Swimming Set of the Week - November 20, 2009

 Breaststroke set this week.  

Swim 5 rounds of the following.  Take an extra 1:00 rest between rounds.   Use of a Tempo Trainer (or two) adds another dimension of pain to this set, but you can do it without a TT.

The goal is to simulate race conditions of pace, stroke rate, and fatigue for the 200 beast.  Where this happens in on the final 100 of each 200 combined with the 2 X 50 that follow.  By swimming to the TT, you build up leg and aerobic fatigue (but not too much oxygen debt) on the first 100 of drill/kick, then the trick is to hold on to the assigned stroke rate for the 100.  After the 200, you get a little rest, but not enough to get your HR back to normal, then you have to swim 2 X 50 at slightly below race pace for the 200.  The set builds anaerobic endurance. 

1 X 200 on whatever sendoff gives you approximately 45 seconds rest.  Swim this as:
25 breaststroke with an extra kick
25 breaststroke kick on your back
25 breaststroke with an extra kick
25 breaststroke kick on your back
100 breaststroke

2 X 50 breaststroke on whatever sendoff gives you approximately 20 seconds rest (these should be swum at 1 to 2 seconds below 200 race pace).

If you use a Tempo Trainer, set it at a comfortable pace for the first round, then increase the cadence by :05 on one or two of the subsequent rounds.  If you have two Tempo Trainers, set one of them in Mode 1 for your stroke cadence and set the other one in Mode 2  for the pace you want to hit on your 2 X 50, e.g., if you're trying to swim the 50s in 36 seconds you should set the second Tempo Trainer to beep every 18 seconds.  Wear a Tempo Trainer over each ear on the 2 X 50.