Half Ironman: A Swim Set To Work The Mind And Body

I didn’t grow up swimming and for quite a few years, swim training and the swim portion of a triathlon ranked as a *necessary evil* that was a requirement to get to the real part of triathlon, the bike and run! Swimming back and forth in a pool, staring at a black line and counting laps makes time stand still… tedium personified to my non-swimmer’s mind.

My antidote to the mental challenge of spending an hour plus in the pool is to do swim workouts that keep me thinking and moving the entire time. The following is a set that I prescribe in the lead up to half distance races as it presents a nice combination of pacing and intensity with a main set that is close to the distance of a half-distance race.

Warm-up

• 5-10 minutes of easy swimming, mixed strokes as you wish.

Pre-main set

This short “snorkel, buoy, band” set is to help you focus your form for today’s swim as well as continue to warm up the body. Progress your effort level as the distance shortens.

• 2×100
• 2×75
• 2×50
• 2×25

Openers

This second set will prepare you for the intensity of the main set. It will "open up the engine!”

3 rounds of:

• 1×50 very fast
• 2×25 easy float to recover

Main set

The main set is 18 x 100 on three different intervals. Pick three intervals where the first one is easy to hit, the second one is moderate and the third one should be quite challenging, allowing at most 5-7 seconds rest after each repeat. With three separate intervals, this workout demands that you understand pace clock management and are adept at doing a little mental math while swimming hard.

The set pattern is as follows: swim one easy, one moderate and one strong, followed by one easy, one moderate and two strong, one easy, one moderate and three strong and then finish with one easy, one moderate and four strong. This is a continuous set with no breaks.

• 1-1-1
• 1-1-2
• 1-1-3
• 1-1-4

I recently completed this swim set using the following three intervals: 1:40, 1:35 and 1:30.

Starting from the top of the clock (60), it looked like the following:

• 1:40 (push on 40)/ 1:35 (push on 15)/1:30 (push on 45)
• 1:40 (push on 20)/1:35 (push on 55)/ 1:30 (push on 30)/1:30 (push on 60)
• 1:40 (push on 40)/ 1:35 (push on 15)/1:30 (push on 45) / 1:30 (push on 15) / 1:30 (push on 45)
• 1:40 (push on 25)/1:35 (push on 60)/ 1:30 (push on 30)/1:30 (push on 60)/ 1:30 (push on 30)/ 1:30 and DONE!

Of course, this set will also scale quite nicely. If a set of 18x100s is too long for you, shorten it to 18x75s or 18x50s but maintain the concept of three separate intervals with a challenging third interval.