Improve Your 100 Freestyle with this Epic Race Pace Set

Combine a deadly warm-up with race pace work with this workout designed to help you crush your 100m freestyle.

Ready to throw down on a set that is designed with enough rest to help you maintain and improve your freestyle stroke?

Heck ya, you are.

This workout was written up by Sean Baker, the head coach of the Oakville Aquatic Club. OAK is one of the top programs in Canada, having sent multiple swimmers to the Olympic Games over the past decade, and are fresh off another overall points win at Canadian Nationals.

This workout is designed to help you build an inventory of meters swum as close as possible to your 100m freestyle race pace. Beyond the meat-and-potatoes work, the practice comes with a killer swim warm-up that I really wanted to share with you guys.

The warm-up is one of the most overlooked parts of our swim practices—we use crappy technique, don’t do it properly, and don’t use enough of the right kind of intensity to prep ourselves for faster swimming later in the workout.

This workout’s warm-up, totalling 2,100m, is designed to prime your nervous system, warm up your respiratory system, and prepare you physically to crush the main set.

Here’s the workout, which totals 4,600m.

WARM-UP

500 swim mixer

400 Kick with a board; every 4th 25 Fast

300 Pull Lung buster (breathing 3, 5, 7 strokes by 100.)

200 choice drill

6×50 free swim @1:00 Odds: 15m BLAST, 25m cruise, Evens: 35m cruise, 15m BLAST

100 loose

6×50 Free swim @1:10 as — 3-Hold stroke count, 2-Hold stroke count and drop time, 1-Fast with +1 stroke count

MAIN SET

For the fast 50s, the goal is hitting the second 50m of your 100m freestyle.

40×50 Free swim as…

• 16@1:00 every 4th Fast
• 12@1:15 every 3rd Fast
• 8@1:30 every 2nd Fast
• 4@2:00 every one Fast

WARM-DOWN

10×50 backstroke swim recovery @1

More Stuff Like This:

36 Ultimate Workouts for Competitive Swimmers. Here are 36 swimming workouts for sprinters, distance swimmers, butterfliers, IM’ers, and everyone in between courtesy of some of the top programs, swimmers and coaches in the world.

The Pop-and-Lock Set: A Speed Endurance Set for Sprinters. One of my favorite all time sets, and can be adapted to your own goals in the pool. Best for developing speed endurance and blinding speed.