Improve energy efficiency, endurance, and swimming speed with these swim workouts for learning proper pacing.
Pacing is a crucial part of swimming well and swimming fast.
While swimmers focus on building blistering speed and steadfast endurance, managing and pacing all that energy is crucial for success in the pool.
Pace sets help you find your most efficient intensity level, where you can swim fast without running (err, swimming) into a wall.
Below are some sets and workouts to help swimmers understand and master pacing in the pool.
We’ll also list some quick tips for how to best manage effort when racing so that you can drop some fast times in the water.
Let’s dive right in.
Set #1: Setting a Target Pace
Let’s start in the shallow end (metaphorically speaking) and start with the absolute basics when it comes to adding this type of swim training.
Set a target time for the set and see how many times you can hit it. (Target: 35s)
3×100 freestyle swim at pace (Target: 1:10)
2×200 freestyle swim at pace (Target: 2:20)
1×300 freestyle swim at pace (Target: 3:30)
With this type of set, the sky is the limit. Distance swimmers can crank out a lot of yardage with this form of workout.
To get more from this set, keep increasing the distance while holding the pace. 400s, 500, 800s, and so on.
Should you fall off, go back down the ladder.
For example, if you make it to the 300 but fall off the pace, repeat the set going “down,” starting with the 200s, then the 100s, and so on.
Try variations of this set over the days, weeks, and months ahead and keep pushing the distances.
How do you determine pace in swimming?
Swimming pace can be calculated by dividing time by distance.
Distance used to dictate pace can vary, but the most common one used is 100m (or yards).
For example:
Swimming 1,500m in 20:00, your 100m pace is 1:20.
Swimming 400m in 4:40, your 100m pace is 1:10.
Paces can be further split up to 25m and 50m.
Swimming 100m in 1:00, your 25m pace is :15.
The pace distance you choose will reflect the distances you swim in the water and your swimming goals.
