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.
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.
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.
