Training Plan 100 Sprint

This phase may not take you so long, but please take the time to gather these important observations and measurements so that you are in position to make wise decisions about your practices in the following phases.

First, you will need to identify the main technical points of your stroke that need correction or strengthening so that you ‘plug the power leaks’ in your movement patterns, preventing a waste of your power, and protecting your joints from injury as you increase the loading.

Next, you will test your current sprinting ability, so you have some baseline measurements to work with.

Then, in discussion with your coach, you can estimate a suitable new 100 sprint personal record (PR) goal to work towards in this first time through the training plan. This will include setting appropriate ranges for SPL and Tempo that you will use.

And lastly, you will need to decide upon a pattern for each cycle – 7-day or 9-day, which allows you frequent repetitions of the work to get the adaptive results and enough rest to avoid cumulative fatigue.

In order to get the training response intended by this kind of sprint training you must practice frequently enough. And you must get enough rest as well. The best training progress will be found with a balance between these two: quality work and quality rest.

We can recommend two practice cycles. These should be modified to suit your individual circumstances, but notice the spacing and frequency of the practices and rest. You need several consecutive practices – 3 in a cycle – where you can stimulate the performance system in the same way. Too much time away between will reduce the effect. Bunching up work days with too little rest will also reduce the positive effect. So, go ahead and rearrange the practices but provide frequency and rest in well-spaced amounts.

You may switch between the two – perhaps the 9-day cycle will be more suitable to your work during the Conditioning Phase when you have different kinds of practices to fit into each cycle, and the 7-day cycle will be more suitable when you have just two kinds of practice.

The ‘intensive’ sessions refer to those where you are doing the actual sprint assignments up to some failure point, really taxing your muscles and neural system. The ‘moderate’ sessions refer to those where you would not do as much sprinting, but be focused more on tuning up certain aspects of the stroke and doing some sprinting to test those adjustments. You may still do well to stimulate those systems a bit with some sprint work, like little test runs, but you do not want to deplete those systems during that moderate session, because the next day you’ll be going hard again.

7-Day Cycle

A 7-day cycle will provide about 4 cycles per month, and allow for a few extra days of rest and make-up sessions when your schedule is disrupted.

Here is a suggested 7-day schedule:

• Day 1 – recovery practice
• Day 2 – intense practice
• Day 3 – rest day (light conditioning is possible)
• Day 4 – intense practice
• Day 5 – moderate practice
• Day 6 – intense practice
• Day 7 – rest day (light conditioning is possible)

9-Day Cycle

A 9-day cycle will provide about 3 cycles per month, and allow for a few extra days of rest and make-up sessions when your schedule is disrupted.

Here is a suggested 9-day schedule:

• Day 1 – recovery practice
• Day 2 – intense practice
• Day 3 – rest day (light conditioning is possible)
• Day 4 – moderate practice
• Day 5 – intense practice
• Day 6 – rest day (light conditioning is possible)
• Day 7 – intense practice
• Day 8 – rest day
• Day 9 – test swim day

This training course has a very narrow, specialized focus: developing your 100 sprint capabilities. The sets assigned will be intended only for this purpose.

The practice pattern will not change so much over the course of this training plan. The key feature of these practices are the repetition of exacting tasks, so that very precise measurements of cause-and-effect can be taken from practice to practice, week to week, to see where progress is being made and to clearly expose weaknesses that need to be worked on. 

Typical Practice Plan

• Warm Up – at least 15 minutes
• Supplemental Set (optional)
• Main Set – up to 1200
• Cool Down – at least 10 minutes

The basic practice may fill about an hour.

Warm Up and Cool Down

You need to set your own Warm Up and Cool Down routines.

For Warm Up it is recommended that the first 400 to 600 is spent swimming as gently as possible to give the whole body time to lengthen and align. Then the next 300 to 500 is spent with a mixture of intensity – low-medium-high- including brisk swimming to get the body ready for faster movements.

You may read more in Choosing Warm Up And Cool Down.

Supplemental Sets

You may have time, energy and interest in adding another set to your practice. Some supplemental sets will be recommended during the course. You may want to work on different strokes or do some distance-oriented work to add variety to your practices. That is OK.

When working on pool skills that are necessary for the 100 sprint project, you should do that set before the main set. When working on other strokes or muscles for different purposes you should do that set after the main set in order to reserve your best strength and attention for the main sprint work. This other supplemental work might help with your cool down as well.

After 3 or 4 weeks of regular, intense training you may notice some fatigue setting in – especially if you have other demands on your energy and attention outside of swimming.

You need to also plan in a period of rest, somewhere between 3 to 7 days long, every 4 to 6 weeks.

To learn more you may read Include A Rest Week.

Once you are able to sustain consistent SPL over the training distance it is time to add a tempo constraint and work through the process again.

Sustaining steady pace under the stress of sprinting – restrained at the beginning in order to have enough to keep going strong at the end is critical for achieving reliably better times.

This practice will test will strengthen your neural endurance even further, preparing you for the next phase.

Instructions

Choose SPL N which you were successful with in the Consistent SPL Progression set.

Work at Stage 1 until you can do all repeats successfully, then move on to the next stage.

Your SPL-controlled swim test in the Preparation Phase may give you some idea of what fast threshold tempo (TF) you may use for this practice set. This tempo should be at the edge of what you can use for 200 continuous swim while still maintaining your best precision at your current skill level.

Stage 1

• Up to 40x 25
• Hold constant SPL N
• Use tempo TF

Use as many practices as you need to reach 40 repeats with 3 or less failures.

Stage 2

• Up to 20x 50
• Hold constant SPL N
• Use tempo TF

Use as many practices as you need to reach 20 repeats with 3 or less failures on any length.

Stage 3

• Up to 10x 100
• Hold constant SPL N
• Use tempo TF

Use as many practices as you need to reach 10 repeats with 3 or less failures on any length.

This is your next level of test swims. Your measurements here will give you insight about your current strengths and weaknesses.

You may conduct these test swims about two times per month.

There will be three 100 sprints with a rest interval between them. This will test how well you can recover after a full effort which is also an indicator of your fitness level. A great result is when you can maintain at or near your best for all three 100s. Your fitness level will influence how quickly you progress during the next phase.

Instructions

Warm up for at least 15 minutes before conducting the test swims.

1 round of:

• 100 sprint
• 5 to 8 minutes of active rest
• 100 sprint
• 5 to 8 minutes of active rest
• 100 sprint

Measurements

For each sprint measure:

• Total time
• Time of each split (each length)
• Stroke count (SPL) for each length
• Glide distance (until your first underwater stroke)

In this phase you are identifying the weakest areas of your performance system – in terms of SPL and Tempo and neural endurance – in order to bring your abilities into range for the main work of sprint training.

To succeed in reaching a better sprint PR you need:

• to be able to achieve suitable SPL range for your goal
• to be able to handle a tempo range that is suitable for your goal
• to be able to sustain SPL over the distance that the Phase 3 training sets require
• to be able to hold consistent (beginning) pace over these distances

In other words, your neural fitness and your metabolic + muscular fitness need to be brought into proportion to each other to safely handle the main sprint training.

Stroke length x Tempo + Strength Over Distance = Performance

These assignments will test and strengthen each of these variables, to help you get ready for the main sprint training work in Phase 3. It is possible that you are already capable in one or more of these areas – perhaps all of them. Yet it is more likely that you have a weakness in one or more of them. In this phase, once you test to find out where those are, you will need to plan your practices so that emphasis is placed on improving those weaknesses.

To do this, it could take a one to 3 months, depending on your goal and what weaknesses need strengthening to reach it.

The good news is that just by strengthening these weak areas you will likely experience faster 100 sprints, even before you move on to Phase 3. This is normal Level 2 training. But, we encourage you to not stop here – the real potential of the training plan is experienced in Phase 3. This is what you need to study and practice because it will give you great insights into how performance works and how you can keep improving it.

As part of your conditioning to handle more powerful strokes required in sprinting you may add this supplemental set to your moderate practice days, not on your hardest pace practice days.

Instructions

After your turn you will burst off the wall with just 10 most powerful and precise strokes – your best quality – and then switch into easy swim most (active rest) for the rest of the repeat. These ten strokes will take you about 2/3 of the way down the lane, then just turn off the power and swim gently. This 100% effort should last just 10 seconds. It is important that you do not sprint longer than this, even if you feel eager to try more, so that you do not build up waste in the muscles. This set it meant to stimulate muscle fiber recruitment without stressing the body with waste products and fatigue.

Start with 50 gentle swim, then as you do your turn prime the body to push off the wall at full strength and take those 10 powerful strokes.

In Phase 2

• Swim 6x 200 continuously. On the very first length burst out with 10 of your most 100% powerful strokes and then finish the rest of the 200 with gentle swimming to recovery fully.
• No passive rest between repeats

Work with 6 rounds for three to six practices until you sense your stroke technique is at your best and there is NO instability or sore spots in your shoulders or arms.

In Phase 3

• Swim 6x 150 continuously. On the very first length burst out with 10 of your most 100% powerful strokes and then finish the rest of the 150 with gentle swimming to recover fully.
• Swim 8x 150 with the same instructions.

Work with 6 rounds for three to six practices until you sense your stroke technique is at your best and there is NO instability or sore spots in your shoulders or arms. Then you may move up to 8 rounds.

Once you have your SPL within the chosen range for your sprint PR project you need to test and build its resilience over the whole training distance.

Sustaining SPL under the stress of sprinting is the first key ingredient in building and protecting speed.

This practice will begin to test your concentration endurance as well as strengthen your neural endurance.

Instructions

Choose SPL N according to the requirements of your sprint PR goal.

Work at Stage 1 until you can do all repeats successfully, then move on to the next stage.

Stage 1

• Up to 40x 25
• Hold constant SPL N
• No tempo constraint

Use as many practices as you need to reach 40 repeats with 3 or less failures.

Stage 2

• Up to 20x 50
• Hold constant SPL N
• No tempo constraint

Use as many practices as you need to reach 20 repeats with 3 or less failures on any length.

Stage 3

• Up to 10x 100
• Hold constant SPL N
• No tempo constraint

Use as many practices as you need to reach 10 repeats with 3 or less failures on any length.

In Assignment 2.2 you were just reaching down into a faster tempo range. In this set you will take more time to adapt to progressively faster tempos. This is the more powerful set.

You may use this set repeatedly, over several practices. Each time you reach then fastest tempo at the end of the set and it feels fairly comfortable to hold your best precision you may speed up the starting tempo TS of the next practice. Keep working through the set, increasing starting tempos, until you are working in your target tempo range toward the end of the set.

Instructions

Swim up to 7 rounds of:

• 3x 50 or 4x 50 (choose more if time and fitness permit)
• Passive rest 20 seconds (or less) between repeats and rounds
• Set Tempo Trainer to your fastest comfortable tempo – this is your ‘starting tempo’ (TS)
• Each round increase (speed up) tempo by delta D= -0.04, or D = -0.03, or D= -0.02.

If your starting tempo is slower than 1.20 consider using delta D= -0.04. If your starting tempo is between 0.95 and 1.20 consider using D= -0.03. If your starting tempo is faster than 0.95 consider using D= -0.02. You will soon learn how a bigger D makes for more difficult adaptation at each step, and can choose which increment is best for your situation.

The tempos descend like this:

• R1:  TS
• R2:  TS – 1xD
• R3:  TS – 2xD
• R4:  TS – 3xD
• R5:  TS – 2xD
• R6:  TS – 3xD
• R7:  TS – 4xD

Monitor stroke count but do not constrain it.

Because this set does not require you to constrain your SPL (which would force you into a certain pace) you may lower the effort per stroke (allow the SPL to go up slightly) and focus instead on achieving a smooth rhythm at each new tempo:  “tempo + precision = rhythm”

This is perhaps the most important topic of this whole training plan. You will need to study and apply this concept starting in Assignment 2.5 and use it continually in Phase 3.

Read about how to carefully measure and evaluate failure and progress in Working With Neural Failure.

This is the phase where the main work will happen, and when done well, it should yield consistent improvement from cycle to cycle.

It should be pointed out right away that the there are only two main sets in this phase – you will work through one until you reach a certain measurable point of adaptation, then work through the second one until you reach an adaptation point. Your progress is measurable in each practice. You will conduct a test swim to get a measurement on a full 100 distance, and then you may go back into the same practice cycles again, but with a slightly higher standard for the next time through. You may keep working through this phase a few times until you are satisfied with your PR or until you uncover another obstacle that systematic pool training alone cannot address.

These main practice sets will be repeated over and over again many times. They are not meant to be exciting, they are meant to be effective at producing the adaptive training response in your brain and in your muscles. For this you need a lot of extremely targeted repetition. The interest of practice lies in your sustained attention upon little stroke details and in the measurement of small but significant improvements from practice to practice. You will know exactly what is succeeding or failing at exactly what moment in each set, and you will have decisions to make in how to respond to those.

From your work in Phase 2 or from your latest PR in the test swim (or official race) you should have a PR time goal for 100, and you should have a specific SPL x Tempo combination that feels most appropriate to compose the pace required for that time goal.

Calculating Your 25 Pace

If you are training in a 25 (m or y) pool then divide your 100 time goal by four to get your pace for each 25 length.

For example, if your target pace for 100 is going to be 1 minute 44 seconds, then convert to seconds (60 + 44  = 104) and divide by 4 (104 / 4 = 26). Your target split time for each 25 length is 26 seconds. 

Instructions For The Set

You will swim up to 32 repeats.

• 32x 25 whole stroke
• 15-20 seconds passive rest between each repeat

You will count strokes and note any variations in SPL as fine as +/- 1/2 stroke.

You may use a Tempo Trainer to guide you on maintaining precise tempo. *

You will record the time of each 25 and note when any variations as fine as +/- 1/2 second.**

Aim to get the same time as you target or slightly better on each repeat. Remember that you are training at 100 sprint PR pace, not 25 sprint PR pace.

Notes

On your first time through this set, if you reach 30 repeats without a hard failure then the pace you have chosen is too easy. If you reach a hard failure at less than 12 repeats then the pace you have chosen is too hard. If you reach your first failure at about 16 repeats then this is an indicator that the pace may be an appropriate challenge for you right now.

It is likely that your body will need time to settle into the activity. For the first 6 repeats or so your SPL and times may not be on target. Do not count hard failures in the first 8 repeats – after this point you should be entering into the level of performance you expect. But if you keep hitting hard failure after this point you may need to consider some underlying factors that are affecting your performance this day. 

* You may use a Tempo Trainer and set it to the tempo you have calculated to work with your target SPL that corresponds to the pace you want for each 25. If your push-off and glide are the same each time, your SPL is the same, and you are able to hold the tempo each time, then your pace should be exactly the same on each repeat. The time will change when any of these variables change.

** For example, let’s say you are expecting to hit 26 seconds for each repeat. To measure in 1/2 second gradations, when you look at the digital clock or the seconds hand of the conventional clock, when you see that it just switched from 25 to 26 seconds you may regard this as ’26-‘. If you looked and it was squarely on 26 then this would be ’26’. And if you looked at it was just switching from 26 to 27 then this would be ’26+’.

It is important that you first progress through the challenge of Assignment 3.1 to build up your neural strength at that shorter distance. Once you are able to do about 28 consecutive 25s before a hard failure then you may be ready to increase the challenge by increasing the distance of each repeat.

Most of the instructions for the 25s apply to this set as well.

Calculating Your 50 Pace

If you are training in a 25 (m or y) pool then divide your 100 time goal by two to get your pace for each 50 (2 lengths of the pool or 1 lap).

For example, if your target pace for 100 is going to be 1 minute 44 seconds, then convert to seconds (60 + 44  = 104) and divide by 4 (104 / 4 = 26). Your target split time for each 25 length is 26 seconds.

But now keep in mind that the quality and speed of your turn affect this time. If your turn is slower then you may need to add 1 second to the expected 50 pace. If your turn is fast you may keep your expected 50 pace. You should also work on making faster, more powerful turns and push-offs to gain some easily acquired speed.

Instructions For The Set

You will swim up to 20 repeats.

• 20x 50 whole stroke
• 15-20 seconds passive rest between each repeat

You will count strokes and note any variations in SPL as fine as +/- 1/2 stroke. *

You may use a Tempo Trainer to guide you on maintaining precise tempo.

You will record the time of each 25 and note when any variations as fine as +/- 1/2 second.

Aim to have an even time split on each length. This means you may need to be slightly restrained on the first length in order to have a bit more to give on the second length. This will be critical discipline that will enable you to swim with nearly even splits on length #3 and #4 in the whole 100 sprint. The goal is to delay fatigue and evenly distribute your energy across the 4 lengths of the sprint.

Notes

On your first time through this set, if you reach 20 repeats without a hard failure then the pace you have chosen is too easy. If you reach a hard failure at less than 8 repeats then the pace you have chosen is too hard, or you may need to do more cycles of Assignment 3.1. If you reach your first failure at about 10 repeats then this is an indicator that the pace may be an appropriate challenge for you right now.

It is likely that your body will need time to settle into the activity. For the first 5 repeats or so your SPL and times may not be on target. Do not count hard failures in the first 5 repeats – after this point you should be entering into the level of performance you expect. But if you keep hitting hard failure after this point you may need to consider some underlying factors that are affecting your performance this day.

* Keep in mind that it is normal to use 1 less stroke on the first length than the second length. So, your stroke count will likely show this. After the rest your energy is replenished and the first push-off will be more powerful and the glide a bit further than the second one. However, we encourage you to work on slight restraint in the first length so you can give more on the second length.

This is the same test swims as you did in Phase 2.

You may conduct these test swims after you have completed Assignment 3.2.

There will be three 100 sprints with a rest interval between them. This will test how well you can recover after a full effort which is also an indicator of your fitness level. A great result is when you can maintain at or near your best for all three 100s.

Instructions

Warm up for at least 15 minutes before conducting the test swims.

1 round of:

• 100 sprint
• 5 to 8 minutes of active recovery
• 100 sprint
• 5 to 8 minutes of active recovery
• 100 sprint

Measurements

For each sprint measure:

• Total time
• Time of each split (each length)
• Stroke count (SPL) for each length
• Glide distance (until your first underwater stroke)

Notes

Active recovery is much better at refreshing you than passive rest is. Active recovery is some type of work, swimming or dry-land which keeps your whole body moving, keeps respiration and body fluids circulating and allows your muscles to flush waste. It can be activity that works you up to anaerobic threshold.