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Why You Should Do ‘Boring’ Swim Training Sets
And why they aren’t really boring if you approach them with the right mindset
Almost every week, for about eight years leading up to the pandemic, I did the same training session once per week: 8 rounds of 400m front crawl.
If you’re a sprinter, this may come close to your definition of hell (and it wouldn’t be useful training for you anyway). Even long-distance swimmers will recognise this as a tough set. Most people will agree that it sounds boring. I mean, doing the same thing, eight times, every week, for eight years. Seriously?
Other sets along these lines are things like 16 x 100m FC or 8 x 200m FC. I once swam with a coach who asked us to do 3 x 200m off a challenging turn-around time at least once per week. If you managed it with too much time to spare, or didn’t look puffed enough at the end, he’d cut the interval by 5 seconds and make you do it again.
There are both short-term and long-term reasons why I like these types of sets, enjoy doing them and recommend them to other swimmers.
They are effective
If you race over longer distances, these long repetitive sessions help build the fitness you need plus teach you pace awareness and the ability to finely calibrate your…
