Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Great group, nice pool, fast swimming, but the set needed tweaking.

We visited Mason High School for the first time in our Fall Sprint Series. The goal of the series is to experience different facilities and race each other as we prepare for the new season of meets. Consistency like this yields great results in meets. The more I race, the better I race. 

After our increasingly regular warm-up routine, we had our variable sprints, followed by four rounds of broken 150's. It was a new format aimed at making the set accessible to all ability levels, but it turned out to be too much rest. Let's first analyze what I wrote:

4 x [25 Race off the block + 75 easy @ 2:00 + 50 push race to a finish] @ 10:00
50 easy between rounds

The goal was to:
1. Get some great speed off the blocks to start the race - Mission accomplished
2. Have enough rest while tired to have a great last 50, emptying the tank - Accomplished, but too much rest.

If this is training the last 50 of a 100, stick with a 100 length. Last week we did 50 fast, 25 easy, 25 fast. That was solid. This week could have reversed the flow and started with 25 fast, 25 easy, 50 fast on short-ish rest. The 75 easy was simply too much rest.

A revised set would be:
4 x [25 Race off the block + 25 easy @ 1:00 + 50 push race to a finish] @ 8:00
50 easy between rounds

This shortens the easy portion and the total round time. An obviously harder set. We are all learning. Thank you to my team for the constructive criticism!