Swimming Set of the Week - July 16, 2010

 There are many ways to get ready for a long open-water swim when you don't have access to open water.  

Glenn's set from two weeks ago offered one way (going 200s, 300s, and 400s), and I really liked the set.  But you can also go short distances on short rest, which is what I did this week to get ready for the 3-mile event at Kingdom Swim.  

Three miles equals 5,280 yards or 4800 meters, and this set was 4950 meters.  These are the sendoffs I used in an SCM pool.  My freestyle is pretty slow, so you might have to adjust.  The idea is to keep everything in the aerobic zone for the entire set, and to keep your swim time the same, even as you tighten up on the sendoff.   For the first 12 X 75, I used a sendoff that gave me 10-12 seconds rest.  In the middle of the set I dropped the sendoff by :05 so I was getting only 5 or 6 seconds rest.  On the final 12 X 75, I dropped the sendoff again by :05 and was getting only 1 or 2 seconds rest.  

This is a good set to experiment with different bilateral breathing patterns.  I used everything from standard bilateral (breathing every 3 strokes) to these patterns:
2Left...3...2Right  
3Left...3...3Right 
Right Only for 25m, then Left Only for 25M

66 X 75
1-12 on 1:30 sendoff
13-54 on 1:25 sendoff
55-66 on 1:20 sendoff