Today we dig deep into the swim workout archives, in search of those sets that you will just never forget. You hate them with a passion, but like all swimmers you have a sickness. You keep coming back for more and more painful torture because deep down, you really just love it.
Here’s Tony Tenhaagen's account of one of our favorite archive sets…To improve as a swimmer, it is important for your season to build towards a four to eight week period where you maximize your training. The hardest practices of the year should fall in this period before you reduce your yardage and focus on speed work heading into your championship meets. Within this four to eight week period of max training, however, there should be a few key practices which stand out as the most challenging days of the year. It is these practices that you will remember as you are standing on the blocks at your championship meet. They will give you the confidence you need to go out faster than you ever have before, and to dig deeper than you ever have before as you head down the home stretch. Both Adam and I grew up swimming for the Seacoast Swimming Association in Dover, NH. We had a strong team, and an excellent coach who really knew how to create memorably challenging practices. He repeated one practice in particular every summer season, and for many of us, it was always the hardest day of the year.
The set was a monster because of the strain it placed on you both mentally and physically. Essentially, after a regular warm-up period, we would all be called out of the 50 meter outdoor pool and instructed to stand behind the blocks paired off against swimmers of a similar ability level. Our coach would then have us race a certain distance of a certain stroke. After everyone finished, we would climb out the pool again. We weren’t allowed to loosen after the race; the goal was to allow the lactic acid to build up between each swim. Our coach would then choose another random distance and stroke, and off we would go again. At no point in the set did we know what distance or stroke we would be racing next. And at no point in the set did we know when it would end. Sometimes the set lasted 30 minutes. Sometimes it lasted an hour and a half. All we knew was that we were going to be in a lot of pain for a long time.
One year, in the middle of the set, a teammate cried out, “This is torture with no apparent end!” Our coach laughed. The rest of us silently nodded our heads in agreement. Every time we did the set from then on, our coach would ask us as we walked on to the pool deck to start the practice, “are you ready for torture with no apparent end”? No one looks forward to torture with no apparent end. But for those of us that attacked each race in the set as if it was the last one of the day, we grew stronger – both mentally and physically – by the time it was done. And we relied on that training background to take us to the next level at the end of each season. Try to devise a few of your own monster sets following the practice writing guidelines @ Virtual Swim Coach. Get after the sets with everything you have, and then rely on that work when it comes time to race at your championship meet.