Swim of the Week: 3x (6x50, 200)

When I originally designed this swim I did so with the intent to hold a consistent pace throughout the main set under conditions of descending rest intervals. The original is a solid swim. It's not easy and certainly does the job in helping to develop an aerobic base. It also keeps the intervals short - something that I believe strongly in - allowing athletes to maintain focus and form. However, I occasionally revisit the original set and make alterations in order to achieve different goals. Here, in this swim, I've done just that. In order to allow athletes to go through stages of both aerobic and anaerobic work during the main set I have made adjustments to the rest intervals and to the intensities at which each rep is completed. The result is a challenging but attainable swim that has benefits for athletes specializing in all distances.

Warm Up:
- 6x100: choice (free, back, kick...)
- 2x150 as 2x75 build (continuous), 20" rest
- 100 cruise

Drill Set:
- 4x150 as 2x(50 drill, 25 cruise)
- 2x100 cruise

Main Set:
- 6x50 steady on 20" rest
- 200 steady on 20" rest
- 6x50 strong on 20" rest
- 200 steady/strong on 20" rest
- 6x50 hard on 20" rest
- 200 strong/hard

Cool Down:
- 4x100 choice

As you see, you swim at a progressively faster pace throughout the main set but hold the rest interval steady. For more information on just how hard you should be going, check out the basic descriptions of the zones:

Steady: A solid, though aerobic effort. It's sort of your normal, comfortable pace. It gets used for longer swims or when working on technique/aerobic development. It's a pace the athlete should have little trouble sustaining for longer sets - there shouldn't be a drop off toward the end of a set at this effort level. Roughly Ironman pace. Strong: This is right around anaerobic threshold pace. This is considered pretty fast swimming, though not at all a sprint or all out effort. It's slightly uncomfortable, but bearable for medium stretches of time.You might see some slight drop off toward the end of an interval with this zone, but it shouldn't be dramatic. The middle of this zone is Olympic distance race pace. The upper end is closer to sprint race pace and the low end is like half iron race pace.

Hard: This is where things get uncomfortable. It gets used for shorter swims when adding intensity to the swim. It's about the pace you could hold for a 500 yard time trial. 

*Beginners: Cut out some distance. Shorten the warm up, drill set, and cool down a bit if you're new to swimming or are not yet ready to tackle a 4000 yard session. You can reduce things a bit in the main set. For example, rather than 3x(6x50, 200), do 3x (4x50, 100) to start. By keeping 3 rounds you still gain the benefit of the descending nature of the swim, but do so at manageable distances and with a reasonable number of reps. That said, I am not a big advocate of people swimming at too high an intensity before they have a reasonable level of technical skill. If that's true for you, ask me about the original swim and I can give you more details. There are plenty of options to make this swim accessible to people from all backgrounds. If you need any help making this swim work for you just ask!

As always, comments and questions are welcomed! Happy swimming!