Ready, Set, Repeat!

1. FITNESS INTERVALS

(60 PERCENT TO 100 PERCENT OF TOTAL TRAINING YARDAGE)

This is relatively slow, easy swimming that builds aerobic endurance. The aim is extensive rather than intensive training. Speed (or heart rate) is only 65 percent to 75 percent of your maximum for the repeat distance (i.e., if your best time for 100 yards was 1:20, you would repeat at 1:45 to 2:00 in a fitness interval set). Besides, speed is also held down by short rest periods. To work, the set should be at least 20 minutes. If you’re prepping for an extremely long event (e.g., an Iron-man distance swim), it can be made as long as an hour by adding more repeats.

EXAMPLES:

16–30 × 50 (10–20 seconds rest)

10–20 × 75 (10–20 seconds rest)

8–15 × 100 (10–30 seconds rest)

5–10 × 150 (15–30 seconds rest)

4–8 × 200 (15–40 seconds rest)

Remember the bedrock principle of the Total Immersion program? “Fitness is something that happens to you while you’re practicing good technique.” Fitness intervals are a perfect example. You can build fitness and efficiency at the same time simply by turning your fitness intervals into drills, drill-swims, sensory skill practice, or other skill-building technique. Try some of these typical combinations:

1. Drill: 16 × 50 slide & glide (or your choice) on 20 seconds rest.

2. Drill-swim: 12 × 75 on 20 seconds rest (50 drill, 25 swim).

3. Sensory skill practice: 8 × 100 on 20 seconds rest (50 swim downhill, 50 swim with a weightless arm).

4. Stroke eliminators: 8 × 100 on 20 seconds rest (hold at 17–18 strokes per length [s/l], assuming a “normal” s/l [strokes per length] of 19–20). 

5. Swimming golf: 8 × 50 on 20 seconds rest. Add strokes and time for each repeat to get score for each repeat, and try to reduce your score between reps one and eight. 

2. RACE READINESS INTERVALS

(0 PERCENT TO 30 PERCENT OF TOTAL TRAINING YARDAGE)

The best way to get ready for a race is to race, so on these intervals you simulate the speeds and physical stresses you’ll face after the gun goes off. The usual goal is to make your cardiovascular system and skeletal muscles more able to tolerate oxygen debt. (Muscles need more than the CV system can deliver.) The Total Immersion goal goes a step further: to let you practice holding on to your efficiency at racing speeds. You do that by trying to minimize the difference in s/l between your fitness intervals and your speed intervals. Your total should not increase by more than 10 percent on speed intervals, so if you hold 18 on fitness intervals, don’t take more than 20 on speed intervals.

A work:rest ratio of 1:1 should provide enough recovery to let you reach 80 percent or more of maximum speed (and heart rate) on each repeat, which is where you should do your race readiness intervals.

EXAMPLES:

(Total distance of repeats should equal 60 percent to 100 percent of race distance. Example: To prep for 1500 meters, do sets of 20–30 × 50, or 10–15 × 100.)

8–30 × 50 (30–60 seconds rest)

6–20 × 75 (45–90 seconds rest)

4–15 × 100 (60 seconds–2 minutes rest)

(Count strokes or play swimming golf on all.)

3. SPEED INTERVALS

(0 PERCENT TO 10 PERCENT OF TOTAL TRAINING YARDAGE)

These are your racing “finishing school,” since they work on everything you need in a race—the anaerobic system, swimming-specific power, and your ability to stay efficient at race speeds—by letting you swim distances shorter than the race at race pace or faster. Your Total Immersion goal is to produce the most speed on the lowest possible stroke count. The work:rest ratio is 1:2 to 1:3. Sets and repeats are short and are done only once or, at most, twice a week.

EXAMPLES:

8 × 25 (40–60 seconds rest) for 50- to 100-yard races

4–10 × 50 (90 seconds–3 minutes rest) for 100- to 200-yard races

4–8 × 75 (2–3 minutes rest) for 100- to 200-yard races

3–8 × 100 (3–5 minutes rest) for 500- to 1650-yard races

(Count strokes or play swimming golf on all.)

Swimming with the pace clock doesn’t mean swimming ’til you drop. It does mean swimming smart. Anyone can dive in and just churn up and down the pool until the gas runs out. Many do, thinking speed will make them better athletes regardless of how they get it. But the price they pay in wasted time and lost efficiency is high. Intervals give you a goal instead, and a structured and purposeful way of measuring your progress along the path toward it.

And Total Immersion intervals give you the most direct path of all.