Today’s Swim Session of the Week is actually a session that our Swim Squad did on Monday this week.
Best Average 100s
Purpose
The session can be used as a benchmark session, to lay a marker of your current swim speed and ability to hold a strong pace. It is also a great VO2 Max set.
The Session
We started the session with an 800m warm up, with the aim of getting us ready to swim fast. This is something you want to do – get nicely warmed up and primed, ready to go!
Warm Up (800m)
200m easy and relaxed
2 x 100m building the pace in each 100m
4 x 50m swimming with a good distance per stroke
8 x 25m with the first half of the length fast and powerful, the second half easy and smooth
After this warm up, heart rates were up, engines were revved and swimming felt fast.
Main Set (1,200m)
This 600m set is to be done twice through, to make a total of 1,200m.
4 x 100m (about 1 minute rest between each)
8 x 25m very easy
The main set was 4 x 100m – where I asked swimmers to swim the best pace they could manage for all four. In other words, swimming at the same pace for all four – but a pace they could just about sustain on number 4.
A 9/10 effort I suppose.
What we didn’t want was a really fast first 100m, and then the rest getting progressively slower. We wanted strong, controlled and fast.
We gave the swimmers lots of rest so they could really push.
For our fastest lanes, we swam these off 2.30. These swimmers were doing the 100s in 1.15 – 1.30. For the rest of the Squad, we did these off 3 minutes. In other words, if they swam the 100m in 2 minutes, they would have a minute rest before starting the next one.
We followed up these 4 x 100m with 8 x 25m really easy, resetting the stroke, bringing heart rate down and controlling breathing.
Repeat
We then repeated the set (4 x 100m & 8 x 25m). This time, we were aiming to maintain the time we achieved on the fourth 100m – and try and hold that for the whole of this set.
Scaling & Customisation
We do a similar session with 10 x 100m – but obviously we do not swim quite as fast. The idea is the same though – swim at a pace you can just about hold for all 10.
Depending on the time of the season, we do the session above with much less rest – maybe 20-30 seconds instead.
We’ve also done this set with 75m efforts too.
Why I Like This Session
Apart from the fact it is a chance to swim really fast, I like to use different benchmarks for swimmers and their progress. A 400m time trial is great, as is a 1000m effort, but swimmers often feel pressure on these types of benchmark sets, sometimes setting off too fast!
Secondly, this set definitely teaches swimmers about control early on, about what fast feels like, about what sort of pace is sustainable (and what is not). Also, that last 25m can teach a swimmer the difference between 9/10 effort and 9/10 pace.
Thirdly, swimmers often surprise themselves with how fast they can swim when they thought they were at their limit. “I can’t hold that pace for the next one”. And guess what? They can!
What do you think? Would you try this session?
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