Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I had our distance group try this set earlier this season. The idea was for them to do 6 swims of indeterminate length on a 9:00 interval. Swimmers could decide their distance using the guide written below. The instructions were to either go farther or go faster from swim #1-3 and again #4-6.
The set ended up just being O.K. The swimmers gave it a good effort, but I didn’t give them enough rest to really do a good job going faster/farther. Next time I would do it differently in one of two ways:
1. Tell them that they need to get at least :40 rest (i.e. be done before the 8:20 mark), or…
2. Swim for a certain amount of time (like 8:00) and have them increase the distance swum 1-3 and 4-6. This would allow them to swim a distance that isn’t a multiple of 25 (stopping mid-pool when coach yells stop at the 8:00 mark) and they could then return to the wall to start the next repeat.
We’ll be better next time!
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The Swimming Wizard 