SWIM
You can’t afford to miss these interval sets to develop race-speed endurance
By developing your race-speed endurance and pace control over the winter months you’ll build the foundation from which to unlock your swim potential for next season’s racing. This starts with an understanding of what pace you should swim your interval training at and then how you need to work to improve your race-speed endurance.
Completing a Critical Swim Speed test (see below) will give you both a speed endurance pacing time, i.e. swim speed per 100m, and an understanding as to whether you need to develop more speed or endurance. You can then build interval training sets around holding your CSS pace with decreasing rest and/or holding your speed endurance over longer-distance swims.
In this key session we use shorter 100m CSS repeats to develop disciplined pacing and then increase the longer intervals to challenge that pacing and develop your speed endurance. Adding a strength contrast set optimises the session’s impact.