I thought I’d share my week’s swim sets for anyone looking for inspiration or willing to offer constructive feedback. Personally, I believe many swimmers are overtrained. Since I didn’t start swimming until I was 18, a lot of my sets reflect my own training philosophy, which focuses on balance and efficiency.
Below are my current goals and times. These sets are designed to align with my aim of optimizing stroke and breath counts rather than strictly race pace. If your goals are similar, these might help you too:
@Dar
That’s solid. 2,000 yards is a lot more than most people realize. I started swimming at 18 due to being anorexic and the sport really helped my metabolism, so I relate to your reason but from a different perspective. Just keep swimming!
@Keegan
I swam for a club for over 2 years in the mid-90s when I was a teenager. I didn’t swim consistently for years and just got back into it last year.
@Echo
I don’t envy you. I can barely manage a 500 without getting bored, even at meets. These sets are good for pacing, but you might need to do a little more than what I’m doing. The longest set I’ve done recently was around 6,800 yards, which is still less than your races. I can only imagine the yardage you have to put in to get ready for those. Good luck!
@Keegan
Haha, yeah. Training for them in a pool can be really boring. I swim about 4km each session, which takes about 2 hours. It gets more fun when the open water season starts in May and we can swim outside. I find 200’s to be such challenging sprints. They’re short, but it’s tough to do the usual 28-30 seconds per 50.
Wow, these are great. Do you do the 20x50 set to failure when you miss a pace? What do you do for the 4x25 underwater? Do you cycle through each stroke? Do you lift weights?
Frances said:
Wow, these are great. Do you do the 20x50 set to failure when you miss a pace? What do you do for the 4x25 underwater? Do you cycle through each stroke? Do you lift weights?
For the 20x50, if I miss my pace, I use fins. This helps because my main issue is my aerobic capacity, so it’s more important for me to keep the intensity up. Fins don’t really work for breaststroke, but I usually manage okay. For the 4x25 underwater, it depends on the day. Usually, I try to build up the distance by 4 every 25, starting with 4, then 8, 12, and finally 16. On some days, I do 4x25 drills. The first one I exaggerate my kick to engage larger muscle groups. The second I focus on small kicks targeting the smaller muscles. The third is a balance between the two, then the last one is a full-length underwater sprint. Sometimes, if my underwater kicks still don’t feel right, I’ll add an extra 2x25 at full length. My lifting is mostly supplemental. I think most training for swimming happens in the pool, but I also see lifting as necessary and it helps with injury prevention. During the season, I lift a few times a week focusing on shoulders and legs. Outside the season, I tend to lift more but never to failure, maybe close to it sometimes. Training for explosivity is key, so I avoid failure. Sometimes, I’ll have a track day to include sprints, which I do about twice a month during the season and almost weekly in the off-season.