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This is the first in my Triathlon “Workout of the Week” series. I thought about having a swim, bike, run etc of the week, but you know what, you’d probably get bored and so would I. So, it’s one per week, perhaps an extra one here or there when I think of something cool!

Today is all about your swim efficiency and is a session that I love to do and hate to do, all wrapped into one. It’s something my coach used to use a lot and we got quite good at it. Essentially, it’s a test, but one which you can perform almost any time in order to work out how well recovered you are in the stage of training you’re in. It also gives you an indication of stuff to work on with your swimming.

Here we go…

7 x 200m Step Test

After a good warmup (and I mean 1000m or so of mixed drills & steady swimming),

Swim 7 x 200m on 6:00* (That’s starting every new set exactly 6 minutes after you started the last one) as…

1. at 60 beats below maximum heart rate (count your heart rate at the end of the 200m for 10s and multiply by 6 - eg. 21 x 6 = 126, which is 64 beats below my estimated 190bpm maximum)
2. at 50 beats below maximum heart rate
3. at 40 beats below maximum heart rate
4. at 30 beats below maximum heart rate
5. at 20 beats below maximum heart rate
6. at 10 beats below maximum heart rate
7. at maximum heart rate

On every set you need to be strict about maintaining your breathing pattern (mine is bilateral - breathe every 3), counting your strokes on every lap, taking an accurate time for each interval and recording all of these, your heart rate and how you felt when swimming after every interval.

After this set, swim a nice long cool down, get out of the pool and stretch off well.

Now have a look at the data you recorded:

• Were you disciplined enough to achieve the heart rate limits, especially early on in the set?
• What happened to your stroke count as you progressed through the set?
• What happened to your times? Were you as fast for each as you expected?
• Did you maintain your breathing pattern properly?
• How did your swimming feel in each?
• Most importantly, from the above, what could you improve on?

Keeping in mind that fast swimming is a blend of superb aerobic fitness, muscular strength endurance, hydrodynamics and efficiency, the answers to the questions above will set you on your path to faster swim splits next season… as long as you apply them!