Saturday Swim Sessions: 4 Weeks to a Faster 1,500m with only 4km per Week: Week 2

This is the second post out of a four-part series to improve your 1,500m swim time over 4 weeks with only 4km of swimming per week. The first one can be found here. In each post, you will get two 2,000m to swim workouts. The sessions are best suited to doing on a Saturday and Wednesday or 3-4 days apart.

Each Saturday I will post a Swim Session, most weeks I will load three options up for you to do. Option A is for swimmers who are after a workout between 1,000 & 2,000 metres. Option B is for swimmers who are after a workout between 2,000 & 3,000m and Option C will be greater than 3,000m.

Session Three: Threshold

• 200m Warm Up;
• 8x 200m Build 1-4, 30sec RI;
• 200m Cool Down;

Start the workout with a Warm Up covering 200m. During the warm-up feel free to stop and stretch as needed.  It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.

The main set involves swimming eight reps of 200m. After each rep have a 30-second Rest Interval (RI). Either use your wristwatch or the BIG pace clock at the pool to keep this rest interval to 30 seconds preciously. If you rest too long, you won’t get the physiological benefit of this session. With each rep I want you to build your pace to get quicker over four repetitions, then your fifth rep can be a little slower as you start to build your pace over the next four reps. You could say your first rep is steady, your second rep is fast, your third rep is faster and your fourth rep is fastest, then repeat it all for the fifth to eighth reps. Your times may look like this:

Rep	Time
1st	4:12	Build 1-4	Steady
2nd	4:02	Fast
3rd	3:58	Faster
4th	3:55	Fastest
5th	4:15	Build the next 1-4	Steady
6th	4:03	Fast
7th	3:59	Faster
8th	3:56	Fastest

Complete your workout with a 200m Cool Down. Feel free to pause and stretch when needed and/or include stretching as part of each break until the distance is covered.

Session Four: Endurance

• 400m Warm Up;
• 8x 25m Drills;
• 4x 300m Build 1-4, 45sec RI;
• 200m Cool Down;

Start the workout with a Warm Up covering 400m. During the warm-up feel free to stop and stretch as needed.  It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.

Swim 25m doing an appropriate drill. Pause prior to conducting the next repetition for a total of eight repetitions. Do the drills in the following order (examples of how to do each drill can be found by clicking on them).

1. Kick On Side (KOS)
2. Kick On Side (KOS)
3. 6/1/6
4. 6/3/6
5. Kick On Side (KOS)
6. Kick On Side (KOS)
7. Broken Arrow
8. Popov

The pause referred to above is a stop of about 10 seconds. It’s a chance to grab a drink, review the programme and think about the next drill you will do. If you need 15-20 seconds or longer, you are welcome to take it because the rest duration isn’t physiologically critical to the aim of this set. Having a quick break is neurologically critical though, so make sure you don’t just roll straight from one rep to the next.

The main set is made up of four repetitions of 300m with 45 seconds Rest Interval (RI).  As with the third session build your pace as you do each repetition, getting faster as you get closer to the end of the session. Start off with a steady rep, then a fast rep, faster rep before finishing with your fastest rep.

Complete your workout with a 200m Cool Down. Feel free to pause and stretch when needed and/or include stretching as part of each break until the distance is covered.

Next week the workouts will be developing your technique and your threshold swim speed.

If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.

I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi Coaching.

I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.

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