Take More Rest!

Swimming: Are You Taking Enough Rest?

Rest intervals in the pool – are you taking enough?

There is an odd relationship with rest intervals and swimmers / triathletes. There is an idea that taking rest in the pool is bad. Often, the thinking is that it is much better to do intervals with very little rest (5s, 10s) than stand at the end of the pool and recover. The thinking goes that if you take a longer rest, it is an ‘easy session’ and not doing you much good.

Compare

Compare this with running or cycling.

When cycling, hard intervals are often done with a 1:1 work-rest ratio. Four minutes hard, four minutes very easy recovery. One minute on, one minute off. Sometimes, a 2:1 work-rest ratio – four minutes hard, 2 minutes easy. Two hard, one easy. Running intervals often look similar.

Yet, many swimmers try to swim hard for 1.30 and take 15 seconds rest. A 6:1 work-rest ratio. It is really difficult to swim at pace when rest intervals are so short.

Three Sessions

Here are three short sets of work. Tell me which one sounds like the easiest? Is there an easy one? All great sets. All will result in different types of swim improvement.

Compare these blocks of 8 x 50m.

Firstly, 8 x 50m off 50 seconds, just swimming fast enough to meet the time and set off again. More of an aerobic, endurance type set.

Next, 8 x 50m off 1.15 (30 seconds rest), best pace we can maintain for all 8. We’re thinking threshold type pace here.

Finally, 8 x 50m off 1.45 (approx 1 minute rest) – max effort, hitting close to best times. Zone 5 swimming all the way!

The same set, yet very, very different.

The Alternative

Depends on the aim of the session, but I would much prefer to swim 1.30 and take 30 seconds rest – a 3:1 ratio. Or even off 2.15 (a 2:1 ratio). By doing this, you could aim for higher pace (in this example a 1.25 or quicker).

If you find yourself stuck at a certain pace, not making much improvement, then I would suggest swimming short distances at a strong pace, increasing the amount of rest in between, to enable to you to go for it. Try it!

Earn Your Rest!

Of course, a steady endurance session can incorporate short rest intervals.

But if you are looking to increase your overall pace, you might need to incorporate more rest into your sessions!