One-Hour Workout: Train For Your Swim Race Distance

Every Tuesday we’ll feature a different coach’s workout you can complete in 60 mins (or less!).

This week’s swim workout comes from swim coach Bryan Mineo, who recently relocated from Dallas to Los Angeles, where he’ll be coaching athletes through Mineo Athletics and is also training to swim the English Channel in August.

Mineo designed this swim workout for Olympic or half-Ironman athletes who want to train specifically for the distance of their race. “Most age group triathletes do a fine job of training specifically for their race when bike and run training,” Mineo says. “However, the same specificity is consistently lacking in their training plans in the water. I see very few athletes swimming longer distance, aerobic sets that parallel the race distance they’re training for.”

Mineo says this workout allows athletes to build on their aerobic base while intermittently pushing threshold pace during a continuous swim. If you’re training for an Ironman, he advises to simply double the main set.

RELATED: Open-Water Swimming Workout Bootcamp

The Workout: Train For Your Swim Race Distance

Warm-up
300 easy
6×50 drills of choice
100 easy, form-focused

Main Set
5×200 (sprint the first and last 50 of each 200, moderate efforts in between), 20 sec rest
1000 (sprint the last 25 of each 100), 30 sec rest if doing two sets)

Cool-down
300 easy

= 3000 total as is, doubling the main set is 4000 total

More one-hour workouts.