Today, I thought I’d share my collection of swim workouts. These particular workouts were used for Ironman training, but you should be able to adjust them and try them out for your distance. If training for shorter distances, you could use these to develop a solid base and then shift your focus to shorter distances at greater speed as you get closer to your race.
Quick tip that I find very helpful is write the workouts out on index cards and put them in a small zip lock bag. This will keep them waterproof so you can keep the workouts next to the pool and easily refer to them while you are training. I’m going to replicate my workouts exactly as they appear on my index cards, using shorthand to get them to fit in some cases. The notes below should help clarify what some of my shorthand means.
A few notes on the workouts
- Putting the total distance (not counting cool down) in the upper-right corner of the card makes it easy to find workouts that meet my needs for any particular session.
- Distance is either in meters or yards, whatever size your favorite pool may be.
- To save space, I don’t include the cool downs, which is typically 200-400 easy.
- Pull is shorthand for using a pull buoy. Check out my post on swim training gear if you don’t know what a pull buoy is.
- Kick means use a kickboard. Check out my post on swim training gear if you don’t know what a kickboard is. If you don’t have a kickboard, you can lay on your back or side and kick. If you lay on your side, you should alternate sides as you go.
- For drills, pick your favorite drill. I try to have 4-6 drills in my “bag” to pull from. Some I use include: catch up, one arm, fists. If you need some drills, YouTube is your friend.
- Descend means to descend in pace. So descend 1-3 would mean to decrease your pace as you go. i.e. Start slow and finish fast.
- Build, as in build your level of effort, is similar to descend. Most likely, increasing your level of effort means you’ll be increasing your pace as you progress.
The Swim Workouts
2700
Warm
Main
400 swim rest :20
200 (50 easy / 100 hard / 50 easy) :10
200 pull rest :15
150 (25 easy / 100 hard / 25 easy) :10
200 kick rest :20
100 (25 easy / 50 hard / 25 easy) :10
100 drill
75 (25 easy / 25 hard / 25 easy) :10
50 hard :05
25 easy :60
2900
Warm
400 swim rest :20
2 x 200 pull rest :20
200 kick rest :20
8 x 50 25 drill/25 swim rest :10/set
Main
500 swim focus on form
2 x 250 focus on form
5 x 100 odds 50 drill / 50 perfect, evens 50 easy / 50 build :20
2900
Warm
400 swim rest :20
2 x 200 pull rest :20/set
200 kick rest :20
8 x 50, 25 drill/25 swim rest :10/set
Main
3 x 500 swim :60
3000
Warm
300 swim rest :20
200 kick :15
300 pull :20
4 x 50 drill
Main
3 x 400 descend :30
100 easy :30
3 x 200 descend 1-3 :20
100 easy
3100
Warm
300 swim rest rest :30
2 x 150 pull rest :20/set
200 kick rest :20
6 x 50 25 drill/25 swim rest :10/set
Main
2 x 1000 swim 2:00
3200
Warm
400 swim rest :20
300 pull rest :20
200 kick :15
4 x 75 kick / drill / swim
Main
6 x 50 descend 1-3 and 4-6 :20, :60
275 :10, 250 :10, 225 :10, 200 :10, repeat pattern to 25 :10
easy 50
3350
Warm
400 swim rest :20
300 pull rest :20
300 kick rest :20
4 x 50 drill/swim :15/set
100 easy
Main
3 x 300 rest :10 after each 150, go hard 2nd 150 :30/set
8 x 25 drills :20/set
easy 50 :30
3 x 300 :30/set maintain same pace for all sets
3400
Warm
Main
300 swim rest :20
8 x 75 drill / perfect / build to fast :20
200 kick rest :20
300 pull :30
300 pull rest :20
3 x 100 descend :15 each set
100 kick rest :15
50 easy
4 x 75 kick / drill / swim
200 pull :20
3 x 100 descend :15 each set
50 easy
100 pull :20
3 x 100 descend :15 each set
3400
Warm
Pull Set
4 x 100 (75 swim / 25 drill) :20
400 :30
6 x 75 kick / drill /swim :15
2 x 200 descend 1-2 :20
3 x 100 kick :15
4 x 100 easy/hard, hard,easy :20
50 easy :30
400
4 x 50 build to fast :20
3 x 100 descend 1-3 :20
4 x 25 perfect form :10
3450
Warm
Main
150 swim / 150 kick :20
3 x 200 descend 1-3 :15, :20, :30
150 swim / 150 pull :20
200 easy :30
150 swim / 150 drill :20
3 x 200 descend 1-3 :15, :20, :30
150 swim / 150 pull
150 easy :30
3 x 200 descend 1-3 :15, :20, :30
100 easy
3500
Warm
Main
6 x 150 50 swim/drill/swim :20
400 moderate :30
300 pull :20
100 fast :30
300 moderate :30
2 x 100 east/hard :20, :30
Kick Cool Down
200 moderate :20
3 x 100 :15
3 x 100 descend 1-3 :20, :20, :30
100 moderate :15
4 x 100 descend 1-4 super easy to very hard :20