as they fatigue over time. The wall for these folks (myself included) is a nice little "cheat" in the pool.

For what it's worth, I've started with a Master program at my local university (it's a Division 1 school and the coach is our masters team coach as well).  We go 1.5 hours and typically swim 3900-4200m and never go over a 400.

Consider yourself fortunate then....this is not the norm by any means.

Whato - 2010-01-22 12:40 PM

gsmacleod - 2010-01-22 10:30 AM

prieto539 - 2010-01-22 11:48 AM

As a wannabe HIMer struggling with the swim what would be a sample w/o per week??

Here are a couple, enjoy

400 ch (no more than 100 free)
6x50 drill
200 long, strong and technical
4x25 sprint on 1:00

40x50 on :50
16 as every 4th fast
12 as every 3rd fast
8 as every 2nd fast
4 all fast

300 ch (no free)

or

300 choice
4x100 drill as 50 drill/50 swim
4x75 descend on 25

4x{
300 T pace on 5:30
2x100 fast on 1:45}

400 choice

Shane

Shane,

I know this makes sense to you and many others. However, I am not seeing the entire thing. Can you break this up with clearer specifics. Thanks in advance.

Lachlan

I can take a stab. Swimmers usually focus on 4 strokes, freestyle/crawl, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke, so:

400 ch (no more than 100 free)

Swim 400 metres or yards using any of the 4 strokes that you want, but try not to do more than 100 freestyle

6x50 drill

Do a drill for 50 metres or yards 6 times. Each time you do it, it can be a different drill. Things to try might be fingertip dragging freestyle, 1-arm freestyle, zipper drill, layout drill or whatever else you know or want to try. You can probably find some good drills by searching. Don't worry about the time it takes you to do each 50m. Concentrate on the drill. Take maybe 10 seconds of rest after each 50.

200 long, strong and technical

Swim for 200 m or yd. Again don't worry about the time. Focus on technique, long and strong strokes.

4x25 sprint on 1:00

Do 25 (m or yrd) going as fast as you can and repeat it 4 times. Start each sprint on 1 minute intervals. For example, if you start when the clock says 00:00, and you finish 25 when the clock says 00:30, then don't start the next sprint until 01:00. If you then start then finish the next sprint and the clock says 01:26, then you wait until 02:00 to start the next sprint and so on.

40x50 on 0:50 is similar to the above with respect to timing except you are doing 50 (m or yrd) 40 times. And you will start each set every 50 seconds regardless of how long the 50m takes you. 0:50 is just an example, you may have to adjust it for a time that you can make.

The 300 choice (no free) means swim 300 of any of the other 3 strokes.

or

300 choice (You probably know what this is now. )

4x100 drill as 50 drill/50 swim

Here you are swimming 50 (m or yd) of any drill and then 50 of freestyle, then you take a short rest after that and repeat this 4 times

4x75 descend on 25

Swim 75 (m or yd) and get faster (i.e. descend or getting shorter time) for each 25. So that each length of the 75 gets faster

Repeat this 4 times.

4x{
300 T pace on 5:30
2x100 fast on 1:45}

Like math read the stuff in the { } first. So swim 300 on your race pace and then rest for the remainder of the 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Then swim 100 m fast on 1 minute 45 seconds and do that twice and then repeat it all 4 times.

So for example, if you swim 300 in 5 minutes and 100 fast in 1 minute and 10 seconds, you would be doing the following:

300 in 5 minutes

rest for 30 seconds

100 in 1 minute 10 seconds

rest for 35 seconds

100 in 1 minute 10 seconds

rest for 35 seconds

300 in 5 minutes, etc... until you've done the 300 4 times and the 2x100 4 times or 8 100s.

400 choice

You know this by now.

I am going to break the mold on this tread.  I am a FOP swimmer.  Most of my swim set were 500, 1000 and even 2000yds last year.  I also did a lot of ows swimming. 

I agree with quite a bit of what was said here.  This coming year I will work on more intervals and long swims.

btw don’t listen to that bryan guy he is kind of slow.