I am thinking about swimming a 1500m in an upcoming meet and am wondering what sort of sets I can swim to see what pace I can hold for that distance. Tonight we had a 12x100 set on 1:50 and I expanded it to 15x100 and came in on 1:35 on average. A coach I was talking to recently said that what one could do with 15s rest in a set like that you could likely do in a race at a meet. I am not quite so sure, 15s seems like a lot of rest. On the other hand the set wasn't that hard to complete and I had plenty left at the end. I was just concentrating on technique and getting 5m off every wall. If I actually held 1:35 that would be 23:45, which would be two minutes faster than the last time I swam it, two years ago, and I would feel really good about that, I was actually just aiming to go under 24:30, which would be a minute off my PB, which I did three years ago. It would also beat my secret nemesis' time... :D Which is the only reason for swimming such an insanely long race!
Any other suggested interval sets to gauge likely meet time? The thing that really gets me is having to swim without the pace clock and having to do 60 lengths before finding out if I hit my goal pace or not! Every 1 sec variance per 50m translates to 30s over 1500, which is both exciting and scary!
Former Member
Lindsay,
I was looking for a workout I found online a few years ago when training for the 1-hour postal. It was great for combining pacing & endurance, and looked something like this:
5 x 100 on cruise + 10 sec
500 swim maintaining prev pace, followed by 30 sec rest
repeat on cruise + 5
repeat again on cruise -5
Establish the cruise pace during warm-up, then swim the set at race pace using the cruise +/- interval for rest.
Also, I think the "pacing device" rule is just that. It prohibits swimmers from using watches to keep pace, but it doesn't prevent someone on deck from giving you a signal. I use my counter to tell me how I'm doing--hold numbers still if I'm at goal or better, shake them like crazy if I'm behind. It makes me nuts to see those numbers moving, so I do everything short of going hypoxic to stay on pace.
Good luck with the swim!
Dana
Former Member
Lindsay,
I recommend you to test your 1500 in the workout before the meet.
This will help you to make a realistic race plan. If you are 2 minutes better than your latest meet, you can adjust your speed accordingly. 2 minutes faster means nearly 8% improvement which is great but very hard to achieve:blah: . If you get tired after a couple of laps, you will understand that in the race you should start slower. If you don't want to test the full 1500, you might do what Donna suggested. I used to try 4X400 or 5X400 with a RI of 15-20 sec in the workouts and in the 1500 race, I swam nearly the same speed.
Long and complete strokes, strong and fast flip-turns, very deep and active breathing and a steady speed is what you need. If your kick is not so strong, you might try one lap strong (maybe 6 beat), one lap weak (3 beat) kicking. Worst case scenario is weak kicking all the laps which will shorten your strokes.
Anyway, have fun:groovy:
Lindsay,
Although I don't necessarily train for distance events specifically, we did a good pace set last week that may be applicable to your situation:
3x 10x100
Round 1: Descend 1-5, 6-10. The 6th one was to be about the same speed as #3, and #10 about 2 sec faster than #5.
100 ez
Round 2: same deal; interval was 5 sec faster. the fast #5 and 10 were supposed to be faster than round 1's fast ones.
100 ez
Round 3: Pick a goal time, something a little faster than that second #10 time (ie: 1:34). Then do a desc 1-10 on the same interval as round 1, starting at 10 sec over your goal time (ie: 1:44) and working your way to your goal time. Those last 2-3 should be pretty tough, but make it count.
I'd probably give you 2:00, 1:55 and 2:00 for your intervals... goal isn't to wear yourself out with fast intervals, but have rest enough to work on descending. Those last few will be :dedhorse: regardless of your interval!
Personally, I train for the shorter stuff and then wing it for the 800/1000 or 1500/1650 - I find the distance training can get a little dull at times.
Enjoy!
Former Member
How about picking your pace, add 10 seconds per 100, round to the nearest 5 seconds of interval (to get in the groove), then follow up with 5 very hard, but steady, swims with 15 seconds over pace. The goal would be to emphasize a strong finish and a desire to negative split the nauseating last half of the race.
Another one that worked for me was to do sets of 5 repeats on a descending interval (knock 5 secs off each set) and try to hold the same pace through all 15-20 repeats.
The last half is not to be underestimated. The risk may also be that the groove you're in at the beginning 400-500m is too slow and you get stuck, so testing the next gear at the 1/4 or 1/3 points is good.
Good luck,
dV
Former Member
Lindsay,
Peter is absolutely on-track with this. Although repeating 100s on intervals is good for what is called "speed-endurance", it is different than race pace. When I was training for the 800 meter free, I never actually swam the 800 in training; I always did 400 repeats and the reason is, it is important to get your body used to going much farther than a 100 regardless of the rest interval. I used to do 4x400s with 30 seconds rest; stop and rest 2 to 3 minutes, then 10x50s with increased effort with 10-15 seconds rest; stop and rest 2 to 3 minutes, and do another 4x400s. And I would watch the clock to see how much time slipped away on the 400s.
Once I would see my 400s all becoming close in time, I could figure out my race pace and I would then swim piles of 50s on race pace decreasing the rest. And then with a good taper, the 800m free was a power swim for me, the entire thing was faster than I had ever swam it AND I felt great throughout.
And there are many training ways to approach the 1500, but I'd sure break it down into 400s.
donna
Former Member
I think if you are going to stick with 100s, you should do something other than straight intervals. We did 20 X 100 (10@1:25, 10@1:15) the other day and that was really grueling. I agree you should toss in a 4 X 400 or 5 X 300 set also on a faster interval.
Donna - enjoyed your picture and article in the lastest USMS Swimmer mag.
Thank you so much, Mr. Geek!! Makes the 1500 seem not so far after all, huh? (LOL).
Former Member
Lindsay- while I don't necessarily endorse entering a 1500 (retching sound), I suggest sets of 400's to really establish your pacing.
Former Member
The thing that really gets me is having to swim without the pace clock and having to do 60 lengths before finding out if I hit my goal pace or not!
I'm no expert on distance swimming, but I think what I did would help you. The one time I swam the 1500M I told my coach what pace I wanted to keep and asked him to give me hand signals if I was on pace or not.
Prior to that swim I hadn't swam anything over a 200 before. Like you I had no idea what kind of time I could do. So I just picked a time based on what an EZ 100 time during repeat 100's would be, essentially a comfortable pace that I could hold for that distance. I came up with a 1:20 pace and a goal to break 20 minutes. So during the race I didn't really focus on what lap I was on, but rather focused whether or not I got the on pace signal from my coach. I finished with a 19:41.
I hope this helps.
i have have heard people argue that the 1650 is a mile
1 mile is 5,280 ft. which equals 1,760 yards
1,650 yards is 4,950 ft.
the 1650 is 330 ft. (110 yds. short of an actual mile)
You're right about a mile being 1760y.
The 1650, commonly called the "swimmer's mile", is roughly equivalent to the 1500 meter. 1650y = 1508.76m (or 1500m = 1640.42y).
