how much rest between intervals in pool?

In general, I rest 10-15 seconds regardless of length of interval.  Wether it's a set of hard 500's or hard 100's, 10 second rest.

I've been focusing on the same thing recently and for me it really depends on type of effort that I'm focusing on. I'll start on the minute for warm-ups and then rather than focusing on doing that for the rest of the intervals, I will bring them down from 20 seconds to 5 for steady effort. If I am working on speed (a relative thing for me) I typically do in 25-50 yard distances and I will increase the rest so that I can maintain form (30 seconds to a minute of rest).

My current favorite "interval" swim workout was shared by a friend and he calls it a locomotive. It involves a distance of 500 yards for each rep. Easy effort is about at 65% and Hard effort is 85%-90%.

25 E
25 H
50 E
50 H
75 E
75 H
100 E
100 H

I repeat this set 3-4 times and track my time to make sure I'm holding steady. I rest about a minute or two between each set. I also reverse the order on this occasionally.

I also think it depends on the distance your w/o is.  A 2min/100 for, say, 10 or 15 100's is quite different than 5.

Depends on focus of workout too.  Endurance, technique...etc.  Usually between 10-15seconds for me too as indicated by my coach.  Endurance sets are usually 10s.  Technique focused workouts allow a little more rest to make sure you are fresh and focused so could be 15-20s....

My current favorite "interval" swim workout was shared by a friend and he calls it a locomotive. It involves a distance of 500 yards for each rep. Easy effort is about at 65% and Hard effort is 85%-90%.

25 E
25 H
50 E
50 H
75 E
75 H
100 E
100 H


I also like the easy/hard sets except my easies are always 50.  I have never understood the purpose of a 10 second rest when the same recovery can be achieved with an active easy lap.

EDIT:  a variation that I use is: 50H, 50E, 75H, 50E, 100H, 50E, 150H, 50E, 200H, 50E  repeat as needed.
This is an excellent set.

Edited by bhc 2010-11-16 2:33 PM

FYI I am a horrible swimmer....

1st it depends what hard means i guess...basically 15 x 100 hard for me means swimming 100's at 1:20 and resting 10-15 seconds then go again.  if i did 100 @ 1:20 and swam 50 to recover i would then get a recovery of 45 seconds this makes no sense if i am trying to get my body used to faster pace.

there is a reason for 500 split 50 H, 50E....simulate race conditioning.  where you can go fast catch someone then slow pace and recover.  there is a reason for 15 x100 to help you build speed and get body acclimated.

When I was first learning, a coach told me that the more rest I was getting the harder I had to work to earn, or need, it. Maybe I'm a wimp but I can sprint 50m and need more rest time than swim time to catch my breath and do it again. Sure I can go slower and only need 10 seconds but I thought it was good to push a little sometimes.