Getting Your 100 Free Interval Below 1:30

Hey swimmers! This is coach Milo.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from you all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"Getting Your 100 Free Interval Below 1:30"

Summary:

Milo lays out a progressive, heart-rate-based method for dropping your 100 freestyle training interval. Everyone's starting point is different, so first find your baseline and adopt a training system, whether the American system from Ernie Maglischo or the Michigan color system, and learn the heart rates tied to each zone. As an example, doing ten 100s repeating 1:30 should feel fairly comfortable, in roughly a 140 to 160 heart rate for a teen or early-college athlete, with the understanding that older swimmers tend to work at lower max heart rates while young kids can spike up toward 210 to 220. From there, hold the time with twenty seconds rest, then tighten the interval step by step, week after week, pushing it lower as long as you can repeat the baseline time.

Answer:

So the question is how to get your training interval below 1:30 on every 100. Just keep in mind that everybody's starting point is completely different, so find out what your baseline is. If you have any understanding of training methodology, choose an energy organization system. There are many: the American system by Ernie Maglischo, which has endurance and sprint zones, or the Michigan system, or any system that works for you. But knowing the heart rates associated with each training zone is really important, so we need a basic understanding of heart rates. Let's say you're doing ten 100s freestyle and you can repeat 1:30 fairly comfortably. You'd want a heart rate around 140 to 160 if you're a teenager or an early-level college athlete. As you get older, your max heart rate when working hard actually gets a little lower, while young kids can run up to 210 or 220, which would be crazy for an adult. In any case, do ten 100s with about ten to twenty seconds of rest each and see if you can repeat 1:30 every time. If you're going 1:30s, maybe your interval is 1:50. If you can hold 1:30 with twenty seconds of rest, try ten 100s on 1:45 going 1:30. If that's easy, bump the interval down to 1:25 and see if you can repeat it. That's how we do it, week after week, pushing that interval lower and lower. The whole goal is to hold a baseline time repeated over an extended period. How long it takes depends on your starting point, your age, and your aerobic capacity when you begin.