- In simple terms training faster
is going to to help you race faster
and realistically who doesn't want to
a personal best in their next event?
So I'm going to be explaining
why speed work is important for all types of swimming
and then how to incorporate it into your training.
(slow electronic music)
I expect you're already working pretty hard
in order to find those continuous improvements,
although sometimes it's a good idea to just shake
things up and get your body
used to moving faster
than you would do normally in training.
And if you're a triathlete watching this
I can hear you asking why do I need speed work
if the shortest distance you realistically going to swim
is 400 meters and it could be
as far as 3800, yes I hear you and I know you don't
see sprinters swimming 400 meters
and obviously in triathlon
you don't want to go flat out from the gun and you've got
to be ready to run and cycle afterwards
but that doesn't mean that you can't
benefit from some speed work in your sessions.
Training faster than race pace
is going to work your aerobic engine and
then doing some spikes of really fast
work is going to touch on that
anaerobic system all of which is going to
to get you used to feeling pretty
uncomfortable and I know as human beings
we like to avoid being uncomfortable,
but trust me if you do it in training now
when it comes to race day your race pace
is going to naturally feel that much more
comfortable and on top of that
speed work comes in pretty handy in race situations,
say you're at a start and you want to get some
nice clear water if you've got that speed in you,
you know you can get away fast and also if you
see someone's feet that you want to get
on to that little burst of speed can
actually end up saving you quite a lot
of energy in the long run.
(slow music)
When you're working on your swim speed
it's a good idea to have a clear start point
and a marker which you can then measure
any improvement from, so for that
I'd recommend the CSS test, critical swim speed.
Now if you want to know more about
that and how to do it then check out our
what is critical swim team video over on
our channel and whilst you're there why
not subscribe and give us a follow.
Now the results from that will actually
enable you to calculate your estimated
1,500 meter pace and it'll give you
the times you need to hit every hundred
but I hate to break it to you for this
size of work you're going to be having
to swim faster than that pace, it just
gives you a good marker to start with.
So I've chosen a key speed improvement session today
and I'm going to show you very quickly on-screen,
so do feel free to take a screenshot of it,
but don't worry too much, we're going to go into
more detail on each section following this.
So for the warm up if you do 400 meters nice and easy
mixing up the strokes as you like and
then into a little build phase so four times 50 meters
as 25 meters building in your pace
followed by 25 meters easy
with 15 seconds rest after each 50
followed by two times 50 meters
with 10 meters at maximum effort off the wall
and swim out the rest of the 50 meters easy
again with 15 seconds rest.
And then onto the main set, it's four times through
four 50s swimming at 10 seconds faster than
your CSS pace with 20 seconds rest after
each 50, followed up with
a hundred meters very easy and a further 60 seconds
rest before repeating that three more times
and then finishing off with two times 50 meters
as 10 meters maximum
effort off the wall swimming out the
rest of the 50 meters easy with
20 seconds rest this time and then to round
it all a up warm down of just 200 meters
nice and easy
(chilled music)
This warm up includes some faster work
than you're probably used to doing,
so we're going to start off with the four 50s and
it will ease you into it so 25 meters build,
push off the wall at a comfortable
pace by the time you reach the other end
you need to be swimming fast so you want
to make that a nice smooth increase in
your speed and then you've got the next
25 to completely recover, each of those
four 50s should be exactly the same
and then it's the final two 50s where you've got
a real injection of pace
it is just 10 meters hard and with a push off that's
not realistically you going to be swimming very far
at all so you've got to make sure that you
go absolutely max all out and really try
and get your stroke rate nice and high
and you've got the rest of the 50 meters
to recover entirely.
If you want to take that up a level, do feel free to
actually do another 10 meters off the other wall
if you're at a 25 meter pool
or if you're in a 50 meter pool just do a spike
of 10 meters fast in the middle,
and the idea of this warm up is to get your arms
and legs used to moving fast, your heart
rate high and just feeling really ready
and pumped for your speed session
and on the plus point it'll actually feel
relatively easy when you get to the main set,
at least to start with 'cause you will have
got used to that pace.
Right onto the meaty part, the main set.
Now for this you're going to be working faster than
your race pace or your CSS pace but use
it as a guide, so say you know your
hundred meter pace that should be ten seconds quicker,
for example if you have a one minute 30 target
race pace then that will give you a
one minute 20, divide that by two for your 50,
gives you 40 seconds as your target pace
for this set of 50s.
If you don't know your pace don't worry
just think of the effort as being really at the
uncomfortable end so around a seven or eight
out of 10 and if you've got it right you
should do that last 50 feeling like you
couldn't do another one holding that pace.
So really concentrate on the four and
when it comes to the recovery in between
maximize this and take it really easy so
you can mentally and physically prepare yourself
to nail that next set.
Now this today has just been a sample key speed
session and there are so many variations
out there but whatever you do pick just
make sure you continue to progress it
each week so it could be increasing your
speed a little bit each week so your pace
or maybe just adding to the number of reps.
(chilled music)
Speed work is great to incorporate all year round
as it just keeps things mixed up
and helps you stay fresh as well as
obviously working on your fitness like I mentioned
but as you approach race season then it becomes even more
important and it's quite helpful for
getting you to gauge that race pace and
your effort levels as obviously when you
come to a race scenario you're not going
to have a pace clock there so when
you've got one of these sessions in your
plan you want to make sure that you're
prepared for it, both mentally and physically.
So make sure you're rested, you're going there
ready to work hard and you've had adequate fuel
because it is a tough session, on the plus side
though you will feel brilliant once
you've done it and try to incorporate
this type of session once a week and you
will see significant improvements so on
that note it's a good idea to retest
your CSS pace maybe every month and
it'll be quite rewarding trust me,
so hopefully you've enjoyed, maybe even doing this session
let us know if you have and hopefully
you've enjoyed the video ,give us a thumbs up like if so
and whilst you're there why not hit that subscribe button
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and if it's speed you're after, well power goes
nicely hand-in-hand with that and Mark's actually done
a video on how to improve your swimming power
just over here and if it's running
you're looking for some speed
well there's some tips
in a video you can find just here.