In the Monday practice, we’re going to work on some pacing exercises based off the 100 pace derived from our T-30’s or T-20’s last week, or the T-pace. When working with the T-pace, you’ll adjust the pace for the distance of the swim. If you hold a 1:30 pace for the 100, your T-pace will be a 2:15 for a 150, :45 for a 50, etc. (Note: If you didn’t do the T-swim last week or if you didn’t max out your effort so your pace is slow, your T-pace will probably be about a 75-80% effort). We’ll ask you to descend from your T-pace to a number of seconds below the T-pace which will increase the intensity of the swim.
Here’s the morning practice sample for our Level 3A’s (the fast folks):
• 10 x 100
• #1-4 @ 1:20 – Descend 1-4 from T-Pace to T-Pace -3
• #5-8 @ 1:30 – Hold pace from #4
• REST FOR 1:30
• #9 @ 1:30 – Swim fast beating pace from #4
• #10 @ 1:30 – EZ Swim
• 9 x 150
• #1-4 @ 2:00 – Descend 1-4 from T-Pace to T-Pace -5
• #5-8 @ 2:10 – Hold pace form #4
• REST FOR ADDITIONAL 2:10
• #9: Swim fast holding or beating the pace from the 9th 100
We’ll ask you to descend the first four of every set down to about 3-4 seconds below your T-pace. This third one should start to be pretty fast or challenging. In the next set, we’ll give you 10 more seconds rest on the interval but we’ll ask you to hold the pace from the 4th one. To set up a fast swim, you’ll get bonus rest equal to the time of the interval. The 9th swim of the set is a “last one, fast one” repeat where you’ll push you pace to be below the pace of your 4th swim in the set. The final swim of the block is an easy recovery swim.
We then repeat the set for a longer distance.
The goal of the set is to work not only your T-pace but to develop your ability to swim faster than your T-pace and hold that faster pace if given more rest. Many of our swimmers can swim the same pace forever, but don’t have a higher gear. If you have trouble descending or pushing that 9th repeat, what you consider “normal” is faster than what your T-pace is. Show up to the next T-swim and see what type of numbers you generate.
To get the whole workout for Level 3, 2, and 1, you can go to the Sample Practices page of our website and follow the link for the 09/28/09 practice.
Hope you had fun with this one and felt challenged by the task.