It’s much “easier” in a club session, in that you’re better prepared for it and it’s a bit more competitive.
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“Upgrades” approved at the Walnuts according to the Newshopper
Know if they mean “shortening the pool to 25m”?
Not heard a lot but the pool is meant to be just tidying up from what I heard
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I’ll dip my toe back into this thread…
Last night we had an interesting set 25m flat out rest for 5s then repeat for 10 mins.
I was swimming consistantly 20-21s lengths, and 5s was just enough time to recover. I realised that the distance I covered in 10 mins was probably a bit further than if I was just swimming 10mins straight with no rest. Can someone tell me what’s going on? Not sure I can swim an IM and rest 5s each 25m
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Not flat out then 
see the #sciencefacts lol
But i often set 16 x 25 RPE 7/10, off 30 in a squad as a build set or just 5sec rest if remote. What is happening is the 5 seconds is just enough reset to enable you to hold form for longer, hence going faster.
Its a really good way to reinforce technique and train the body to go a bit faster but HR doesnt drop so getting same physiological changes as a continuous swim. In fact you wont get HR drift so potentially better for aerobic conditioning
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You are totally correct, I would say 7/10 at the start, 9/10 by the end. I was trying to keep pace constant and as close to 20s as I could
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What i do is call it 20/17 so 20secs holding 17strokes max or in the HP juniors we may do 17/17s (all off 30 usually as its the build set) form/strokes is non negotiable , may make them do kick ins if they dont get 17 strokes 
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Totally get this & think maybe it’s a central governer thing.
If you are anything like me, then when you do 25 x 25 off 25 seconds or something like that, your brain engages “hard mode” 25 times. Whereas when you swim for 10 minutes straight, your brain engages “lets take this a bit steady now mode” for 10 minutes - unless in a race situation or similar.
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Same amount of drafting in both?
I find my push off after a short rest is better than my tumble turn push off.
I feel the same, for swimming and about running.
For a given distance, if your form has significantly degraded over the continuous distance then I think you are better of covering it in intervals.
One of my best 1900m race splits, 34min PB stood for years, was with rolling on my back for a while to clear my goggles…took a few goes.
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Thanks for all he comments, I think I really need to try this regularly.
- I noticed that my form was miles better doing 25s than constant
- The central governing thing is totally right
- I think 5s break is enough to clear lactate
- My turns are awful so push off is way more efficient
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Maybe some people need to read this thread again and my many comments on 25’s
Depends how much you are producing, but 25’s are useful as Z1/2 work also, and if its real sprinting, you need at least 8 minutes of rest to clear lactate and replenish ATP stores.
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It is a bit like USRPT.
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Also you’re not actually swimming 25m more like 23 & the clock is only running for 23m where it’s running for the full 25m on continuous swimming.
My experience is 25m sprints are a bit of a leveller of abilities, never tried as many as 25x25 though.
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yes exactly although USRPT was just “broken swims” with a catchy name made up by some bloke to sell books. This is literally the way swimmers have trained for decades
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They will not be sprints either
for a true 25 sprint you will need minutes of rest or you are changing the physiological adaptation that will be made, notably adding lots of fatigue and not getting any meaningful outcome, its more lactate tolerance in SE terms (useful at some points of the year) . Something like 24 or 32 or even 60+ * 25 off 5 seconds holding Z1/2 will be very useful though all year. hold form and build aerobic conditioning. you will still need to do longer stuff to train the body for those demands but especially this time of year form is key and that short break helps you to hold a better stroke for far longer
I don’t understand that, the pool length and clock time should be identical?
Depends on numbers in the lane but I know some swimmers don’t move to the side and also if there’s a deep end people cling onto the lane rope.
In a recent session we were doing some hard 100s and then went straight into a block of 25s. I found it useful as a controlled swim down.
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Well for me, with my slow, open turns the 25 swim will eliminate the bit between hand touch and push off. Even tumble turns must take some time or olympic swimmers would be finishing their races feet first!
But the biggest difference for me would be breathing. Pretty sure my breathing stokes are slower and catch is less effective. If only doing a 25 I will breath less than on a continuous swim.
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Your approx 2 meters long, feet on the wall start the watch & kick off, 23 meters swam between start & stop.
Not exactly but you know what I mean, it’s not the same as continuous swimming where you probably adding length crossing lanes.
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