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In today’s Coach’s Intel Grant Holicky submits a swimming workout that he uses with open water athletes and his triathletes. He coaches the club team at RallySport Aquatic Club in Boulder, Colorado, and most notably Christine Jennings, US national champ in the 10k in 2013.
Here is his workout:
Here is a set we do with Christine Jennings and the other open water swimmers/triathletes. The goal is to work the traditional distance swimming system, but also include bursts of speed. This set forces the swimmer to recover from those bursts at a solid effort level. Intervals are for short course yards
400 easy
warmup
two times through
2 x 150 k/d/s by 50 2:25
3 x 100 perfect swim 1:25
4 x 50 perfect, build, perfect, mile pace :50
100 easy (2.1)
Main set
1 x 500 smooth and strong. toys ok 7:30 any 5 x 50’s must be faster than the rest of the 500
8 x 100 d 1-4, 5-8 1:20 get to mile pace on 4 and 8
2 x 400 toys and pull ok on 6:15 any 4 x 50 must be faster than the rest of the 400
6 x 100 d 1-3,4-6 1:15 get to mile pace on 3 and 6
3 x 300 toys and pull ok any 3 50’s faster 5:00
4 x 100 2 and 4 at mile pace 1:10
4 x 200 toys and pull ok 3:45 any 2 x 50’s faster
3 x 100 on 1:05 1 and 3 at mile pace
200 easy
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I swam at Open Waters the last two years and always enjoy seeing what the other swimmers that train in the pool for open water are doing. Never swim long course b/c lack of facility so love the yard practices that have been posted. After I saw this set on here I showed it to my coach. We ended up doing it last Friday. I lowered the times for the preset to 2:00 for the 150s, 1:15 for the 100’s. Lowered times for the long swims 500- 6:30, 400s- 5:15, 300’s-4:00, 200s- 2:45. Kept all of the pace work on the same time. Descended down to 55 mid on the fast ones. Last 3 x 100’s were killer on the… Read more »
Nice workout Grant…love doing speed plays in distance sets!!!
That’s because my proof reading skills are apparently lacking! Sorry about that. It should be any 5 50’s being faster than the rest of the 500 and any 4 50’s being faster than the rest of the 400’s. All apologies for the typo.
Grant, it’s says 1 x 500, then details of 50s faster then rest of 600. Same for the 400s and the 50s being faster then the rest of the 500.
Is there a typo in the set or am I missing something? “Any 5x50s must be faster than the rest of the 600”?
So inside the 500, there needs to be five 50s sprint? Or are there 5×50 afterward?
any 5 50’s within the 600 are faster than the rest of it. They don’t have to be sprint, but the goal is to change speeds repeatedly.