This is one of my favourite speed sets! :) Of course, we start the session with an easy warm-up, making sure our muscles are warm and ready for what's about to hit us.
We then go into a little pre-set which starts with kicking, 30 seconds easy, 10 seconds fast and we go through this 8, 6 or 4 times. After you've done this, just make your way back to the wall and change your kickboard for a pull buoy. For the Pull and the Freestyle, we do 30 strokes easy and 10 strokes fast for the same number of reps as the kick version. Going from easy to fast is a great way to warm up those explosive muscles you need for a good sprint.
The main set is the same for everyone, except for the number of times we go through it. There is 4 x 50 Freestyle, the first 50 we only do 10 strokes fast and the rest of the 50 is easy, the second 50 we do 20 strokes fast, the third we do 30 fast strokes and the last 50 we do 40 fast strokes and finish easy. Keep pushing for a strong sprint pace for each 50, even though the number of fast strokes grows. After these 4 50's, we swim a bit of easy Freestyle to recover so we can do the whole set again.
Feel free to mix up the strokes for the fast part of the 50's to keep things fun and challenging. If you decide to do Breaststroke or Butterfly just half the number of fast strokes (as you swim with both arms at the same time) and the easy part of the 50 can still be done in Freestyle.
