Sunday, November 23, 2014 – Masters swim workouts

Total distance: about 3,100–4,100 m
Estimated time: 1 h 5 min to 1 h 25 min

Focus: Negative-split 200s and 100s with the emphasis on the third length, then a race-pace set of 50s at 200 pace and 25s at 100 pace, stopping when you can’t hold the time.

The race-pace set has no fixed number of repeats; it is counted here as about 500 to 1,500, from the coach’s guidance (3 to 5 times the race distance).

Warm-up (900 m, 26 min)

200 choice

300 drill

16 x 25 fly kick

Main set (1,600 m, 31 min)

5 x 200 NS with the emphasis on the 3rd 50

5 x 100 NS with the emphasis on the 3rd 25

100 easy

Main set 2: race pace (about 500–1,500 m, 8–24 min)

Race pace (RP) set:

? X 50 @ 200 RP

? X 25 @ 100 RP

To find your goal time for an interval for a given race distance divide the desired race distance time by the number of intervals. E.g:

100m : 1:12.0 → 50m goal time @ 100 RP: 36.0s; 25m goal time @ 100 RP: 18.0s

200m : 2:40.0 → 50m goal time @ 200 RP: 40.0s; 25m goal time @ 200 RP: 20.0s

When you are swimming 50s at 200 RP, the goal is to swim each 50 in exactly 40.0s, not faster and not slower. Allow for 15-20s rest between 50s. In this example, you'll be swimming 50s on 1', which gives you 20s rest.

As soon as your time on the interval goes up by 0.5 - 1s (e.g., to 41.0. or slower), you skip the next interval, and try again after this break. If you fail to meet your goal time, e.g., 40.0s, after the break, then you stop the set, swim down, and move on to the next set.

If you manage to meet your goal time after skipping one interval, continue swimming 50s until you fail to meet the goal time again or you finish the set. If you fail again, skip one interval and try again. Stop the set if you fail after skipping one interval. The goal is to be able to swim 3-5 times the race distance, which means that when training for a 200m race, the goal is to swim 20 x 50m or 40 x 25m at the 200m race pace. When training for 100m, the goal is to swim 10 x 50m or 20 x 25m at the 100m race pace.

Warm-down (about 100 m, 2 min)

choice