I've been swimming for 8 years and have just begun making a list of drills and sets to do in the last few months. A swimming friend of mine said she thought I needed some speed work. That's all fine and good, but how often? I swim 4 days per week. I've been in 1 meet and plan to be in a other next month. Should I include everything in each workout? Speed, technique and what else? Thanks in advance.
So given my goals, I do weigh my workouts more heavily on mid to long distance aerobic swimming, but at least once a week, I put in a speed set and twice a week, I put in a threshold set. In the off season (like now) I vary widely, and do a lot of IM work just to keep myself interested in the pool.
What is a threshold set?
Based on my experience and looking at the workout threads on this forum, I think its preferable to vary workouts by a sort of theme rather than trying to include things in every single workout other than a warm up and a cool down. There are themes I try to include in every week's worth of workouts such as: aerobic work, threshold work, speed work, drills, kicking, etc.
I, too, swim 4-5 times per week. Even though I train for open water swims that are between 2 and 5 miles, I now include some speed work at least once a week. I didn't notice my base 100 time improving even on long swims until I did start including that two years ago. So given my goals, I do weigh my workouts more heavily on mid to long distance aerobic swimming, but at least once a week, I put in a speed set and twice a week, I put in a threshold set. In the off season (like now) I vary widely, and do a lot of IM work just to keep myself interested in the pool.
What is a threshold set?
There are others much more knowledgeable than I on here that can describe exactly what's happening. But threshold swimming is between aerobic swimming and sprinting. There are sets in the workout forums that describe threshold sets. One such for me can be doing the following:
3X {200free
{150 free
{ 100 free
{50 free
So if my base 100 time is 1:30, and if I go 1:30/100 on the first time through, take a :30 rest, go 1:25/100 on second time through, take a :30 rest and then go 1:20/100 on third time through, I'm not sprinting, but I can barely finish the set on the intervals. I know by including a set or two like this per week, my base 100 time improves.
