I am trying to get my 500yd. time down under 7min. not for competition just a personal thing. Since I don't have a coach or a team, I was wondering if anyone could give me some workout ideas.Do you swim sets of 100, 200 or 500 etc. By the way, good luck to anyone going to the worlds, I live about an hour away and am going to go see some of these amazing athletes. Hope fully I can get my 500 time down to qualify for the next worlds in Australia when I am 50. thanks, Paul
if you're trying to get under 7:00 in the 500
there are many things you can do to improve
I've written about most of it in swim faster faster
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
a 7:00 500 is holding
1:24 pace per 100
0:42 pace per 50
0:21 pace per 25
First test yourself
get your times for the following distances
025
050
100
200
250
300
400
500
600
800
1,000
Improvements come from improving your
1) body, conditioning, strength
2) swimming technique
3) mental aspects
4) equipment
the most important thing to do is
consistently train to improve your
technique and conditioning
hope this helps
ande
Originally posted by proberts
I am trying to get my 500yd. time down under 7min. not for competition just a personal thing. Since I don't have a coach or a team, I was wondering if anyone could give me some workout ideas. Do you swim sets of 100, 200 or 500 etc. By the way, good luck to anyone going to the worlds, I live about an hour away and am going to go see some of these amazing athletes. Hope fully I can get my 500 time down to qualify for the next worlds in Australia when I am 50. thanks, Paul
Good question.
My advice is to do lots of freestyle sets of various distances (100, 200, 500, more) on fairly short rest intervals, concentrating on maintaining and or building a pace. I like to pick a benchmark set that I will repeat every few days to give me some comparison of how I am doing (e.g. 10 x 100 on 1:20 or...) I think that whatever distance you like repeating will work fine if you keep the rest interval short.
Training for a 500 is a matter of building a base conditioning level, and improving it with regular, consistent training.
Stroke technique should not be compromised for speed in training, and then it wont in a race.
I'm not an expert, but I'd say that's way too much rest. You're currently swimming 100's on the 2:00 - you should be able to do 5x100 on the 1:30 or 1:35 (1:24 per 100, plus 5-10 sec rest). Next time you swim, try 100's on the 1:40, and see if you can make 5 or more on the interval. If you can, decrease to the 1:35.
