Red Mist Swimming

Here we are at the start of a brand new shiny week.

It was a swim session for me to start off this new week. After not getting to the pool last Monday afternoon due to a severe case of 'just plain knackered' I thought I would head down there this morning and get it done.

Funnily enough once I was at the pool I was feeling something similar to last week, fairly fatigued going in. My intention for the session was to do a classic Swim Smooth training session known as Red Mist. Swim Smooth now has a whole series of 'Red Mist' sessions, but this is the one that started them all. Think of it as a solid foundation stone on which a lot of other work can be built. Heading into the session already tired was not going to make it easy.

The Classic Red Mist session is remarkably simple.

10 x 400m.

That's it. No warm up, no build. Just get in and swim 10 x 400m. The trick is that the 400s are done at increasing pace based around your CSS (Critical Swim Speed). The breakdown is like this:

4 x 400m at CSS + 6 seconds
3 x 400m at CSS + 5 seconds
2 x 400m at CSS + 4 seconds
1 x 400m at CSS + 3 seconds.

CSS is the theoretical pace per 100m that you would hold for 1500m if you were fresh. It is a building block of the Swim Smooth system, allowing you to personal a session to your specific pacing. Another way to think of CSS is your threshold pace. It isn't flat out, but it is the pace you would aim for if you were swimming for any kind of duration. As you can imagine, at the end of a 400m set, CSS + 3 seconds is starting to feel a bit painful.

The real trick to the Red Mist session is pacing. When you set out the first 4 x 400m feels remarkably easy. However, if you ignore the pace and go out too quickly you will definitely pay the price. Even if you pace them correctly the intervals start to pinch around number 7 and definitely by number 8. I have failed this session at number 8 before due to bad pacing. Speed that felt easy at the beginning, feels harder in the middle and unsustainable by number 8.

Since pacing is so critical to this session, and because I was already a bit fatigued, I started out this session very tentatively. The arms were feeling heavy and so by number six I was wondering if I would push though. Part of me felt that 7 x 400 was still a pretty good session, throw in some technique work and I would call it a day. However, the interesting thing about this session, which I have found before, is that if you pace it correctly you often find a surprising extra gear there when you need it in those last two sets. That was certainly the case this morning. Obviously the intensity had to go up, but with it came the increase in pace I needed to hold the required times. In fact by the last 400 I was feeling pretty good. It was painful but sustainable, which is what this session is aiming for.

Pretty happy to have go through it actually. Last year I felt that my swim training was missing something and I think that something was a good solid solo session, away from the squad, pushing my own water at my own pace. That is the aim of this session. Squad training is good, and for me it is a necessary mental break, but there is nothing like good old fashion swimming alone to help push improvement.

Paul Newsome has said previously that during his best periods of training he does the Red Mist session every week, by himself. He chooses it because it is so simple, yet so effective. There is no way to fake of bluff a 10 x 400m session. You do it well, or you don't do it. I am not sure whether I am up for including the session in my program every week, but it will definitely be showing up a few more times in my quest for quicker swimming.