Make Your Memorial Day

Workout guru and chief set designer Ken DeMont came up with an interesting and challenging set the other day. He is a master at presenting things that seem rather simple dare we say almost benign. Then presto! You realize you've been "had". It goes like this.

4 Rounds...you can figure out your intervals that work for you. The ones listed here are for our senior training group in their first regular workout after two to four weeks of taper. After rounds one & three do 2x100 pull/1:40 doing some sort of drill work; after rounds two and four do 2x100 kick/1:40

1x150/2:30 each 50 gets faster
1x75/1:30 each 25 gets faster
1x50/.50 at 80%
1x25/.40 fast no breath fly or free
1x50/.50 at 80%
1x25/.40 fast fly or free no breath
1x50/.50 at 80%
easy 25 back to starting end then go into the 2x100 as noted above

Round two is exactly the same except the 50's are at 85%; round 3 the 50's = 90%;
Round 4 the 50's = 95%

So the sets = 1900 plus the 800 yards of pull and kick give you a total of 2700 for the set plus your warm up and cool down.

We altered this for a masters workout as follows. Again we had 4 rounds with the 100's pulling and kicking after each round.

1x100 negative split
1x75 each lap faster
1x50 at 80%
1x25 fast
The only difference in the rounds 2-4 were the 50's went up to 85, 90, 95%

This series = 1000 + 800 of kicking and pulling or 1800 plus your warm up and cool down.

It is fun to see how the swims unfold. Typically everyone starts out with a variety of reactions and then - Bingo! - you are in the set rolling along working with your lane mates and next thing you know, your heart is pounding, you are reaching for your water bottle...and life is oh so sweet!