The Distance Lane

I think it was Kirk who suggested that you best average of 15 x 100's on 20-30 rest is a decent predictor of a timed 1500. One of the coaches of the age-groupers (who share a pool with us masters) does the following as a test set. The interval gives 25-30 sec rest for most of the swimmers in the group. Three sets of 10 x 100 on 1:30, des 1-3, hold 4-10 for best average. He would tell them to take their HR at the end of each set, and would give them about 2 min recovery between sets. He records people's averages for each set. The coach (Brent St. Pierre) thinks this set is a good indicator of aerobic swimming conditioning. He observed that many other coaches use some variation of a timed 3000 as a test but found that many non-D types have trouble with pacing: they either take it out too hard (and stop trying when the "fail" halfway thru the swim) or not hard enough (so that the performance is not a good predictor). He thinks his variation is good for a much wider range of swimmers. And he gets to yell at swimmers to maintain or improve their average during that painful third set, to get every last drop of effort from them. I agree with the value of the set. I find myself averaging right around my 1000 pace.

I think it was Kirk who suggested that you best average of 15 x 100's on 20-30 rest is a decent predictor of a timed 1500. One of the coaches of the age-groupers (who share a pool with us masters) does the following as a test set. The interval gives 25-30 sec rest for most of the swimmers in the group. Three sets of 10 x 100 on 1:30, des 1-3, hold 4-10 for best average. He would tell them to take their HR at the end of each set, and would give them about 2 min recovery between sets. He records people's averages for each set. The coach (Brent St. Pierre) thinks this set is a good indicator of aerobic swimming conditioning. He observed that many other coaches use some variation of a timed 3000 as a test but found that many non-D types have trouble with pacing: they either take it out too hard (and stop trying when the "fail" halfway thru the swim) or not hard enough (so that the performance is not a good predictor). He thinks his variation is good for a much wider range of swimmers. And he gets to yell at swimmers to maintain or improve their average during that painful third set, to get every last drop of effort from them. I agree with the value of the set. I find myself averaging right around my 1000 pace.