The Kentfield Mile

We train at the University of Kentfield Aquatic Complex. It is a vintage 25 yard pool 4.5 feet deep with the classic 2 inch gutters. The diving well is excellent deep water for vertical kicking. We have a nice weight room and are basically set for daily training. All we need is our imaginations.  We confess that our imaginations are indeed active.

Last night we did our first ever Kentfield Mile set. We cannot even explain how it was conceived. Yet we can report that it was successful beyond our imagination. It had everyone engaged and swimming and kicking fast. And the best part is that the permutations are endless; all this and specificity at work as well.

We believe that to race fast we must train fast. No surprises there. We also believe that kicking fast is critical. We saw in person Simon Burnett’s 1:31 200 free. That image is burned indelibly in our memory.

The set: 66 x 25.

Last night we did this on the 30 second interval. We wore fins on all 66. We swam 4 and kicked 2; 11 rounds total. The swimmers left on a zero (0) and we blew a whistle on the 15 second mark. The goal was to hear the whistle 66 times.

The next time we do the set we will blow the whistle on the 14 second mark. We had a couple of swimmers say they thought 12 or 13 seconds would make the set really hard. We will give them a chance to see if they are correct.

The combinations are endless. We did the same set with Masters this morning. We went on the 40 second interval and didn’t blow the whistle. We didn’t want to wake up the neighbors at 6 AM…though come to think of it, it might actually be a grand marketing scheme.