Welcome to Swimming World’s Set of the Week! This week’s set is a distance based set that uses a lot of straight descends to help control pacing and get your swimmers up and working hard. Take a look a the set and it’s description below:
500 free descend by 100’s
2 x 250’s descend 1-2
500 free negative split
5 x 100’s descend 1-3, hold pace on #4, #5 easy
500 free fast
10 x 50’s descend 1-5, hold #6-10
It’s best to think of this workout as three “chunks” of 1000 yards each. The set starts off with a 500 that descends by 100’s and 2 x 250’s as a straight descend 1-2. While it doesn’t look that hard on paper, your athletes should be up and moving in the second half of each of these swims. The 500 build should have them start off at a moderate pace and get faster with each 100, meaning they should be swimming fast at the end of the first 500. Same goes for the 2 x 250’s. While you want your athletes to have that long, efficient stroke make sure they are putting some power behind it to get faster on the second repeat.
The second chunk is a 500 negative split and 5 x 100’s descend 1-3, hold pace on #4, and easy on #5. The negative split should be moderate through the first half and high effort on the second half, and the descend can be to whatever pace fits your need (mile pace, 1000 pace, or 500 pace are all good options). Use the fifth 100 to recover and regroup before heading into a 500 for time and then 10 x 50’s, the first 5 descending down to pace and the last 5 holding that pace (again, whichever pace fits your need).
Intervals can vary depending on the intensity level you want throughout the set, but getting about :45 – 1:00 rest after the 500’s and anywhere from :10 – :15 on the descends should put your swimmers in a good spot to perform and get the most out of the set. Happy swimming!