What is a fast set?

Great posts everyone. A couple of points. I am talking about a long course 50 meter pool. I am 49 and have been back in the pool about one year. I can pretty easily make 10 x 100 frees on the 1:40 and probably make em on the 1:35 with the last 3 having me hit the wall at about 1:25-1:28. I was thinking it was medium fast speed but I had no real idea. That being said, 100 frees on the 1:10-1:15 are quite fast and I do not believe I have even seen our faster swimmers do that sort of stuff. But perhaps I have not been looking very hard because they sometimes adjust their lane speed so that it is faster than the coach's intervals on the whiteboard. I could make maybe one or two and then I would crawl out of the pool, curl into a ball, and quietly die. And I do agree that an even harder set would be all out 100s on the 2:00 or even 2:30. When you have a tighter interval, you tend to get into a tunnel vision sort of rhythm and once your get to 8, it is all downhill. But racing each one gets harder and harder in a way that really plays with my mind and depth of endurance. It tests my form in a way that the shorter interval does not do. I have never been very confident in my swimming ability and did not swim in college and only swam for two years in high school. I am finally fixing some major stroke flaws and it seem to be allowing me to glide more and not fight myself as I get more and more fatigued. It is a process that is as much a psychological cleansing of my swimming insecurity as much as anything else. I am still getting acclimated to what is considered a fast v. slow interval in workout. The next lane does 100s on the 1:25. LCM. I am about 2-3 months away from getting there, but wanted to see what all of you thought. And it really does not mean much if one is concerned about race times. I was always more of a workout swimmer while others would smoke me come race day. So, to each his/her own lane I suppose. Thanks for the input. Rob

Great posts everyone. A couple of points. I am talking about a long course 50 meter pool. I am 49 and have been back in the pool about one year. I can pretty easily make 10 x 100 frees on the 1:40 and probably make em on the 1:35 with the last 3 having me hit the wall at about 1:25-1:28. I was thinking it was medium fast speed but I had no real idea. That being said, 100 frees on the 1:10-1:15 are quite fast and I do not believe I have even seen our faster swimmers do that sort of stuff. But perhaps I have not been looking very hard because they sometimes adjust their lane speed so that it is faster than the coach's intervals on the whiteboard. I could make maybe one or two and then I would crawl out of the pool, curl into a ball, and quietly die. And I do agree that an even harder set would be all out 100s on the 2:00 or even 2:30. When you have a tighter interval, you tend to get into a tunnel vision sort of rhythm and once your get to 8, it is all downhill. But racing each one gets harder and harder in a way that really plays with my mind and depth of endurance. It tests my form in a way that the shorter interval does not do. I have never been very confident in my swimming ability and did not swim in college and only swam for two years in high school. I am finally fixing some major stroke flaws and it seem to be allowing me to glide more and not fight myself as I get more and more fatigued. It is a process that is as much a psychological cleansing of my swimming insecurity as much as anything else. I am still getting acclimated to what is considered a fast v. slow interval in workout. The next lane does 100s on the 1:25. LCM. I am about 2-3 months away from getting there, but wanted to see what all of you thought. And it really does not mean much if one is concerned about race times. I was always more of a workout swimmer while others would smoke me come race day. So, to each his/her own lane I suppose. Thanks for the input. Rob