What is a fast set?

It's not easy to say who might find a particular set challenging based solely on race times. Some people are workout swimmers, and don't get much faster at the meets. And others are called sprinters. my speed is MUCH better than my endurance Same here. As a kid, I liked to swim at one speed only...sprint. And that said, I was always content to be towards the end of the lane when we did long repetitive sets. But some kind of transformation took place at the meets. My times were disproportionately fast compared to the others who were really working the hard intervals.

Is there some kind of methodology (or could someone suggest won) to rate the difficulty of a set based on your race time? My 50y free time is 25 so what would make up a fast, medium, and slow interval. As Pwolfe said - the 50y race time is not very useful to design different kinds of swim sets. The timed 30 minute swim (T30 test) as he described should establish your aerobic threshold. If you swim 2000 yds in 30 minutes that means your 100 yd average time is 1:30. Add 5 seconds and you have a typical aerobic set like 10x100 or 15x100 on 1:35. Because this set is not 30 minutes you should have to work hard but still have between 5-10 secs rest. Other variations are the T2000 timed swim. Swim 2000 yds/meters best effort and record the time. Calculate the average time per 100. I did a T2000 in June of this year and my average per 100 was 1:37 per 100 meters. This summer I swam most 100s LCM on 1:40 or 1:45. Change the set to 5x100 on 5 secs LESS and it changes from an aerobic set to a VO2max set. You should do some active rest, then repeat.

Um, not in LCM or even SCM. Not in Masters. Never heard of it. Yards? Possible. But either course in meters? Nope. Not for a set of 10. It's a 25 yard pool. Not everyone gets the same intervals. It's different depending on what lane you are in.

In another thread, you just said that you swam a 50 SCM free in 30 seconds in a relay at your first meet - and you said that was 7 seconds faster than you've ever gone in practice. Now you are holding 100 Meters in practice in 1:10 or 1:15 ??? If your best 50 in practice is 37, you aren't holding 100's on 1:15, or even 1:35... First Meet forums.usms.org/showthread.php While I still think you're a jerk, I made a mistake in reading the original post. So, I'm going to take away what I wrote here. I still think you need something else to do besides try to make a complete stranger seem like a liar.

Which course? And then I totally do not believe - while I am not saying "Liar! Li-ar!" I think you are sniffing glue or otherwise confused. :thhbbb: I have serious studs on my team that aren't swimming on 1:10. When someone like Chris or EHoch aren't doing these intervals you know they aren't happening. Didn't you just start swimming? Are you sure these aren't your 50 intervals? Wow, I'm retarded. I thought he said 10x50. I was wondering why everyone was flipping out. :doh:

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

I love these sets. I don't know why, I guess you just feel real good after you complete it on the interval and I think it is cool to see yourself get into a rhythm and just crunch em out. I'm about a 1:40. They help you keep a pace more then a straight 1000.

While I still think you're a jerk, I made a mistake in reading the original post. Sorry. For some reason it really bugs me when people mis-quote times, or report yard times as meters. You made an honest mistake - sorry for jumping on you about it. I'm really not a jerk - just a bit anal at times.

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. Yeah, that would be very fast long course meters. There are very few masters swimmers who could make 10x100 @ 1:10 long course meters.

1:35 is what I do 100 yards on a good day, when I'm fresh and have a tailwind. It helps if the pool slopes downward.