Main Set Thursday - 200s Working Pace

Following the theme of controlled descends this week, Barbara's team applied the concept to some 200s.

WARMUP:  400 on your own

WARMUP SET:  200
4 X 50 freestyle with a Tennessee Turn and a Tennessee finish.  No sendoff.  (Barbara's team was lucky enough to have a demonstration of proper TN technique by the star of the GoSwim Tennessee turn Drill of the Week.)  

MAIN SET:  1750
The set is all about pace.  Figure out what time you want to hit on the 7th 200 and work backwards from there to determine your starting pace.  The 7th 200 should be a strong effort of 85-90%.  The first couple of 200s should be at a relaxed, aerobic pace.  To introduce a little accountability, Barbara wrote everyone's name on a whiteboard and recorded their times.  Whenever someone got a descend of exactly 4 seconds, they got a star.   Out of 20+ swimmers, the highest number of stars earned by one swimmer was 3.

Seven rounds of the following:
1 X 200 freestyle or backstroke (or a combination of those two strokes)
1 X 50 active recovery.  (Start the next 200 within 5 to 15 seconds after finishing the 50; take 15-30 seconds before the final 200.)

GOAL:  Descend your time by exactly 4 seconds on each 200.  E.g., if you want to hit 2:30 on the 7th 200, your times would be:
#1:  2:54
#2:  2:50
#3:  2:46
#4:  2:42
#5:  2:38
#6:  2:34
#7:  2:30

WARMDOWN:  200-400 easy kick