I live in Honolulu, and have been an open water swimmer for years. I greatly prefer swimming 100s, 50s and 200s. When I was a "real" swimmer 25 years ago, my races were 100 free, 100 back and 100 fly. However, there are few masters meets options here, and most if not all of the swimming races are open water. Too bad that all the open water races are longer than 200 meters (ha ha). Becasue I love swimming, I have tortured myself into getting into shape for 1 to 3 mile open water races here. Over the past several years, I've had 4 shoulder surgeries. I came back from 1-3 fairly easily. I got back in the water from the 4th surgery 2 years ago. But this time I have not been able to get my aerobic capacity up to where I could do 8 or 10 500s at a good pace/// and because I haven't been able to do that, my open water swimming now stinks. I just hate swimming 400s and 500s. Swimming a hard set based on 100s is what I really like to do.
Can anyone suggest ways I can prepare for open water races without the boredom and monotony of swimming endless pace 500s?
Another set that I like to do is a ladder
100 @ 1:35
200 @ 3:00
300 @ 4:15
400 @ 5:30
400 @ 5:25
300 @ 4:10
200 @ 2:45
100 @ 1:20
sub total 2000 yards
With a 1000 warm-up
and a 200 warm-down
Total 3200 yards in about an hour.
Again, like Ken said, a fast set that goes by quickly. Adjust the time intervals to your needs. I and two guys I swim with did this the other morning. Fast and done.
Animal
Just because you are distance open water swimmer doesn’t mean you have to swim 500’s in pool practice. The 4 x 500 set can become 20 x 100’s. The key is maintaining a strong aerobic heart rate over the course of the set. One of my favorite distance pool sets is:
5 x 50
4 x 100
3 x 150
2 x 200
1 x 250
Two rounds through. Keeping relatively tight intervals, maintaining pace, of roughly: 15 seconds, regardless of length of swims with a one or two minute break between rounds.
The reason I like this set is each round equals 1750, twice through its 3500. For whatever reason, this set psychologically seems to swim fast and it feels like a lot of yards in a short time.
Ken,
Thanks. I think I can do that one, maintain some intensity, and not get sucked into the 500s lethargy. I'll try it tomorrow... I think you meant :15 rest interval no matter if I'm on the 50s or 200s. Right?
Ken,
Thanks. I think I can do that one, maintain some intensity, and not get sucked into the 500s lethargy. I'll try it tomorrow... I think you meant :15 rest interval no matter if I'm on the 50s or 200s. Right?
Yes
I've been trying to help my brother get back into shape and using the same idea to help one of our tri guys.
had them swim an 800 for time. then for 4 weeks they swam
week 1 warm up + 4x200 + small set to get up the yardage + warm down
week 2 warm up + 8x100 + extra + warm down
week 3 warm up + 16x50 + extra + warm down
week 4 warm up + 32x25 sprint + extra + warm down
warm up was something like
300 swim, 4x 75 25 kick + 25 drill + 25 swim, 8x25 various speeds
the idea was that they would try to hold their average time from the 800 swim in the 200's, 5 sec faster in the 100's, 5-10 sec faster for the 50's and sprint on the 25's. the extra sets we anything from 4x200 arm, to 200 kick + 9x50 desc 1-3 kick.
then they swam another 800. My brother refuses to tell me his second 800 time, he wants to wait until he reaches his goal, but the tri guy dropped from 14:50 to 14:15. this time around we are working more on 4x400, 8x200, and swimming the 200 neg split/100's or desc per 50.
Early preseason training for me for distance swimming was always 50s and 100s for time, with a good warmup. I would do 20 X 50 and 10 X 100 plus a good cool down swim. I was not much for anything over a 100 in early preparation. Left all the longer distance stuff for open water.
During the pool training I would start out with 20 sec intervals and eventially get it down to 5 seconds.
