Benchmarking progress - repeating sets often?

I used to have 4 core 'test sets' that I tried to repeat roughly on Monday in a 4 week cycle - 3 x 300 - to establish my BASE pace for training (got this set from Dave Salo, but I have described it when I wrote workouts for the High Volume Training thread here in 2012 and 2013). This was a great way for me to benchmark my overall fitness for swimming my target events (200 to 500 distance) Broken Mile - borrowed the idea of repeating this from Chris Stevenson and his workouts with NOVA Masters coach Mark Kutz. I would vary how I broke the mile, but still try to compare like for like 400 IM test set - this was my own development and has a few variations, but, as the 400 IM is the Greatest Race Of All Time and truly the only measure of a swimmer's greatness :agree:, it deserves it's own test set. Heart Rate test of 8 x 100 - again taken from Dave Salo's excellent Complete Conditioning for Swimming, this is a great test set for both speed and fitness. I won't say I religiously adhere to this 4 week cycle all year round, but when I am training for a focal event, I'm pretty good about it. I've also recently added a couple more test sets, variations on the 'Aussie' or 'Thorpe' or 'Hackett' 200 test set. Version 1 is the traditional version done as Set a starting INTERVAL (say 0:45) and INCREMENT (say 0:05) where you get about 5-10 seconds rest on your easy efforts on the first round 16 x 50: on INTERVAL, going 3 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace 12 x 50: on INTERVAL plus INCREMENT, going 2 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace 8 x 50: on INTERVAL plus INCREMENT x 2, going 1 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace 4 x 50: on INTERVAL plus INCREMENT x 3, going 3 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace My 'fun 400 variation' is as follows Same idea of INTERVAL and INCREMENT as above, adjusted for distance 4 rounds of 3 x 50 easy followed by 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace 4 rounds of 2 x 50 easy followed by 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace 4 rounds of 1 x 50 easy followed by 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace 4 rounds of 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace with 100 on INTERVAL x 2 As I kick my training back into high gear next week for Spring Nationals, I will aim to do one of those 'Aussie' test sets each week in addition to the 4 I listed above. I'm probably going to develop two more - One that focuses on trying to achieve certain times while constraining myself to a defined number of strokes per lap - aiming to work on distance per stroke and on 'drilling' a better feel of what stroke count and effort produces a specific time One that focuses on using a specific stroke rate (using a tempo trainer) and stroke count to achieve a defined time. I don't think there's a specific name for this type of training, but it seems logical to me to have some consistent sets you can benchmark yourself against over time.

I used to have 4 core 'test sets' that I tried to repeat roughly on Monday in a 4 week cycle - 3 x 300 - to establish my BASE pace for training (got this set from Dave Salo, but I have described it when I wrote workouts for the High Volume Training thread here in 2012 and 2013). This was a great way for me to benchmark my overall fitness for swimming my target events (200 to 500 distance) Broken Mile - borrowed the idea of repeating this from Chris Stevenson and his workouts with NOVA Masters coach Mark Kutz. I would vary how I broke the mile, but still try to compare like for like 400 IM test set - this was my own development and has a few variations, but, as the 400 IM is the Greatest Race Of All Time and truly the only measure of a swimmer's greatness :agree:, it deserves it's own test set. Heart Rate test of 8 x 100 - again taken from Dave Salo's excellent Complete Conditioning for Swimming, this is a great test set for both speed and fitness. I won't say I religiously adhere to this 4 week cycle all year round, but when I am training for a focal event, I'm pretty good about it. I've also recently added a couple more test sets, variations on the 'Aussie' or 'Thorpe' or 'Hackett' 200 test set. Version 1 is the traditional version done as Set a starting INTERVAL (say 0:45) and INCREMENT (say 0:05) where you get about 5-10 seconds rest on your easy efforts on the first round 16 x 50: on INTERVAL, going 3 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace 12 x 50: on INTERVAL plus INCREMENT, going 2 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace 8 x 50: on INTERVAL plus INCREMENT x 2, going 1 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace 4 x 50: on INTERVAL plus INCREMENT x 3, going 3 easy - 1 fast at target 200 race pace My 'fun 400 variation' is as follows Same idea of INTERVAL and INCREMENT as above, adjusted for distance 4 rounds of 3 x 50 easy followed by 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace 4 rounds of 2 x 50 easy followed by 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace 4 rounds of 1 x 50 easy followed by 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace 4 rounds of 1 x 100 at target 400 or 500 race pace with 100 on INTERVAL x 2 As I kick my training back into high gear next week for Spring Nationals, I will aim to do one of those 'Aussie' test sets each week in addition to the 4 I listed above. I'm probably going to develop two more - One that focuses on trying to achieve certain times while constraining myself to a defined number of strokes per lap - aiming to work on distance per stroke and on 'drilling' a better feel of what stroke count and effort produces a specific time One that focuses on using a specific stroke rate (using a tempo trainer) and stroke count to achieve a defined time. I don't think there's a specific name for this type of training, but it seems logical to me to have some consistent sets you can benchmark yourself against over time.