My first swim practice was done at a short course meters (SCM) pool. My focus was to find out what my threshold pace is for 100’s freestyle — or at least get familiar with where I’m at currently. Normally, an easy measurement tool is to do a timed 3000. Whatever you can hold for 3000 meters (or 30 minutes) is your threshold pace (EN2). But, for beginners, swimming two miles straight is essentially impossible.
So, here is a modified way to figure out where to get started so that you can build up to being able to do a 30 minute straight swim — or 3000 yards/meters.
300 choice — I mix up swimming, drilling, kicking, and sculling of all 4 strokes. Really, I’m just trying to stretch all my muscles in as many different variations as possible to really get loose and stretched out.
6×100 Freestyle; all I’m focusing on is my technique and making the intervals. You’ll want to adjust the intervals based on your ability. Perhaps you need to start on 3:00 and move the interval down by 10 seconds from there. It’s better to start conservatively; sooner or later, you will not make the interval.
My intervals:
1@2:00
1@1:50
1@1:40
1@1:30
1@1:20
1@1:10
Do not get frustrated if you can’t make the interval — I did not make the 6th 100. The fastest interval I could make was 1@1:20 and I barely made it.
After another 300 choice easy, I decided to find out how many 100’s on 1:20 I could make in a row.
I ended up being able to do 3×100’s on 1:20. I was getting about 3 seconds of rest in between each one. Needless to say, I was trying really hard. My heart rate was hovering at 180 after that set.
After doing another 300 choice easy, I wanted to see how many 100’s freestyle I could make on 1:25 — a slightly slower interval.
I made 6×100’s on 1:25 before falling off. I doubled my distance by going 5 seconds slower.
At this point I was pretty tired and worn out. So, I did another 300 choice easy and went home.
Total Distance: 2700 meters
Total Time: about an hour
Now, I’d like to find out how many 100’s I can do on 1:30. Looking at what I’ve done previously tells me I should be able to do at least 12 of them. I’ll let you know when I give it a shot.
Even though I didn’t exactly find my threshold pace yet, I certainly have a better understanding of what it probably is. And, now I can begin setting daily goals at practice to facilitate my improvement.
If you’re interested in learning more about Color Zone Training that Jon Urbanchek created, click here.
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