Swim Sets

[nickwm21]

Post em if you got em. I am looking for some new ideas.

Swim about 3000yrds / 1hr twice a week. I find swimming the best exercise to take care of the upperbody, core, cardio, etc. The legs get their workout through biking and skiing. To get a complete workout I use my polo background to mix in some eggbeater, hands/elbows/arms, heads-up, zigzags, 2-to-2s, lunges, jumps, etc... but that shit is a lot harder then when I was spending 25+ hours a week in the pool.

Yesterdays set:
500 warm up
7x300, 10s rest, mid 100 is IM
6x50 @ 45s odds head-up sprint
200 warm down
~3100 yrds

Now that I am not competing in polo Id like to start to do some open water races. Lots of them here on the west cost interested me: Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake, Alcatraz, Coronado, etc....

[The AD]

What are you trying to get out of your workouts? You looking more for speed or more for endurance? If you want to do some open water swims I'd suggest focusing on endurance. You've got the right idea with your 7x300 set, but I don't think your heads-up swimming is going to help you much unless you're really bad at sighting!

There are a few different swimmer and coaches that provide workouts on the USMS forums. I'm not 100% certain they are viewable if you aren't a USMS member, but here's the link:
http://forums.usms.org/forumdisplay.php?f=95

I like doing open water swims in the summer. Donner Lake is one I'd definitely like to do sometime. I don't know of one in Coronado, but maybe you're thinking about the La Jolla Rough Water swim? I did that one for the first time a couple summers ago. That was the first open water race I've done in the ocean. It was fun, but damn cold that year (low 60s)! I did the Gatorman swim, which is the long one that does from La Jolla Cove to Scripps pier and back and finished in the top ten overall.

[nickwm21]

My endurance is fine. I can swim a 1600 at a brisk pace easily. I just get bored. I would like to get some explosiveness back though. But my main goal is to just stay in shape. When I am swimming a lot all my other activities improve... biking, skiing, especially surfing is a lot easier and more fun.

I like heads-up because it works my back a ton and helps with surfing tremendously, but I mostly swim it because it I have been swimming heads-up sets for years and it kicks my ass.

I am not a USMS member... I cannot see that forum. Sounds like you are though.

[The AD]

I am not a USMS member... I cannot see that forum. Sounds like you are though.

I am. You might consider joining. Many of the open water races will require you to be a USMS member.

The workouts on the USMS forums try to provide something for everybody. If you're training for open water, they've got someone who writes workouts aimed toward that. If you want sprint workouts there's another coach writing those. I think you'd like those because they are totally geared toward explosiveness and fast swimming. Here's the current list of workout categories:

Basic Training for the New Swimmer - by Laura Schuster
Laura is an accomplished triathlete and has been coaching with Mountain View Masters since 2001. She focuses on athletes who are new to swimming and creates workouts to improve technique and endurance. Laura's workouts are geared toward the new swimmer who is still figuring out the basics of the sport.

Stroke and IM Workouts - by Eric Mitchell
Eric's workouts are geared toward competitive IM and stroke swimmers. The workouts are designed to help swimmers work on mechanics and technique while increasing aerobic and anaerobic training capacities.

Open Water Workouts - by Mallory Mead
Are you training for an open water event?If so, you can find workouts here that are designed specifically for open water swimmers. Mallory is an accomplished open water swimmer and coach who specializes in working with beginners, triathletes and open water swimmers.

High Intensity Training - by Leslie Livingston
Leslie is a self-coached sprint specialist who emphasizes race-pace training and underwater dolphin kicking. Her workouts focus on high-intensity training for the competitive sprinter.

High Volume Workouts - by Patrick Brundage
Patrick's workouts are tailored to distance swimmers who love to swim in the "animal lane".

Triathlon Training - by Sara McLarty
Sara's workouts showcase her philosophy of providing creative and challenging activities for triathletes and swimmers of all ability levels.

I'm currently training with a kids' swim club, so I rarely if ever use these workouts, but I know plenty of people who do and enjoy them. It's difficult to come up with your own workouts all the time--even more difficult to stick to them when you are training alone.

[Tippster]

Explosiveness in swimming? You live at the beach?

Bodysurfing. Seriously. Start 10yds farther out than you should, don't use fins, and try to hit the sweet spot. Catch every wave you can. Repeat until out of time/tired.

It won't do a whole lot for endurance but it's a great workout that's fun as hell.

[nickwm21]

Yea... I dunno about joining USMS. I don't need the coaching and don't need to pay that much just to swim laps. I would join for a race, or to follow a girl, or for masters polo.

Explosiveness in swimming? You live at the beach?

Bodysurfing. Seriously. Start 10yds farther out than you should, don't use fins, and try to hit the sweet spot. Catch every wave you can. Repeat until out of time/tired.

It won't do a whole lot for endurance but it's a great workout that's fun as hell.

Yea. I swim out on big stormy days when it would be a bitch to paddle out. Fun as hell to catch a wave, get a good 5-10sec ride, then get tossed into the wash! For some reason I feel a lot more comfortable swimming in big surf rather than leashed to a board.


Man this thread got off topic right-a-way. Just looking to share swim sets.

[The AD]

Man this thread got off topic right-a-way. Just looking to share swim sets.

I'm trying, but you won't join masters!

OK, here's one for you. We do this or something quite similar all the time and you might like it.
12x75 4 each fly, back, breast; Do the first 25 at 75% effort (roughly 400 IM pace), :05 rest, 25 at 90% effort (200 IM pace), :10 rest, 25 at 100% effort.

We do this set with quite a bit of rest. I'd say a 1:40 sendoff as a baseline. When you stop at the 25 and 50, don't just rest on the wall. Act like it's a turn, just delayed so on fly and breast you want to be facing the wall with both hands on it ready to initiate the turn. For back do a flip into the wall and then wait there for the rest interval.

Here's one that's sort of a classic lots of people do. 4x25 on some reasonable sendoff that allows you to swim fast. #1 is 12.5 easy, 12.5 fast; #2 is 12.5 fast, 12.5 easy; #3 is all easy and #4 is all fast. Repeat the series a few times.

[AdironRider]

Ive pretty much fallen off the wagon swimming wise, but competed all through my childhood up to the end of college.

I think you should be doing a variety of different sets. Doing the same thing every time is going to burn you out very quickly.

If you have access to a power rack your explosiveness in the pool is going to go way up. Warning, these suck royally.

Otherwise, rotating between the distance type stuff you are currently doing with a sprint/technique day should pay off.

Keep the 500 yard warm up.

10x100's on 1:20 should kick your ass right off the bat, once more comfortable start doing them for time or rotating strokes. 2x (5x 100's on 120, 1x free, 1x butterfly, 1x breast, 1x breast, 1x free)

Then do your 50's, but ditch the heads up swimming. Thats water polo specific and not really going to help with the pure swimming technique. 20x 50 on 45 is fine and keep it up.

Id then do another 1000 yards but this time all drills. Mix it up between 50's and hundreds. Fingertips drags, 5 kicks before each stroke with an extended roll, etc. Bump the times up 5-10 seconds per 50 or 100 respectively for your sets. You dont want to be dead after a drill set, you want to be able to focus on the technique.

Id then do a 500 warm down. Id also increase your yardage on the endurance days but if your time limited, your time limited.

[PearlJam09]

How about Descends:

Try 4x100 on 1:40 or so, but every one must be finished faster than the last.

500 kick/swim by 50 (50 kick, 50 swim - no kickboard)

Blowouts:
Blow out all of your air and then swim 25 all out without taking a breath.

10x50 "Texas" style.

First one you get 9 breaths
Second one 8 breaths
Third one 7 breaths
...
Last one all out no breaths

Mid Pool 25s or 50s (get you used to starting from floating instead of pushing off the wall)

Duct tape some solo cups to your drag suit. voila! extra drag!

I'm actually the diving coach, but those are some of the sets that I remember from watching the monotony of the swimmers.

[princeoftides]

I'm a former college distance swimmer, so now I stay as far away as possible from longer stuff.

One of my current favorite workouts is:
5x200, 20s rest, warm up
1-11-1 (1 lap, 2 laps, 3 laps, etc up to 11, then repeat 11 and back down) with odds fast, evens relaxed
20x25 on 30s, no breathing
4x50 on 2m, sprint

About 5000 yards and a good mix of paces.

I have lots more, so let me know if you like this.

[The AD]

Personally I'm not a big fan of breath control sets. Hypoxic training is fine where you're breathing ever 3 or 5 strokes, but asking swimmers to do 50 no-breathers is really asking for trouble. There have been lots of deaths in the last few years involving swimmers passing out while holding their breath. Here's an example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...York-pool.html

It's just not worth it, in my opinion.

Drop-out 50s or 100s are always challenging. For example, do 50s where the first one is on 1:00 and you drop one second on each repeat until you miss. I think a similar set that's actually better is 100s on the 2:01. Start on the top. You must finish every hundred before the bottom. The sendoff is always 2:01, so the clock marches forward. Obviously it starts out easy if you're a good swimmer, but gets increasingly difficult. With this one you're always getting some rest due to the generous interval, but you have to start swimming fast to keep making it before the :30. If you're fast and that's more 100 repeats than you want to do you can start later, like on the :15 for example.

[ak_powder_monkey]

All I know is that I used to be in much much much better shape and could do shit like that...

[mangle]

A couple random sets...

10x100 on as fast an interval as you can do. I consider myself back in shape when I can get back to 1:05 SC or 1:15 LC.

1650 broken 11-1 or 1-11. Add a 50 sprint between each for kicks. 3300 22-2 by 2s is a great way to crank out a ton of yards.

1x400, 1x300, 1x200, 1x100 on tight intervals, 100 faster than first 100 of 200, 200 faster than first 200 of 300, etc etc. Do this a few times.

If you want power, do lots of 25s. I like doing 25s with a press out and pushups/crunches/jumps after each.

Another test set: We called this a minuteman. Do a 100. Rest exactly a minute. Continue until you've gone around the clock forward or backward (i.e. 60x1.01, 6x0.50). I think the best I ever did was a sub-8, meaning average 52.5.

I like hypoxic stuff. Swimming a (bunch of) 25(s) underwater shouldn't be dangerous unless you are super inefficient in the water. 100m is another story, but still doable.

When I was seriously training, we mostly did boring stuff. Main sets would normally be 4-5k (well, 10k some days), tight interval base-building sets. We'd alternate those with 3kish max effort stuff (30x100 on 2:00, etc). Other days would be heavily pull/kick/drill or IM stuff.

another favorite: 1x500 fr, 1x400 IM, 1x300 fr, 1x200 IM, 1x100 fr a couple times.

100 IMs are always fun.

Warmup was always a 300 followed by 7-10x100s drill/build/mix it up somehow.

I need to pull out my old training logs.

[The AD]

1650 broken 11-1 or 1-11.

11x150 is another good broken 1650 set.

Another test set: We called this a minuteman. Do a 100. Rest exactly a minute. Continue until you've gone around the clock forward or backward (i.e. 60x1.01, 6x0.50). I think the best I ever did was a sub-8, meaning average 52.5.

Yeah, that's a good one. 52.5 is studly.

I like hypoxic stuff. Swimming a (bunch of) 25(s) underwater shouldn't be dangerous unless you are super inefficient in the water.

I agree, assuming you're taking enough rest in between, but keep in mind you are a college level swimmer. I wouldn't recommend serious breath control sets to someone with an unknown swimming provenance.

When I was seriously training, we mostly did boring stuff. Main sets would normally be 4-5k (well, 10k some days), tight interval base-building sets.

That's what I've been doing a lot of lately training with the kids. Mondays we usually do a main set of something like 15x300 or 10x400 on an interval where you're getting maybe five to ten seconds rest. Wednesdays we do even longer swims. Other days the main set isn't quite as boring. After the main set we'll always do an IM or stroke set and then sometimes a fast freestyle set. Right now I'm usually doing a workout or two per week that's in the 7-8,000 yard range. The kids do that basically every day, but I can't take that kind of workout day after day anymore! I get in a total of around 25K per week.

I did a set a couple weeks ago I was pretty proud to make. 15x300 two on 3:20 and one on 3:30 repeated five times (short course yards). I doubt many people over 40 are doing sets like this!

[nickwm21]

10x100 on as fast an interval as you can do. I consider myself back in shape when I can get back to 1:05 SC or 1:15 LC.

Another test set: We called this a minuteman. Do a 100. Rest exactly a minute. Continue until you've gone around the clock forward or backward (i.e. 60x1.01, 6x0.50). I think the best I ever did was a sub-8, meaning average 52.5.

That is hauling!

I do a 10x100 set about every other time I swim. Its a good judge of how in shape you are. I am currently swimming it at 1:20 but would love to get down to 1:10.

The pool I swim at has some shitty hours for free swim. I basically only get 7:30-8:30pm on week days. The facility is super nice though, 25yrdx30m deep tank and a 25yrd warm up pool....

[coach]

I've been posting a weekly workouts for our local endurance team/triathlon club. It'll give you some ideas and perhaps a bit of variety. Remember these sets are in meters so adjust accordingly if you're swimming in a yard pool. These workouts are primarily designed to get recreational swimmers in shape to do an Olympic level triathlon (1500m swim) by June, so the main focus is on endurance building, and freestyle pull work.

You can check them out (no charge) on the FEAT Blog here: http://featracing.blogspot.ca/

I do have a couple of sweet pure sprint sets that I've used over the years if you're interested too...

Cheers,

Coach

[Harry]

BUMP

Getting back into lap swimming. Age early 60’s, swam competitive in HS, senior year of HS took #1 in state in the 200 IM and did the butterfly leg of the medley relay team that came in #2. Did a few triathlons in my 20’s & 30’s but overall zero swim training as an adult.

Stoked about getting back into it. So far only a couple of days, looking for swim stoke and found this old thread. Looks like AD is the man.


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[EWG]

BUMP

Getting back into lap swimming. Age early 60’s, swam competitive in HS, senior year of HS took #1 in state in the 200 IM and did the butterfly leg of the medley relay team that came in #2. Did a few triathlons in my 20’s & 30’s but overall zero swim training as an adult.

Stoked about getting back into it. So far only a couple of days, looking for swim stoke and found this old thread. Looks like AD is the man.


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Similar swim background to you (except was NOT #1 in the state - nice) and I have this to say:

Swimming is pain in a sensory deprivation tank.

2/10 do not recommend.

Enjoy.

[seano732]

Looks like AD is the man.


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Well, he IS the AD.....Good luck Harry!

[::: :::]

Post back surgery, I had just got myself up to feeling comfortable at 1600 yds when our pool shut down last year
Get after it Harry — you’ll be leading the fast lane in no time

[Peruvian]

Came for bikini pics.

Left disappointed.

[::: :::]

Haven’t shaved in a while

[fastfred]

Haven’t shaved in a while

Similar swim background to you (except was NOT #1 in the state - nice) and I have this to say:

Swimming is pain in a sensory deprivation tank.

2/10 do not recommend.

Enjoy.

swimmers/ swimming
some of the most evil ill behaved people I have ever met are swimmers the chlorine destroys the brain somehow

hadn't been in a pool in over 25 years because of all the time I spent in one growing up
then this little girl made me start swimming with her I had to get over my fear of pools

[The AD]

Stoked about getting back into it. So far only a couple of days, looking for swim stoke and found this old thread. Looks like AD is the man.

Yes, I'm the man

Well, I'm still at it anyway! Last year I was forced out of the water from March till May since all the pools were closed. Got into the lake as soon as it was warm enough and swam open water exclusively over the summer. Have been back in the pool since October, but even now there aren't many pools open and all require reservations, but I'm getting in enough swimming to more or less hold steady with the fitness level.

There are a few events scheduled this summer. I'm definitely ready to get back into competition. I really need some goal ahead to stay motivated.

[nickwm21]

I haven’t been back in the pool since the first COVID closure in March. Previously I was doing 5am swims pre-work a few days a week. They haven’t reopened pools for those early hours yet....

My upper body feels weaker than I ever have in my memory.... I need to get back in the pool!!!

After starting this thread years ago I found what I was looking for.... Speedo had an online library of swim sets written by a few big names in the swim world. The website is now missing... Luckily I downloaded all of the 45m-1hr ~3000yrd workouts and have the pdfs saved. The workouts are divided into a few categories; endurance, speed, tri, etc.... they are great to use as prescribed or modify to your liking.

I’m happy to share them with anyone, just PM me.


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