I see many people saying that one should swim at or close to race pace in training. My question is how much rest should be allowed for the interval such as doing 100's on the 1:25 and coming in on 1:15 = 10 sec rest. I don't know about everyone else but I have a hard time maintaining race pace without significant rest or for prolonged periods. Thanks in advance.
The ratio I mentioned is work to rest, so I'm guessing you really meant 1:4 for 200s. If your 200 pace is :30 seconds 1:4 would mean 200s on the 2:30. 2:00 would be 1:3. Even 1:3 seems like way to much rest to call anything a "pace set." Pacing to me implies something that can be realistically viewed as a broken swim. If you swim 4x50 on 2:00 that seems more like 4 distinct swims.
Assuming that my goal was to swim a 200 in 2:00, then a 1:4 work to rest ratio means 200's on an 10:00 interval, assuming of course that I would swim the 200 in 2:00.
When speaking of work to rest, remember it's a ratio and should be given in terms of the overall time of work to the time of rest. An example would be a 10x50 free on 2:00 set. For me this presents about a 1:3 work:rest ratio as I would be swimming each 50 in about 30 and resting for about 1:30. Your example above isn't a work:rest ratio that includes ALL the work (i.e the whole 200) but instead describes the ratio based upon a set distances (i.e per 50) pace with regards to the rest between each entire swim.
And you're right about pacing swims, 4x50 on 2:00 would pretty much not be considered a pacing set for anything less than a 200 and even for a 200 would not be that effective. But for 98%+ effort (sprint or near sprint) swims, it's a good starting point.
The ratio I mentioned is work to rest, so I'm guessing you really meant 1:4 for 200s. If your 200 pace is :30 seconds 1:4 would mean 200s on the 2:30. 2:00 would be 1:3. Even 1:3 seems like way to much rest to call anything a "pace set." Pacing to me implies something that can be realistically viewed as a broken swim. If you swim 4x50 on 2:00 that seems more like 4 distinct swims.
Assuming that my goal was to swim a 200 in 2:00, then a 1:4 work to rest ratio means 200's on an 10:00 interval, assuming of course that I would swim the 200 in 2:00.
When speaking of work to rest, remember it's a ratio and should be given in terms of the overall time of work to the time of rest. An example would be a 10x50 free on 2:00 set. For me this presents about a 1:3 work:rest ratio as I would be swimming each 50 in about 30 and resting for about 1:30. Your example above isn't a work:rest ratio that includes ALL the work (i.e the whole 200) but instead describes the ratio based upon a set distances (i.e per 50) pace with regards to the rest between each entire swim.
And you're right about pacing swims, 4x50 on 2:00 would pretty much not be considered a pacing set for anything less than a 200 and even for a 200 would not be that effective. But for 98%+ effort (sprint or near sprint) swims, it's a good starting point.
