Perhaps I am just a mouth breathing, knuckle dragging neanderthal, but I fail to discern any particular value in the set I was given this morning.
10 times through: 25, 50, 75, 100 on 1:05. Odd sets freestyle, even sets stroke (25 fly, 50 ***, 75 back, 100 free) on 1:15.
There is no connecting thread of interest or challenge in any of the components here, other than to make a 100 free on 1:05 five times, spaced out by a bunch of filler. Kind of a weak argument in a 2500 yd set.
I got out after 4 sets, disgusted or frustrated, I'm not sure which.
Coaches, is this what you are giving because you are afraid people will be too bored with 10 x 100s? Or would you rather they get out early, knowing that you will not change because the "book" says this is a good workout?
Former Member
Pretty mindless set. We get our share here, so I have to improvise.
If I were in that situation, I would try do each swim in under a :55 pace on freestyle and flip over to be under 1:00 pace for backstroke. I would think after the 100 to go right away and do a 25 in under 15 seconds that would make it very difficult.
It really depends on the swimmer and what they can do for themselves. We have some good workouts and some very bad workouts. As little as I get to swim on a weekly basis, I have to make the best out of every practice and not mindlessly do what is written on the board.
The creative thinking does make it fun though.
I used to have a coach that would write workouts I didn't understand. At first, I would ask "Can you tell me what we're trying to accomplish so I know how to swim it" but did get a few replies of "Oh, I'm just trying to mix it up to keep it interesting". Then I complained to our program director since he hired the guy.
Once he hired a coach known to be less-than-competant just because he was trash-talking our team on his other coaching gigs and causing us a lot of undeserved bad press in the community. The idea was to hire him so he would quit the talk even if it was at the expense of my group. It seemed to work although it was a rough time.
