Set of the Week - December 14, 2007

YouChoose

In this week's set it's you, the swimmer, who determines how far, how hard, and how fast you want to go. This set is good for groups of swimmers with a wide range of ability levels. It keeps everyone pushing off at the same time, and actually cheering for each other to MAKE the interval. It also works best with just two swimmers per lane, so that you can split the lane rather than circle-swim.

18 x ?? on 2:00
1-6 are kick
7-12 are swim
13-18 are with paddles and fins
Rest break between the sets of 6.

The distance you go is totally up to you. If you're able to make only 50s on the 2:00 for the kick, you'll go 50s. If you're able to make 125s... try to go 125s. The point is, everyone leaves on a 2:00 sendoff, no matter WHERE you are.

The GOAL of the set is to encourage everyone to go as far as they can WITHIN the time. There is a catch, however. To encourage people to stay within their range, and shoot for one or two challenging swims, if you ATTEMPT a distance, and are still swimming when the 2:00 comes around, your reward is 10 push-ups at the end of the set (this is cumulative... so if you miss more than once... enjoy).

An example of a well-swum set would be (for the swimming segment):
Swimmer A goes a 100 on #1. Her time is 1:20, which gives her :40 rest.
On #2, she goes a 125. Her time is 1:45, which gives her :15 rest.
Feeling a bit tired, she drops back to a 100 on #3. She swims a 1:30, giving her :30 rest.
Now, after a bit of recovery, she's going to GO for it. On #4, she will attempt a 150. She knows this is possible because she started with a 1:20 on the first 100, which equals 40 seconds per 50. Three times 40 is 120 seconds or 2 minutes. So can do it but she'll need to HURRY. As she approaches the wall at the end of #4, she sees everyone push off, and she finishes in 2:02. SO CLOSE!
She pushes off for #5 and decides to recover. She swims an easy 50, comes into the wall at around 1:00, and has a minute to regroup.
On #6, she goes for it again and this time... finishes the 150 in 1:58... SUCCESS!!!
Now, during the break, she hops out of the pool and does 10 push-ups to the delight and encouragement of her teammates.

Enjoy, and be creative.