Saturday Swim Session: 100’s for Sustained Speed With Less Rest

100s are such a versatile distance and provide a range of fitness benefits for your swimming. Over the coming weeks, we will use these sessions with less rest each week to build your fitness and ability to sustain your speed. This session is perfect for Ironman and Olympic distance triathletes or people doing longer ocean swims.

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.

This week’s session is based on last week’s session but with only 10 seconds of Rest Interval (RI).

Saturday Swim Session: 100’s for Sustained Speed

Option A

• 200m WU;
• 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 10x 100m Build 1-4, 10sec RI;
• 200m CD (1,800m)

Option B

• 400m WU;
• 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 14x 100m Build 1-4, 10sec RI;
• 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 200m CD (2,800m)

Option C

• 600m WU;
• 12x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 20x 100m Build 1-4, 10sec RI;
• 12x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
• 200m CD (4,000m)

Start the workout with a Warm Up (WU) covering 200m (Option A), 400m (Option B), or 800m (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 drill set of eight (Options A and B) or twelve repetitions (Option C) of 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 to make eight reps (Options A and B), or three times through for Option C:

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

I wrote an article about swimming drills previously. Click here to read and watch it.

The main set is made up of 100m reps swum as a Build set. With a building set, the speed of each rep is built up (increased) over a series of four reps. This means that your first rep will be a moderate pace, your second a fast pace, your third, a faster pace, and your fourth rep will be your fastest rep. Repeat this process until you’ve completed ten repetitions (Option A), 14 repetitions (Option B), or 20 repetitions (Option C). Take a 10 seconds Rest Interval (RI) after each rep. For Options A & B this will leave two reps ‘left over‘, treat them as the third and fourth reps respectively of the Build rotation and do them as your fastest two reps.

Option A moves from the set of 100’s straight into the Cool Down (CD). Options B and C repeat the drill set from above again.

For the Cool Down (CD) swim 200m. Unlike the previous sets which have to be freestyle, the cooldown (like the warm-up) can be any stroke you wish to swim.  You can also stop and rest after any length.  I encourage you to stop and stretch during the cool-down.

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, I published a similar session 12 months ago.

Saturday Swim Session: 1,500m TT

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