Set Of The Week: Mile Pace 300’s

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Welcome to Swimming World’s Set Of The Week! This week’s set is a distance race pace set specifically for milers. The set is great to do long course, as half of the 3,000 meter workout ends up being mile pace (which you math fans know is equal to a mile in a long course pool). Take a look at the set below and read how to best implement it with your team:

10 x 300’s as 150 at mile pace, 150 cruise on 5:00

As you can see, the basic outline of the set is 10 x 300’s on an interval. However, the first 150 of each 300 is designated as mile pace, which should be decided upon prior to the beginning of the set. For example, if a swimmer wanted to hold 17:00 mile pace, they would want to hold :34’s per 50, or 1:42’s per 150.

The second 150 is just active recovery, and the swimmers should go right into those easy 150’s following the 150 at mile pace. Since the 300’s are on an interval (in the example above on 5:00), they won’t be able to float through the second 150 but will still be able to get enough rest before the next repeat.

This set is a great way to show your swimmers what mile pace actually feels like, and coaches should record the times during the set as well as stroke count to make sure both are consistent. If a swimmer is way under pace but their stroke count is rising through the set, they are not getting what they should out of the set. What they do during each 150 should be what they can maintain during an actual race. If you are doing the set in a long course pool, you can also add the 150’s up at the end to get a total mile time to see where swimmers are in relation to their goals and give them some extra motivation. This can also be a set you do 2 or 3 times during the season, depending on the length, to track progress their progress on controlling their pace. Happy swimming!

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