Saturday Swim Session: 500’s, 400’s or 300’s

These sessions will develop your aerobic swimming endurance. This will assist with building a base that will make you fitter and more efficient.

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.

Option A

• 200m Warm Up;
• 6x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 3x 300m Build 1-3, 30sec RI;
• 200m Cool Down (1,600m)

Option B

• 400m Warm Up;
• 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 4x 400m Build 1-4, 30sec RI;
• 200m Cool Down (2,600m)

Option C

• 1,000m Warm Up;
• 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 4x 500m Build 1-4, 45sec RI;
• 200m Cool Down (3,600m)

Start the workout with a Warm Up covering 200m (Option A), 400m (Option B), or 1,000m (Option C). During the warm-up feel free to stop and stretch as needed. It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.

Next up is a set of six (Option A) or eight (Option B or C) reps 50m Drill/Swim, where you do a drill for the first 25m of the repetition and then normal swimming for the next 25m swimming. Feel free to use fins whilst doing the drill/swim set. Do the drills below twice through for Option B and C, and for Option A do them once through then the two Kick On Side drills a second time for a total of six reps:

1. Kick On Side (left side)
2. Kick On Side (right side)
3. 6/1/6
4. 6/3/6

Take your fins off for the next set.

The next set is an endurance set. Build through the three (Option A) or four (Option B and C) repetitions of either 300m (Option A), 400m (Option B), or 500m (Option C) getting faster with each rep. Take a 30-second Rest Interval (RI) for Option A and B and a 45-second Rest Interval (RI) for Option C.

All three workouts have 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.

Here is the session (Option C) as done by one of my athletes, you can see how each of the 500’s got faster and faster as they worked through the session.

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

I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.

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. Make sure you sign up for my informative newsletter.

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If you enjoyed this workout, I published a similar session 6 months ago.

12 Weeks to an Iron-Distance Swim PB: Week 7

Coach Ray is the author of the successful 12 Weeks to an Ironman Swim PB – Swim Faster with Smart Training eBook.