16 x 50m
8 x 100m
4 x 200m
2 x 400m
1 x 800m (I ended up doing 1000m because I got to 800m and decided to keep going)
16 x 50m (I did 12 because of the earlier 1000m).
The trick was that the prescribed pace for each 800m block got quicker as you went. Ouchy in the end.
The pace for the session was set using a Swim Smooth mechanic called Red Mist pace. Swim Smooth uses two main ways of controlling the pace of a session, CSS pace and Red Mist pace. CSS is your threshold pace. Each of them are controlled using the Finis Tempo Timer in your cap. When a session uses CSS pace then you stick to the pace being given to you by the Tempo Timer. Say your CSS is 1:40/100m and you were doing a set at CSS pace, then the timer might be set to beep every 25 seconds/25m. If you keep with the beep you will be exactly on pace. Typically when you do a session like that your rest at the end of each piece will be controlled by the clock, ie 10 seconds rest or something like that. When I started swimming with the squad we did everything this way.
A couple of years ago though coach Paul came up with something called Red Mist pace. The idea behind it was to give swimmers a bit more flexibility in the session. Feeling good, go quicker, feeling bad, go slower, up to you. It also made the session a bit easier logistically. Basically Red Mist pace accounts for your rest. It is very much like we used to use the clock when I was swimming as a kid. As a kid we might to 50s on 45 seconds. This would mean we would note the position of the clock at the start of the lap, swim to the other end and then start our next lap when the clock reached 45 seconds. If you did the lap in 40 seconds you would get 5 seconds rest. Red Mist pace is very similar except that we use the Tempo Timer instead of the clock, allowing us to get very good levels of control over the rest time etc.
The flexibility given by Red Mist time means that people tend to find the sessions less stressful. Having a tempo timer beeping away at CSS pace can be fairly daunting as it starts to slip away from you. With Red Mist the opposite is usually true. Unless you are really suffering you are nearly always ahead of the timer with Red Mist (you have to be if you want any rest at all). Being ahead of the prescribed pace is quite a good motivator and can help you keep positive during a session.
I must admit, writing that all down it sounds quite fiddly, but in reality it works quite well and is a very effective tool for controlling pace.
Anyway, the session last night was done on Red Mist pace. The first 50s started out at Red Mist + 8. This means that if you are swimming at CSS (threshold pace) you getting a very generous 8 seconds rest per 50. The pace dropped by a second each 800m block. So the 100s were done on RM + 7 (14 seconds rest per 100m), the 200s done on RM + 6 (24 seconds rest per 200m) etc. As you can see the rest was actually quite generous for most of it. After the 800m (done at RM + 4) you should have been getting 64 seconds rest if you were swimming at threshold pace (I wasn't).
The real trick to the session came though with that final set of 50s. By that stage you were down to RM + 3 pace. This means that if you were swimming at threshold pace you should have been getting 3 seconds rest per 50. That is if you can get yourself back up to threshold pace after 4000m of swimming. Trying to turn around and find some speed after being fatigued and after being in 800m mode is really tough. I certainly struggled. In fact I think I have struggled every time I have done a session like this.
As tough as it was I did really enjoy the session though. As I said yesterday, I think the variety of the session is what kept me interested. Each block was only 800m long, which is just short enough that you can see the end from the beginning. You can be on your third 100 and be thinking, 'only 5 to go'. That seems to make the session just that little bit easier to work through.
The session went really well too. After having a bit of a struggle on Monday's swim, and after feeling so unmotivated during the day yesterday, I wasn't really expecting much from last night's session. But I found I was felt really good for nearly the entire set. It was much more like swimming was last week, rather than a repeat of Monday, which was very welcome.
Hopefully the good swimming continues tomorrow morning.
Beyond the swim session, the other really exciting going on in our household today is my daughter's birthday. To say she was excited this morning would be an understatement. In fact in her excitement she was briefly awake at 3:00am because she thought it was morning (which I guess technically it was). Thankfully she went back to sleep. This morning there was the normal excited present opening and I think tonight there will be some excited present playing. Excitement all around really. Should be a fun evening.
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