This Speed Session will push you to swim fast for longer and be able to use easy swimming as recovery. This is a skill that can be tricky for newish swimmers.
We start our set with an easy warm up, followed by the sculling drill. This drill, when done right, really helps you to get a good feel and grip on the water. This will help you swim faster in the main set. We also go through a few 50's or 25's where you count your strokes for each distance, and the next one you up your pace and your stroke count. It's important to be able to up your stroke rate when swimming fast, you don't want to be stuck in one single rate for all your paces.
The main set 4, 2 or once through and starts with a 25 Freestyle fast, straight away followed with a 25 easy Freestyle. Use this easy Freestyle to recover as you'll only get 10 seconds rest before going into a 50 Freestyle fast and 50 Freestyle easy. We then go into a 75 fast/75 easy and finish with a 100 fast/100 easy.
When you go from a fast to an easy pace, focus on getting your breathing under control by changing your breathing pattern to whatever is comfortable for you and gets you enough air in. This might be a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio for the first few strokes. When you feel that you've got your breath back, the focus goes to relaxing your stroke to recover your muscles. If you have to you can even swim a bit of Breaststroke or Backstroke, as long as you keep moving.
