What are some legendary jaw dropping workout sets you've heard of people doing or you yourself have done? I've always been curious as to what kinds of mind blowing things Grant Hackett or other distance Gods has done but have never found anything. I remember an article of olympians talking about the craziest sets they've done, but I couldn't re-track it down. I figure someone on these boards must have heard of some doozies and done some! Here's some that I heard about that I thought were amazing.
Erik Vendt 30 x 1000 (short course yards) going 10 off 10:45, 10 off 10:30 and 10 off 10:15. Who knows what the times were but jeez!
Erik Vendt 5 x (500 free followed by a 400 I.M.)
The 500's were on the 5:30, with a goal of holding just below five minutes.
IMs descending on five minutes
First 4:08 last 3:43
Larsen Jensen
20x1500 on 20:00 goal to go under 18:00 each. Apparently he stopped at 17 because he didn't make the time.
Michael Phelps
5,000 free for time in a 46:34.
James Hickman
12 x 200 fly on 3:00 (Hickman does 2:16 to 2:20)
12 x 300 fly/IM (alternate) on 4:30
2400 fly (Hickman does under 29 minutes-1:12 average/100m)
Hey Vivebene,
Here's one of my husband's favorites to assign: the Fischburn set.
5x100 on x
4x200 on x + 1 min
3x300 on x + 2 min
2x400 on x + 3 min
1x500 on x + 4 min
So the trick is, what is x? The last time I did this set, maybe 5 years ago, x=3. So I did my first 100's on the 3 min, the 200's on the 4:00 etc to a 7:00 500. The key is to start smoooooth and build your way into the longer distances. Obviously, 100's on the 3:00 are pretty easy to make, but if you go too hard, you will be hurting bad by the time you get to the 500. Ideally, you want to set x such that the 500 requires near race quality speed to make that last interval. I think when my husband used to do this set as an agegrouper, he started at the 1:15. So the 500 was on the 5:15... Quite a different set from starting at my 3 min!
Hey Vivebene,
Here's one of my husband's favorites to assign: the Fischburn set.
5x100 on x
4x200 on x + 1 min
3x300 on x + 2 min
2x400 on x + 3 min
1x500 on x + 4 min
So the trick is, what is x? The last time I did this set, maybe 5 years ago, x=3. So I did my first 100's on the 3 min, the 200's on the 4:00 etc to a 7:00 500. The key is to start smoooooth and build your way into the longer distances. Obviously, 100's on the 3:00 are pretty easy to make, but if you go too hard, you will be hurting bad by the time you get to the 500. Ideally, you want to set x such that the 500 requires near race quality speed to make that last interval. I think when my husband used to do this set as an agegrouper, he started at the 1:15. So the 500 was on the 5:15... Quite a different set from starting at my 3 min!
