Speed Work

Several random suggestions (note these are suggestions; not gospel): 1) Do a steady swim of 1/2-1 hour and then do the regular workout with your masters group. 2) Do sets like broken 1650's. My favorite: start with 11 LENGTHS, rest 15 sec, 10 lengths, rest 15, 9 lengths, rest 15, ...... 2 lengths, rest 15, 1 length, rest 15. Take elapsed time and subtract 2:30 to get the actual 1650 time. Try to get faster as the number of lengths decrease. A funkier way to do this is: 11 lengths, rest 15, 1 length, rest 15, 10 lengths, rest 15, 2 lengths, rest 15, etc. 3) Do sets like "1000 from Hell" (my name for it): Swim 1000 yards continuously as follows: 4 laps (i.e. 200 yards at, say, 2 mile race pace), sprint 1 lap, 3 laps race pace, 2 laps sprint, 2 laps race pace, 3 laps sprint, 1 lap race pace, 4 laps sprint. 4) Do 100-200-300-.....-800-900-1000 (go as far as you can up the ladder). Do these on a fixed "go pace." Example: "go pace" is 1:30/100 yards. This means: start the 100 at time 0, start the 200 at time 1:30, start the 300 at 4:30 (=1:30 +3:00), start the 400 at 9:00 (=1:30+3:00+4:30), etc, etc, etc. You'll probably need to have the go times written on a white board/piece of paper as they start to get fuzzy was you get tired. 5) Swim a long swim, but every x minutes, go hard for a certain distance. Example: Swim 2 hours at a strong pace, sprinting eve ry 5 minutes for 50-100 yards. Variation: Swim a long swim and go hard every x LAPS. (This is can be a bit more difficult as you tire and the mind wanders.) 6) "Leech swimming": Go to the pool when you know that there will be some faster swimmers there (esp. if they are doing intervals). Start a longer, steady swim and as a faster swimmer comes up on you, try to hang with them as long as you can. When you "drop", go right back to pace and wait for the next person to come up on you and repeat. It's polite to let them know what you are doing in advance so they don't screw up their own pacing. Just some thoughts. -LBJ

Several random suggestions (note these are suggestions; not gospel): 1) Do a steady swim of 1/2-1 hour and then do the regular workout with your masters group. 2) Do sets like broken 1650's. My favorite: start with 11 LENGTHS, rest 15 sec, 10 lengths, rest 15, 9 lengths, rest 15, ...... 2 lengths, rest 15, 1 length, rest 15. Take elapsed time and subtract 2:30 to get the actual 1650 time. Try to get faster as the number of lengths decrease. A funkier way to do this is: 11 lengths, rest 15, 1 length, rest 15, 10 lengths, rest 15, 2 lengths, rest 15, etc. 3) Do sets like "1000 from Hell" (my name for it): Swim 1000 yards continuously as follows: 4 laps (i.e. 200 yards at, say, 2 mile race pace), sprint 1 lap, 3 laps race pace, 2 laps sprint, 2 laps race pace, 3 laps sprint, 1 lap race pace, 4 laps sprint. 4) Do 100-200-300-.....-800-900-1000 (go as far as you can up the ladder). Do these on a fixed "go pace." Example: "go pace" is 1:30/100 yards. This means: start the 100 at time 0, start the 200 at time 1:30, start the 300 at 4:30 (=1:30 +3:00), start the 400 at 9:00 (=1:30+3:00+4:30), etc, etc, etc. You'll probably need to have the go times written on a white board/piece of paper as they start to get fuzzy was you get tired. 5) Swim a long swim, but every x minutes, go hard for a certain distance. Example: Swim 2 hours at a strong pace, sprinting eve ry 5 minutes for 50-100 yards. Variation: Swim a long swim and go hard every x LAPS. (This is can be a bit more difficult as you tire and the mind wanders.) 6) "Leech swimming": Go to the pool when you know that there will be some faster swimmers there (esp. if they are doing intervals). Start a longer, steady swim and as a faster swimmer comes up on you, try to hang with them as long as you can. When you "drop", go right back to pace and wait for the next person to come up on you and repeat. It's polite to let them know what you are doing in advance so they don't screw up their own pacing. Just some thoughts. -LBJ