Right now I am swimming twice a week for 30 minutes, hour and a half practice on Saturday. My Saturday practices are pre-determined by coach so I'm covered there but looking for ideas I can fit in for a half hour on my lunch. Right now I'm doing:
200 WU, free
200 kick, flutter and fly/***
10x50s on minute fast (trying to keep within 1 or 2 secs of split)
200 cool down
This is great but my goal is to break a 6 minute 500 within this next year and curious if anyone else has some ideas to slip in. Variety keeps me interested!
Thanks
Here's a quick hitter that I use when I am squeezed for time. It may seem like a "sprinters" set, but it's actually an overall conditioning set and increases your blood's ability to carry oxygen:
300 WU: twice through of 100 free plus 50 streamline kick on back
200 kick: 8 x 25 underwater dolphin kick to 15M then ez free on :50 second interval (really push the kicks)
Main Set: 16 x 25 with 10 strokes swimming AS FAST AS POSSIBLE WITH NO BREATHING...then EZ to the wall on :40 second interval
Cool Down: 75 EZ free on 1:30, 50 on 1:00, and finish with a 25
I call this main set "Lung Busters".
Another interesting main set to help you with your 6:00/500 goal time would be to set up a pyramid with the goal of seeing how far you can make it while hitting your goals times.
1 x 50 hitting your goal time of :36 (:20 seconds rest)
1 x 75 with goal time of :54 (:20 seconds rest)
1 x 100 with goal time of 1:12 (:20 SR)
Continue UP for as long as you can hold your goal time. Once you establish some benchmarks (your failure point), experiment with starting at the 100 and going up from there OR start from your failure point and swim DOWN the pyramid (200, 175, 150, etc.).
If you do this right, I think you can have great gains from very specific main sets.
Mark Johnston
Head Coach, Flathead Lake Open Water Swimmers
USMS Online Coach
Here's a quick hitter that I use when I am squeezed for time. It may seem like a "sprinters" set, but it's actually an overall conditioning set and increases your blood's ability to carry oxygen:
300 WU: twice through of 100 free plus 50 streamline kick on back
200 kick: 8 x 25 underwater dolphin kick to 15M then ez free on :50 second interval (really push the kicks)
Main Set: 16 x 25 with 10 strokes swimming AS FAST AS POSSIBLE WITH NO BREATHING...then EZ to the wall on :40 second interval
Cool Down: 75 EZ free on 1:30, 50 on 1:00, and finish with a 25
I call this main set "Lung Busters".
Another interesting main set to help you with your 6:00/500 goal time would be to set up a pyramid with the goal of seeing how far you can make it while hitting your goals times.
1 x 50 hitting your goal time of :36 (:20 seconds rest)
1 x 75 with goal time of :54 (:20 seconds rest)
1 x 100 with goal time of 1:12 (:20 SR)
Continue UP for as long as you can hold your goal time. Once you establish some benchmarks (your failure point), experiment with starting at the 100 and going up from there OR start from your failure point and swim DOWN the pyramid (200, 175, 150, etc.).
If you do this right, I think you can have great gains from very specific main sets.
Mark Johnston
Head Coach, Flathead Lake Open Water Swimmers
USMS Online Coach
