One-Hour Workout: Hour of Power Swim

This week’s workout from Jessica Broderick of Boulder-based Forever Endurance. Broderick is a professional ITU triathlete who is now using her extensive experience to help coach others and shape workouts to simulate race-day situations.

Aerobic endurance work is just as important in the pool as it is out on the road, but for swim work, the best bet is to recruit some training partners to help the repetitive sets fly by.

“The idea with this set is that none of the intervals are incredibly challenging,” Broderick says, “but over time, the set becomes taxing purely because of the duration and the lack of time on the wall.”

“Completing an hour of power builds your aerobic engine, which is important for your overall foundation for the year ahead. Jostling between base pace and slightly faster throughout the hour creates an opportunity for athletes to be more in tune with how to change their speed. I always encourage athletes to think less about ‘going faster’ and more about ‘what can I do to swim faster?’” she says. “For example, one athlete can think about increasing stroke rate, while another can think about rotation and finishing their stroke. These sets are a great opportunity to be engaged in your own process of how to swim well while fatigue is building, a skill that is very important for race day!”

“Feel free to adjust your intervals throughout the season as you get fitter and stronger in the water,” Broderick says. “As long as you bounce back and forth between a pace you can swim all day, and one that requires a bit more effort, you will be reaping all the benefits of the hour of power.”

Warm-Up:
200 easy swim

4 x 100 as 50 drill/50 swim

Main Set:
The following session is working off of a 1:20 base pace/100 yards. Rotate through the session until reaching the one hour mark.

3 x 100 on 1:20

1 x 150 on 2:00

2 x 100 on 1:15

1 x 150 on 2:00

1 x 100 on 1:10

1 x 150 on 2:00

Cool-Down:
200 easy