This is the third 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, and the second 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 Five: Technique
- 400m Warm Up;
- 4x 100m KOS 10sec RI;
- 100m Easy;
- 4x 100m (first two 6/1/6, next two 6/3/6) 10sec RI;
- 100m Easy;
- 4x 100m Alt Popov & Broken Arrow, 10sec 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.
The next set is four reps of 100m doing the Kick on Side (KOS) drill with 10 seconds of Rest Interval (RI) between repetitions. KOS is a great drill for enhancing your body rotation and is also great for enhancing both your posture and your alignment in the water. Here is a video of how to do this drill. This drill along with the other drills is most effectively done whilst wearing fins, so feel free to wear them during this part of the workout. Alternate doing them on one side than on the other, changing round each rep (i.e. odd-numbered reps do them on your left and even-numbered reps on your right side).
After the set of KOS, swim 100m nice and easy, without your fins. Focus on your body rotation and being nice and long through the water.
The next set is a set of four reps of 100m doing two reps of the 6/1/6 drill and then two reps of the 6/3/6 drill (click on the name of the drill to see how to do them) with 10 seconds rest between repetitions. As with the previous drills, feel free to utilise your fins for this set. 6/1/6 and 6/3/6 are great drills that follow on nicely from KOS and incorporate the stroke and recovery into the drill.
After the set of 6/1/6 & 6/3/6, swim 100m nice and easy, without your fins. Focus on your body rotation, being nice and long through the water, and getting a good catch with each stroke. Make sure you take your fins off when doing these easy sets.
The final set involves four reps of 100m alternating between the Popov drill and the Broken Arrow drill (click on the name of the drill to see how to do them) with 10 seconds RI. As with the previous drills, utilising your fins will aid with a bit of momentum allowing you to focus on doing the drill correctly. Alternate doing them on one side than on the other, changing round each rep (i.e. odd-numbered reps do Popov drill and even-numbered reps do Broken Arrow).
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 Six: Threshold
- 400m Warm Up;
- 15x 100m 20sec RI;
- 100m 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.
The main set is fifteen reps of 100m with 20 seconds Rest Interval (RI). Swim each rep as quickly as you can. Record your times and average them out. Post your average time in the comments section below.
Complete your workout with a 100m 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 long continuous swim ability and retest your 1,500m Time Trial.
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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If you enjoyed this workout, here is a similar session I published previously.
Saturday Swim Session: 100’s and 50’s
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