Next week I’m taking my squad through a “hell week”. Which is one week of very, very challenging training where we increase the intensity and we increase the duration of our main sets. We also add an extra session in there. The reason that we do this is because with one week of solid training where you’re training more and you’re training harder than you normally do, you get the benefit 2-3 weeks down the track where you’re feeling fitter, you’re feeling stronger and you can race better.
So next week, I’m going to show you one of the workouts that we do in next weeks video and in Effortless Swimming Membership Program; I’m going to add all of the workouts so you can see the exact sessions that we’re doing which are going to be very challenging.
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In today’s video, I want to show you 3 different ways to do the same set. So the set we’re looking at is 12 x100 and I’m going to show you 3 different ways you can do it. This is an easy way to spice up your workouts if you’re bored with what you’re currently doing or you’re looking for a new way to train different training zones. What’s just as important as doing the sets is understanding why you’re doing them. If you know why you’re doing them, then you can train in a certain way to get the most benefit from the set.
The first way is swimming them all at aerobic pace. Your efforts going to be at about 70%. It’s going to feel like you’re training at about 70% effort and we’re looking to keep our heart rate and our times at a constant rate and at constant speed. The reason that we do this is to build up our aerobic pace. My minimum time to train an aerobic pace set is 15 minutes. I recommend you do 15 minutes or more in an aerobic pace set. You can’t do 5 minutes or 10 minutes of aerobic training and expect to increase your aerobic base. The aerobic base I’m talking about here is the base fitness that you can draw from for your longer events and also for sprinters because it is important for sprinters too. You’re looking to get 10-15 seconds rest in this set so your heart rate doesn’t drop too much.
The second way to do this set is you go 1 hard and 1 easy. With the hard ones, we are looking to go at best average speed so as fast as you can hold for the set so that you don’t drop off towards the end. With the easy ones – they are obviously recovery. You want to get more rest on this one. You want to get 30-40 seconds rest in between your hundreds. The reason that we do this is because, with the hard ones, we build up our lactic acid and in the easy ones we want to remove our lactic acid – that’s why we are doing the recovery. This is going to get you improving your ability to build lactic acid which means you can go faster and work harder.
In the third way to do the set, we would descend 1-4. We would start off easy then we would descend faster up to number 4 with the last one we are going at your maximum speed – so go as fast as you can go. Repeat that 3 times to make up 12×100’s.
In this one we would probably get around 20-30 seconds rest per hundred so that it gives you enough rest to be able to go hard at the very last one. But it also doesn’t allow you to drop your heart rate too much.
The reason I like to do descend sets sets is because it allows you to get a feel of your pacing and your effort. If you find that on your third 100 – let’s say you go 120 for your third 100 but then on your fourth one you go 118 – you are working 10% harder. Then you know that maybe 1020 is about the speed that you can maintain. Whereas if you are swimming 118’s then that’s the pace where you find yourself dropping off.
It’s a good way to get a feel of your pacing and your effort. There you have it, that’s 3 ways to do the same set. great ways to mix up your current training if you are bored with your sets or if you’d want to add a little flavor to your sets – it’s a good way to do it.
Keep an eye out on next week’s video where I am going to take you through one of our Hell Week Workouts. It’s going to be very challenging but I hope you will go through it with me and that you will be able to increase your fitness and get a feeling of what it’s like to go through Hell Week because it’s a great thing to do and also a good way to get your team together.
See you next week. Have a great week.
Transcript
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If you’re looking for a new way to spice up your workouts, then this is an easy way to change up your current training. Hi Brenton Ford here. Welcome to another effortless swimming dot com update where swimming fast is easy. Next week I’m taking my squad through a hull week, which is one week of very, very challenging training. We increase the intensity and we increase the duration of our main sets and we also add an extra session in there. The reason that we do this is because with one week of solid training where you’re training more and you’re training harder than you normally do, you get the benefit two, three weeks down the track where you’re feeling fitter, you’re feeling stronger and you can race better. So next week I’m going to show you one of the workouts that we do in next week’s video and in swim proof I’m going to add all of the workouts so you can see the exact sessions that we’re doing which are going to be very challenging.
In today’s video I want to show you three different ways to do the same set. So the set we’re looking at is twelve one hundreds and I’m going to show you three different ways you can do it. So this is an easy way to spice up your workouts if you’re bored with what you’re currently doing or you’re looking for a new way to train different training zones and what’s just as important as doing the sets is understanding why you’re doing them because if you know why you’re doing them then you can train in a certain way to get the most benefit from the set. Now the first way is swimming them all at a aerobic pace. So your effort is going to beat about seventy percent, it’s going to feel like you’re training at about seventy percent effort and we’re looking to keep our heart rate and our times at a constant rate and a constant speed. So the reason that we do this is to build up our aerobic base. Now my minimum time to train an aerobic pace set is fifteen minutes so I recommend
you do fifteen minutes or more in an aerobic pace set. You can’t do five minutes or ten minutes of aerobic training and expect to increase your aerobic base. Now the aerobic base I’m talking about here is the base fitness that you can draw from for your longer events and also for sprinters because it is important for sprinters too. And you’re looking to get ten to fifteen seconds rest in this set so your heart rate doesn’t drop too much. In the second way to do this set you’d go one hard and one easy and with the hard ones we’re looking to go at best average speed. So as fast as you can hold for the set so that you don’t drop off towards the end. And with the easy ones they’re obviously recovery and you want to get a bit more rest in this one. You might want to get thirty to forty seconds rest in between your hundreds. Now the reason that we do this is because with the hard ones we build up our lactic acid and in the easy ones we want to remove the lactic acid so that’s why
we’re doing the recovery. And this is going to get you improving your ability to produce lactic acid which means that you can go faster and you can work harder. In the third way to do this set we’d descend one to four. So we’d get faster, we’d start off easy and we’d get faster up to number four. With the last one we’re looking at going about your maximum speed so as fast as you can go. And you repeat that three times to make up twelve one hundreds. Now in this one we’d probably get around twenty seconds to thirty seconds rest per hundred so that it gives you enough rest to be able to go hard on the very last one but it also doesn’t allow you to drop your heart rate too much. The reason that I like to do descend sets is because it allows you to get a feel for your pacing and your effort. So if you find that on the third one hundred let’s say you go one twenty for your hundred but then on the fourth one you go one eighteen but you’re working
ten percent harder then you know that maybe one twenty is about the speed that you can maintain whereas if you’re swimming in one eighteen then that’s the pace where you’d find yourself dropping off. So it’s a good way to get a feel for your pacing and your effort. So there you have it that’s three different ways to do the same set great ways to mix up your current training if you’re bored with your sets or you want to add a bit of flavour to your sets it’s a good way to do it. Keep an eye out for next week’s video where I’m going to take you through one of our howl week workouts it’s going to be very challenging but I hope that you will go through it with me and that you’ll be able to increase your fitness and get a feeling for what it’s like to go through a howl week because it’s a great thing to do and it’s also a good way to get your team together. I’ll see you next week have a great week.
