Just to get the ball rolling here, I'd like to post a practice we did last night. It was written by one of our team's co-coaches, Bill White, who swam at the University of Louisville and is the most knowledgable swim coach I have personally had the pleasure to meet (this includes, by the way, one year at the U. Michigan.)
Anyhow, Bill's workout seemed impossibly challenging, but somehow he coaxed us into making it.
5 x 200 on 2:45 warm up
5 x 200 on 2:35
4 x 200 on 2:30
3 x 200 on 2:25
2 x 200 on 2: 20
1 x 100 all out sprint
1 x 100 cool down.
We got about a minute and a half rest between each of the sets above. Our team only gets the pool for 60 minutes, so the total practice was 4000 yards completed in 60 minutes. I suspect this practice would be pretty easy for younger type swimmers, but I am 49 and it was quite challenging. I should point out, however, that when it was over, all of us who made it felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction!
Effi,
Actually, our team has three lanes, with corresponding A, B, and C workouts. The workout I listed was the A workout; B does about 10 -20 percent less; and C does about 30-40 percent less. The A lane's 200s were extremely challenging, and I wouldn't have made it were it not for drafting off the guy in front of me!
I suspect there are elite masters who can easily do this workout; but most rank and file types (myself included) find it borderline impossible. The fact that I managed to cross the borderline on this occasion was cause for personal jubilation.
The cruising + or - seconds concept is a good one. Another way to go is to do a long swim (from 1650 to 3000) as fast as you can go without dying, then calculate your average 100 pace. This is your so-called anaerobic threshold. Example: I just did my best all-time time for the 1650--a 19:27. This works out to about 1:10.8 per 100. When I am doing sets of 100s on very low rest, I add about 5-10 seconds-- i.e., 100s on 1:15 to 1:20. Double this for 200s.
For people whose AT pace works out to, say, 1:25, you can push the aerobic envelope, so to spead, by again adding 5-10 seconds--100s on 1:30 to 1:35, or 200s on 3:00 to 3:10. Over the course of the season, by regularly doing such sets a couple times a week, your AT time should slowly but surely drop a bit.
To improve middle distance speed, you can add rest and try to beat the AT time. For instance, instead of trying to make 10 x 100s on 1:20 (averaging around 1:10 per 100), I might try to do 10 x 100 on 1:30 (averaging 1:08s) or 10 x 100 on 2:00 (averaging 1:04s). For true sprinting, jack up the rest and the intensity considerably--last night, for example, we did 3 x 100 on about 4 minutes (:59; :56; :56) followed by 3 x 50s all out sprint on about 3 minutes (:26; :26; and a :29.9 for fly)
Times should be relative to your own speed. If your AT time is 1:25, and you're repeating 100s on 1:35, you're working harder than a college stud repeating 100s on 1:10 (but whose AT time is :58).
Effi,
Actually, our team has three lanes, with corresponding A, B, and C workouts. The workout I listed was the A workout; B does about 10 -20 percent less; and C does about 30-40 percent less. The A lane's 200s were extremely challenging, and I wouldn't have made it were it not for drafting off the guy in front of me!
I suspect there are elite masters who can easily do this workout; but most rank and file types (myself included) find it borderline impossible. The fact that I managed to cross the borderline on this occasion was cause for personal jubilation.
The cruising + or - seconds concept is a good one. Another way to go is to do a long swim (from 1650 to 3000) as fast as you can go without dying, then calculate your average 100 pace. This is your so-called anaerobic threshold. Example: I just did my best all-time time for the 1650--a 19:27. This works out to about 1:10.8 per 100. When I am doing sets of 100s on very low rest, I add about 5-10 seconds-- i.e., 100s on 1:15 to 1:20. Double this for 200s.
For people whose AT pace works out to, say, 1:25, you can push the aerobic envelope, so to spead, by again adding 5-10 seconds--100s on 1:30 to 1:35, or 200s on 3:00 to 3:10. Over the course of the season, by regularly doing such sets a couple times a week, your AT time should slowly but surely drop a bit.
To improve middle distance speed, you can add rest and try to beat the AT time. For instance, instead of trying to make 10 x 100s on 1:20 (averaging around 1:10 per 100), I might try to do 10 x 100 on 1:30 (averaging 1:08s) or 10 x 100 on 2:00 (averaging 1:04s). For true sprinting, jack up the rest and the intensity considerably--last night, for example, we did 3 x 100 on about 4 minutes (:59; :56; :56) followed by 3 x 50s all out sprint on about 3 minutes (:26; :26; and a :29.9 for fly)
Times should be relative to your own speed. If your AT time is 1:25, and you're repeating 100s on 1:35, you're working harder than a college stud repeating 100s on 1:10 (but whose AT time is :58).
