Swim of the Week Presented by Nootca: Broken 500s

Before diving into the details of this week's swim I want to fill you in on the latest development in this blog series. My long time sponsor, Nootca, has become the title sponsor for the Swim of the Week posts. They've been a tremendous supporter of mine the last few seasons and I'm excited to expand the relationship to include these workouts! Make sure to take look at their goggles and ask me any questions you might have.

There are times during training in the pool that things can get stale. While standard sets like 15x100, 20x200, 3x400, can all yield positive results they can also get boring. Even when they are structured with varying speeds and rest intervals, things can get monotonous. At times, I like to accomplish things by getting a bit more creative. This week I bring you one such set. I've broken 500s into small chunks with very short rests (5 seconds). I've also injected builds and harder efforts both to keep things interesting and to incorporate a bit of speed. This isn't speed work that will make you a better 100 or 200 swimmer, but it will help you in developing your distance paces. 

Warm Up

- 2x200 choice

- 8x50 IM Order

- 2x200, 1. drill/swim by 25, 2. choice

- 100 cruise

Main Set

- 2x Broken 500 as 75/25/50/25/75/25/50/25/75/25/50, 5" rest at each /, 25s = cruise, 50 = hard, 75 = build, 30" rest between 500s. 

- 200 cruise

- 300 Strong

- 50 cruise

- 8x75 @ cruise pace - 10", on cruise pace sendoff

*Sendoff example (cruise pace: 1:30, swim at a 1:20 pace -1:00 for 75, leave on 1:30)

Cool Down

- 100 cruise

- 4x75 choice

While entertaining, this set is a bit complicated. It's essentially 2.5 times through 75/25/50/25. To do this set well, it's important not too slack too much during the cruise portions. While it is true that you are swimming easier during these 25s, you are not completely taking them off. You should be swimming a comfortable pace but not a full recovery pace. Settle into whatever pace you'd swim for a longer interval like a straight 1000. 

After getting through the 500s, there are a few other challenging elements to this swim. The 300 and the 75s can be very taxing but they are great for distance pace work. Remember, if you want to swim fast, you have to swim fast!

Happy swimming!