Subject: RE: Non Stop Swimming vs Sets SwimmingSets & drills are the way to get faster.
Long, uninterrupted swims are the way to build your aerobic base.
Swimming is dominated by technique. You should do sets and drills every time you swim to keep your technique as good as possible, if not to improve it.
If you want to workout by tying an umbrella to your heels, by all means go for it. You'll improve your strength and aerobic base, if you don't drown =p It will not help your technique, so the benefit will be exponentially lower than if you had done your drills.**
Sets allow you to swim at a faster pace, with better form, than a continuous swim because you have time to recover.
That said, you should be including continuous swims up to and exceeding your race distance, with the majority of your workouts in sets.
**In the water, Drag is proportional to your speed to an exponent. Therefore, you will benefit more from technique that reduced drag than increasing your strength or aerobic capacity alone. |