This fall I extended my usual summer break from pool training, into November, swimming in Lake Awosting until its temperature dropped to a brisk 45 degrees on Oct 31. That was two weeks ago, but I’ve been slow to resume pool swimming, partly as I’ve yet to decide how intensively I wish to train, or how much Masters racing I’ll do this winter.

The past two winters I experienced a "swimming malaise," lacking the energy to train or race well. My physician said my health was good, leading me to consider that mental/emotional fatigue might be to blame. I find lake swimming much more uplifting than swimming indoors in a pool — indeed my mysterious malaise disappeared as soon as I returned to open water. Last winter I lacked enthusiasm for going to the pool when in the dark and cold at 6pm for Masters practices. So this year, I’ll swim on my own at midday while sunlight brightens the pool.

That has little to do with this blog, other than helping explain why I sat at poolside the other day (Nov. 12) pondering how to use my first pool practice in five months. (There’s also the fact that, after breaking three ribs at the end of June, I was out of the water til mid-August, and since have swum just a mile or two per week – most of it leisurely — without a single intensive interval set.

I began with a leisurely 500, simply to reacquaint myself with ping-ponging off walls. Within 100 yards I’d made a plan to do the following:
1 x 500 on 8:00
2 x 250 on 4:00
4 x 125 on 2:00
5 x 100 on 1:40
10 x 50 on :50
In essence, this is 5 x 500, starting at 8-minute intervals, with the first unbroken and the next four broken into progressively shorter pieces.

On the 500, swimming at warmup pace, I averaged 14 strokes per length (SPL) and breathed every 3 strokes. In my current under-trained state, I can hold that stroke count and breathing pattern for 500 only at a very moderate effort. I decided to swim all five 500s with the same effort, SPL and breathing pattern to learn how my pace would be affected as I swam shorter repeats – yet changed nothing else. I observed the following conditions for the set, all speed or effort limiters:
Swim everything at "relaxed cruise" pace.
Keep stroke count at or under 14SPL.
Breathe every 3 strokes.
Minimize kick – light, passive 2BK with feet separating minimally on each leg beat.
"Glide" pushoffs – I.E. Don’t kick coming off the walls; just hold streamline until momentum takes me nearly to the surface.
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I used the leisurely pace to do more of several things:
Deepen focus on each stroke.
Improve my "grip" via a more patient catch and higher elbow with light-pressure on forearm.
Maximize pushoff distance and forward momentum on breakout with better streamline and precisely controlled pushoff depth — making it easier to maintain 14SPL.

I added my times for each "broken" 500. Here are my results:
500 7:38 (1.09 yds/sec.)
(2 x 250) 7:15 (1.15 yds/sec)
(4 x 125) 7:03 (1.18 yds/sec)
(5 x 100) 6:54 (1.21 yds/sec)
(10 x 50) 6:50 (1.22 yds/sec)

What are can we learn from this set?
1. I improved my overall velocity by 5% on #2 simply by taking a 20-second break midway through the 500. On the set of 5 x 100, my velocity increased by 11% as a result of replacing a continuous 500 with one that included four brief rest breaks averaging about 15 seconds each. Further gains in speed by dropping the repeat distance to 50 yards were minimal, so it seems that speed gains were optimized with 100-yard repeats.
2. A 11% gain in speed is significant, especially considering that it took no more effort, and was accomplished with the same number of strokes. Doing just a bit more math, if I traveled 5 yards on pushoff, I covered 20 yards in 14 strokes for the entire set for a consistent 1.4 yards per stroke. Yet simply by allowing brief recovery breaks (short enough that the set remained fully aerobic) I traveled that distance 11% faster. The fact that I could swim faster with no more effort is of huge value to me as a distance swimmer since swimming with sustainable effort is the key to maintaining consistent pace over a long swim.
3. Compared to my training paces in 2006, when I broke two national Masters records (regularly swimming straight 500s in under 6:20 in training) these are still fairly pedestrian paces. Rather than compare with what I did at that time, I’m only interested in where I am right now and how I can progress from here. Staying in the here and now in your training is the best way to maintain an improvement-oriented focus.

If you’ve been asking yourself "how can I swim faster" this set gives you one answer.

This week, I’ll swim this set in reverse – swimming 10 x 50 at warmup pace and keeping SPL and effort consistent as I progress to a straight 500, to test my ability to minimize loss of pace the same way – deeper concentration to maintain a high level of stroke precision as a swim farther without rest breaks. I’ll let you know how I do.