The Pool Sessions #21

Henry Fincher
Aug 22, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Oct 2, 2020

Check out the Guide to the Pool Sessions for help deciphering and using this session!

Distance set working off the clock. It’s really beneficial to understand how to work off a pace clock in the pool but the majority of people don’t utilise them. Below you will find times that I’ll be working off but they are likely too fast for most people so adjust them to you speed. If you have no idea what time you can work off then try swimming the following and record your times and see if you could put a set together based on today’s session with the times you can hold.

400 +20s rest

2x200 +15s rest

4x100 +10s rest

You should then have a good idea of your general swim speed and a place to start as a turn around time for each. As a general rule if we want to work distance and endurance we want to swim a high number of repeats with low amount of rest (ranging 2-6s). The faster you’re training the more rest you will need and should take if you want to maintain the speed and the less repeats you will do. If I was training 50m sprints at max there is never enough time to recover! I’d want at least 2mins rest before I swim another (or more)!

Take the @1:50 within the warm up after the 4x100. This is a ”turn-around” time, meaning if you swim the 100 in 1:40 you have 10s rest before pushing off. Do it in 1:49 and you have 1s rest. It’s a similar concept to the Beep Test. If you can’t make the times then you need to make adjustments to keep the number of repeats. It’s the best way of judging progress and maintaining heart rate zones. Today’s session will be a real struggle for me and I’m expecting I will likely miss some times, a month from now hopefully not!

If anyone is unsure still of what to do then drop a comment below, add your times and I can help and give some guidance.

Warm Up

400 Choice

4x100 Descend @1:50

4x50 Descend @50

Main Set

3x300 @4:30

400 @5:50 Pull paddles

3x200 @2:55

6x100 @1:30

400 fast

Cool Down