My workout this morning is one of my favorites, ever! I can't take credit for it though........ this comes compliments of Alex Kostich. (Long Course Meters)
100s are fast; try to go the same time for every repeat.
Funny Mallory adding in her animal set when every main set of hers I do off the USMS forums feels like a monster set, even thought they're about half what she's doing this weekend!
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Judging by the sets posted here, if mine are animal sets, they are more along the lines of kittens and baby bunnies. My only offering is my annual birthday set of my age x 200's on the fastest turnaround I can sustain for the entire set. Now that I'm well into my 40's, this is not as easy as it used to be.
Karen, as the years pass we get to off-set the higher numbers with shorter distances... soon it will be ?? X 50m for me! Well done on your 40+ X 200m... indeed an animal set!!!
Holy crap. I can't imagine doing any of these sets. For some, it's because of the distance. For others, because my stupid pool requires 3 laps for 100 yards. I'd get dizzy.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Looking at these sets I sometimes wander How I ever managed to swim across to France as in comparison my sets were "bacterial sets", I don't think I ever got over 10km in the pool. Okay there were long ocean swims that were up to 7 hours but these sets are mamoth. My question is, Is it better to do 8 km REALLY HARD or 16 km at 50 or 75% effort? I definitely fit into the former group
@zimhippo - Quantity & quality = apples & oranges. Both important in their own way, I think. Despite the set I posted above, I'm actually more a "quality" guy. With the exception of that one set, I never exceeded 10km in the pool - just like you. The 25km set was useful primarily in training my mind. 25km in a pool will break you down mentally in a way that even a high-quality 8km just doesn't do. (Nor was the 25km necessarily "low quality"... notice the interval).
This was my 15,000 short course yard pool workout from 3/25. Fortunately, Florida water temps are up so most of my long swims can now be in open water.
10 x 150 Warm up 2:15
1 x 400 Swim 6:00 } 2 x 200 Swim 3:00 } 4 x 100 Swim 1:30 } 2 x's through this group 8 x 50 Kick 1:00 } 1 x 400 Swim 6:00 }
100 X 200m on 3 min. I'm usually between 2:40 - 2:45 for 15K but start to slip after that. I normally take 1 min at 10K and another at 15K I don't usually have company and always lose count, so simple sets are good.
Animal Sets (like channel swims) are tests of endurance and mental fortitude, not speed. Some of us in this thread (including me) have mentioned intervals, but these are a secondary consideration. Animal Sets are egalitarian - they mete out pain regardless of speed.
Nonetheless, it can be entertaining to see what qualifies as an Animal Set for those with Olympic-level talent. For these types of Animal Sets, intervals are usually key. Here are a few of the more famous ones:
Larsen Jensen: 20x1500 LCM on 20:00 (apparently he only made it through #17...)
Tom Dolan: 24x400 LCM: 6 fly, 6 back, 6 breast, 6 free (no interval)
Finally, here's a "Lunchtime Set" from Janet Evans: 4x {400 IM @ 5:15, 2x200 Free @ 2:00, 4x100 IM @ :55}
These are all American swimmers, of course. But I'm sure there must be legendary sets of Grant Hackett, Kieren Perkins, Keri-Anne Payne, etc., that our international members can tell us about?
Keeping in line with my definition of "animal," which is vastly different from many of you monster-swimmers out there, here's the set I'll be doing later this week: 400 4×100 400 2×200 600 2×300 600 3×200 800 4×200 800 2×400 600 2×300 400 2×200 400 4×100 My goal is to do everything on ~1:38-1:40 per 100, with no more than :10 rest after each set.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
best swim set. 8x800 LCM on 9:00 holding 8:48 longest set 20x1000 LCM on 12:00
The Marathon Swimmers Forum is proud to welcome is first marathon swimming Olympian! Just FYI, people, there are only 50 of those... in the world... ever. Welcome, Mark!
30 years ago I did 5,000 yd in one hour. Rested 30 minutes, and did it again. When you look how it breaks down (1:12 per hundred or 6 min per 500 yd) it is actually not that fast. It's just about maintaining a rhythm.
Keeping in line with my definition of "animal," which is vastly different from many of you monster-swimmers out there, here's the set I'll be doing later this week: 400 4×100 ... 400 4×100 My goal is to do everything on ~1:38-1:40 per 100, with no more than :10 rest after each set.
Set complete. 2:53.56 (that's good for me).
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
I like 10 x 1000 on whatever interval seems reasonable on the day. I did it this afternoon after work and had trouble changing gears in the car on the way home. Oh dear... I will call it The Earthworm.
Already had my first of the year, an 88km in Argentina that magically dwindled down to a 5km due to weather.
Rest of the year is still up in the air.
Wow!! It was going to be 88km all at once?? I can't even imagine that... I've enjoyed your workouts in the USMS forum, and thinking about doing an open water swim this year, maybe 5k nationals in Indy! I grew up there too and it would be fun to go back.
I did this last week and enjoyed it- thought I'd share
Warmup
2x1000
2x800
2x600
2x500
2x400
2x300
2x200
2x100
I did 1 easy, 1 fast. I took my base pace per 100 and added 15 seconds for the slow and base pace for the fast. For example, if 1:15 is your base, the first 1000 @ 13:00, second @ 12:30. 800s on 10:15 and 10:00, etc. no breaks. Comes out to 7800, without warmup/warm down.
A few of us used @Lynnkub 's 12 Days set (above) yesterday. Damn it was tough. We had 5 (Channel) swimmers for most of it, and one likes 1:30 per 100 repeats , the others of us are normally 1:40, so there we were hanging onto his toes, I thought I was going to die. Or just vomit. Great set for maximising use of time and cutting down breaks.
I like the 10km pyramid building speed as you go 100,200,300,400,500,600,700,800,900,1k and back down. By the second 700 you should be really getting the speed up. 15 seconds rest interval
Thursday I had a nice 10km
1x3000
2x1500
3x1000 with the lat being the fastest of the day
1000 swim down
Done last night in a two-hour session ... inspired by my hometown's logo ... the triple Alsatian pyramid
[100
200
300
400
400
300
200
100] x 3
= 6000m
1'50" as an interval per 100, with 1'20" of rest inbetween the pyramids.
It's just about bordering animal by my standards ... given that I have done only one pool swim over 15k!
It will make for a great session in a few months when I double it up!
Animal Sets (like channel swims) are tests of endurance and mental fortitude, not speed. Some of us in this thread (including me) have mentioned intervals, but these are a secondary consideration. Animal Sets are egalitarian - they mete out pain regardless of speed.
Nonetheless, it can be entertaining to see what qualifies as an Animal Set for those with Olympic-level talent. For these types of Animal Sets, intervals are usually key. Here are a few of the more famous ones:
Finally, here's a "Lunchtime Set" from Janet Evans:
4x {400 IM @ 5:15, 2x200 Free @ 2:00, 4x100 IM @ :55}
These are all American swimmers, of course. But I'm sure there must be legendary sets of Grant Hackett, Kieren Perkins, Keri-Anne Payne, etc., that our international members can tell us about?
This is probably the most extreme version of a high quality set mixed with volume by an elite Olympic level swimmer I've ever seen. This set was done by Australian Stephen Holland in preparation for the 1976 Olympics.
The following is excerpted from Chuck Warner's book, Four Champions One Gold Medal: The True Story of Four Swimmers Who Battled For The Same Olympic Dream .The original set was supposed to be 10 x 500 (meters) every 6:15 with the last one under 5:10.
" Stephen was looking forward to going surfing and surely intended to complete the tenth one fast enough to end practice. But on the tenth one Stephen went 5:11 ---too slow. On the 11th he missed again, and on the 12th, and on the 13th, and on and on the set went. For the next hour and 30 minutes the set continued. On the 48th 500 Stephen Holland finally swam the required time. Bill Sweetenham was upset. Stephen was upset. And it was time to go home."
In sum, Holland went about 24,000 meters of 500s, most of which were probably around 5:10 - 5:15 per 500.
As a follow-up to the story of this set, Holland normally took Sundays off. The above mentioned set occurred on a Saturday. The next morning, Holland knocked on his coach's door. He asked if he could do the 10 x 500 set over. Holland and his coach went over to the pool. Holland was under 5:10 for the entire set of 10.
I'm going to have to represent the sprinters in the group (are there any others?!) who grew up dreaming of the 25yd Freestyle as an Olympic event (would quit everything and train for this if it ever happened, ha!) I like the "sprinter-distance" set I've done a few times to finish out a solid distance set:
120 x 25 @ :30, Hold :12 (or faster) (a.k.a One Hour of Power)
Sure keeps the heart-rate flying high!
@swimmergirl23 - Yeah right, I bet you could do like 1000 x 25 on :10; don't even lie I look at the set as a solid "finish strong" type of set to really get use to sprinting/struggling/fighting through the final part of a swim. I imagine one could claim the same doing distance work, but I like the sprinting since it trains the mind to try and keep solid form, when you are obviously struggling to keep it together! Mainly, it is the part of me that just wants to keep those fast twitch muscles going, and never claim to be a "distance swimmer", ha!
@Foreverswim - I feel like your race resume might make it hard to fight the distance swimmer claim... And for real the fastest ive ever been in a 50 free is like a 25 (MAYBE a 24.99 on a relay or something) so i really wasn't exaggerating
Once I committed myself to do a two-way crossing of the Tsugaru Channel in Japan, I faced a practical problem: I had no idea how long the swim would take. It could have been a 12-hour swim or a 24-hour swim or a 36-hour swim. So I did mind-numbingly boring sets in a pool since I didn't have weekday access to a lake or ocean. I borrowed a key to the local 25m pool and swam from 3-6 am M-F by myself for 8 months before heading off to work. I just did sets of 1000s. On purpose. Over and over and over and over again. By myself in a pool with no one else. Before the sun came up. Day after day, week after week, month after month. It was a chlorine torture. But it achieved 2 goals: my mental focus improved (just getting up at 2:30 am required a bit of discipline) and my weekend open water workouts became an even greater joy.
Steven Munatones
www.worldopenwaterswimmingassociation.com
Huntington Beach, California, U.S.A.
Once I committed myself to do a two-way crossing of the Tsugaru Channel in Japan, I faced a practical problem: I had no idea how long the swim would take. It could have been a 12-hour swim or a 24-hour swim or a 36-hour swim. So I did mind-numbingly boring sets in a pool since I didn't have weekday access to a lake or ocean. I borrowed a key to the local 25m pool and swam from 3-6 am M-F by myself for 8 months before heading off to work. I just did sets of 1000s. On purpose. Over and over and over and over again. By myself in a pool with no one else. Before the sun came up. Day after day, week after week, month after month. It was a chlorine torture. But it achieved 2 goals: my mental focus improved (just getting up at 2:30 am required a bit of discipline) and my weekend open water workouts became an even greater joy.
You don't get off that easily and only tell 1/2 of a story. What happened at the two-way crossing?
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
I crossed a few weeks after David Yuduvin. I left from a different point on the south side (the island of Honshu) than he did, so the Japanese Coast Guard was nervous and said that I would have to abandon the swim if I did not reach the halfway point in the channel in 3 hours. It sounded impossible at the time because we had no idea how long it would take due to the shifting tides. Fortunately, things went well and I completed the south-to-north (or island of Honshu to the island of Hokkaido) in 6:16. Then I turned around and swam from north-to-south (Hokkaido-to-Honshu) in 6:36. The Coast Guard was happy and so was the pilot who laid out his reputation on my behalf. The only hiccup was that on the way back, I had to stop on the orders of the Coast Guard and tread water for what seemed like a really long time due to the presence of an oil tanker (it was about 12 minutes). The strait is rather narrow and the tanker had priority...
Steven Munatones
www.worldopenwaterswimmingassociation.com
Huntington Beach, California, U.S.A.
2x through the following:
4x250 Free; descend 1-4
2x100 IM
4x250 as 150 Free/100 Breast; descend 1-4
2x200 IM
4x250 as 150 Free/100 Back; descend 1-4
2x300 IM
4x250 as 150 Free/100 Fly; descend 1-4
2x400 IM
Total = 12,000 Meters - not exceptionally long BUT all the fly makes it feel that way!
For an added challenge, try drinking approximately half your body weight in margaritas about 6 hours before attempting!
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Comments
100s are fast; try to go the same time for every repeat.
2x500 @ 7:15
1x100 @ 1:30
2x500 @ 7:00
1x100 @ 1:30
2x500 @ 6:45
1x100 @ 1:30
2x500 @ 6:30
1x100 @ 1:30
2x500 @ 6:15
1x100 @ 1:30
1x1000
10x400
2x2000
10x400
1x1000
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Well done on your 40+ X 200m... indeed an animal set!!!
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
1000
10x100
1000
5x200
1500
5x300
1500
3x500
2000
4x500
2000
5x400
1500
5x300
1000
5x200
1000
10x100
------------------
25,000 LCM
everything on 1:30 per 100m, NO BREAKS
10 x 150 Warm up 2:15
1 x 400 Swim 6:00 }
2 x 200 Swim 3:00 }
4 x 100 Swim 1:30 } 2 x's through this group
8 x 50 Kick 1:00 }
1 x 400 Swim 6:00 }
40 x 100 Swim 1:20
12 x 75 Drill 1:20
40 x 100 Swim 1:20
8 x 25 Swim :30
4 x 100 Warm Down 1:45
total yards 15,000
3 lanes, 200+ x100m on 2, 210+ x100m on 1:50, 220+ x100m on 1:40.
Choose your lane or move around, stop for toilet & food as required.
500 loosen
120x100 @1:15 (short course yards), every 10th is strong
100 EZ
Can't wait to attempt some of the other sets posted here!
I'm usually between 2:40 - 2:45 for 15K but start to slip after that.
I normally take 1 min at 10K and another at 15K
I don't usually have company and always lose count, so simple sets are good.
Nonetheless, it can be entertaining to see what qualifies as an Animal Set for those with Olympic-level talent. For these types of Animal Sets, intervals are usually key. Here are a few of the more famous ones:
Larsen Jensen: 20x1500 LCM on 20:00 (apparently he only made it through #17...)
Tom Dolan: 24x400 LCM: 6 fly, 6 back, 6 breast, 6 free (no interval)
Jeff Kostoff: 4x5000 SCY on 50:00
Erik Vendt: 30x1000 SCY on 10:00
Finally, here's a "Lunchtime Set" from Janet Evans:
4x {400 IM @ 5:15, 2x200 Free @ 2:00, 4x100 IM @ :55}
These are all American swimmers, of course. But I'm sure there must be legendary sets of Grant Hackett, Kieren Perkins, Keri-Anne Payne, etc., that our international members can tell us about?
20 x 200 (SCY) @ 2:30, holding 2:15.
I'll be trying to bring the 20 to 40 and the 2:30 to 2:20 over the next 6 months.
400
4×100
400
2×200
600
2×300
600
3×200
800
4×200
800
2×400
600
2×300
400
2×200
400
4×100
My goal is to do everything on ~1:38-1:40 per 100, with no more than :10 rest after each set.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
longest set 20x1000 LCM on 12:00
@mmead - What swims are you training for this year?
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
1x600
2x550
3x500
4x450
5x400
6x350
7x300
8x250
9x200
10x150
11x100
12x50
Cheers,
Rob
I will call it The Earthworm.
Rest of the year is still up in the air.
I've enjoyed your workouts in the USMS forum, and thinking about doing an open water swim this year, maybe 5k nationals in Indy! I grew up there too and it would be fun to go back.
Warmup
2x1000
2x800
2x600
2x500
2x400
2x300
2x200
2x100
I did 1 easy, 1 fast. I took my base pace per 100 and added 15 seconds for the slow and base pace for the fast. For example, if 1:15 is your base, the first 1000 @ 13:00, second @ 12:30. 800s on 10:15 and 10:00, etc. no breaks. Comes out to 7800, without warmup/warm down.
loneswimmer.com
Thursday I had a nice 10km
1x3000
2x1500
3x1000 with the lat being the fastest of the day
1000 swim down
Descend 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15
Total = 22,500 m = My longest set ever!
[100
200
300
400
400
300
200
100] x 3
= 6000m
1'50" as an interval per 100, with 1'20" of rest inbetween the pyramids.
It's just about bordering animal by my standards ... given that I have done only one pool swim over 15k!
It will make for a great session in a few months when I double it up!
Sylle - EC Fly 2013 [Video]
This is probably the most extreme version of a high quality set mixed with volume by an elite Olympic level swimmer I've ever seen. This set was done by Australian Stephen Holland in preparation for the 1976 Olympics.
The following is excerpted from Chuck Warner's book, Four Champions One Gold Medal: The True Story of Four Swimmers Who Battled For The Same Olympic Dream .The original set was supposed to be 10 x 500 (meters) every 6:15 with the last one under 5:10.
" Stephen was looking forward to going surfing and surely intended to complete the tenth one fast enough to end practice. But on the tenth one Stephen went 5:11 ---too slow. On the 11th he missed again, and on the 12th, and on the 13th, and on and on the set went. For the next hour and 30 minutes the set continued. On the 48th 500 Stephen Holland finally swam the required time. Bill Sweetenham was upset. Stephen was upset. And it was time to go home."
In sum, Holland went about 24,000 meters of 500s, most of which were probably around 5:10 - 5:15 per 500.
As a follow-up to the story of this set, Holland normally took Sundays off. The above mentioned set occurred on a Saturday. The next morning, Holland knocked on his coach's door. He asked if he could do the 10 x 500 set over. Holland and his coach went over to the pool. Holland was under 5:10 for the entire set of 10.
Keep moving forward.
120 x 25 @ :30, Hold :12 (or faster) (a.k.a One Hour of Power)
Sure keeps the heart-rate flying high!
www.darren-miller.com
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
www.darren-miller.com
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
Steven Munatones
www.worldopenwaterswimmingassociation.com
Huntington Beach, California, U.S.A.
You don't get off that easily and only tell 1/2 of a story. What happened at the two-way crossing?
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
Steven Munatones
www.worldopenwaterswimmingassociation.com
Huntington Beach, California, U.S.A.
2x through the following:
4x250 Free; descend 1-4
2x100 IM
4x250 as 150 Free/100 Breast; descend 1-4
2x200 IM
4x250 as 150 Free/100 Back; descend 1-4
2x300 IM
4x250 as 150 Free/100 Fly; descend 1-4
2x400 IM
Total = 12,000 Meters - not exceptionally long BUT all the fly makes it feel that way!
For an added challenge, try drinking approximately half your body weight in margaritas about 6 hours before attempting!