Endurance Session #505

Irene Cats
Dec 31, 2023
2 min read

Happy New Year! I hope you've set yourself some great goals for 2024 (if not, I would highly advise to do this!) and you're motivated and excited to commit to your training. These online Swimfit Sessions are designed to keep your swimming fun and help you reach your goals. This is why we have an endurance, speed and medley session every week and each session is built up with a warm-up, technique drills, a main set and a cool down. Follow these 3 sessions every week and you will notice a fast improvement in your swim times.

As today is your first swim session of the year, I always like to start with a benchmark swim. No stress, this is really to honestly see where you are now, which will help you to set realistic but challenging goals for yourself. The benchmark swim we'll do today is a 15-minute swim. Try to swim as many laps as you possibly can within this time.

Of course, we first go through a warm-up and drills to get you set up and ready for the 15-minute benchmark swim. Take your time with these and really give your body the chance to warm up slowly.

For the benchmark swim, you either want someone on the side of the pool to count your laps, or if this isn't possible, use a watch or a clock to keep track. Try to get your distance as precise as possible and don't round up to a full lap. For example, if you finish in the middle of a 50 meter lap, only count the 25 meters you've actually swum within the 15 minutes.

Write your completed distance down, and set yourself a goal distance you'd like to be able to swim by the end of this year (or in the next 3 or 6 months, if you are training for a specific event). Now calculate your current pace and your goal pace. You will use these times when training.