I mix it up, but my warmup and drills and cooldown are often the same.

I do a 200 warm up swim, and then 4 x [2 x 50 of a drill] where I just pick drills to target what I feel needs help: fist swim, single arm, wide stroke, a heads up drill, kicking on my side, etc. Then I do a 200 pull with paddles.

Then comes the main set. This is often some come of 5 x 100s (either neg spliting the 100s, or decreasing time each repeat) and ladders. Sometimes it is just more drills. Sometimes I do what I think of as building sets: 200, 200, 400 type of thing.

And a 200 cooldown: either just swim, or 50 swim - 25 back - 50 swim - 25 back - 50 swim to stretch out my shoulders.

Now I'm definitely not an experienced swimmer, but this is working for me for now :)

First off let me say that I am by no means an experienced swimmer.

My typical swim workouts include about a 500 warm up. Then I will either do a few drill or just jump into my main set depending on how much time I have and what I feel like doing. My main set is either intervals of some type or just a long swim. Then I typically do about a 250 cool down. I try to get 3-4 workouts in a week.

My swim workouts typically include a run to the pool and a run back home when I am done. I live about 2 miles from the gym and there is a nature path cutting directly between the two. I try to do this 2 times a week.

Pretty much the same for me. Warm up, then lots of drills (wish I was even half as good as Geochuck - then I could really reduce having to drill, but oh well...), then finish up with a steady swim and then cool down. I am also focusing on learning to breath on the opposite side. Currently I only breath comfortably on the left.

I change my workout every week. im working on these two workouts now. freestyle and butterfly are my fav strokes but you can change fly to breast or back in the workouts depending what you like or want to improve on.

Workout 1 (2,300 yards)

200 swim
200 kick
200 pull
4 x 75 fly

200 free
4 x 50 fly
200 free
4 x 50 back
200 free
4 x 50 breast
200 free

Workout 2 (2,000 yards)

200 Free
200 Kick

4 x 200 Free (alt swim and pull)

10 x 50 Fly (alt any stroke)

300 Free

My workouts vary by my current swimming goals. In the summer, more distance work because of triathlons, so my main set might be 3 x 1,000, 6 x 500 descending (getting faster in sets of three) or something like that.

In the winter, I swim with a Master's group, so the workouts tend to vary a lot and include different stuff including drills, sprints, intense sets of varying length. Generally the total is about 4,000 yards.

Our main set at the last workout was a really good one:

12 x 150, broken at the 50. Intervals as follows:

100 @ 1:40, 50@:35
100 @ 1:35, 50 @ :40
100 @ 1:30, 50 @ :45
100 @ 1:25, 50 @ :50
100 @ 1:20, 50 @ :55
100 @ 115, 50 @ 1:00
100 @ 115, 50 @ 1:00
100 @ 1:20, 50 @ :55
100 @ 1:25, 50 @ :50
100 @ 1:30, 50 @ :45
100 @ 1:35, 50 @ :40
100 @ 1:40, 50@:35

You could do this set with the intervals of your choosing. The idea is that you're never swimming the same speed twice. As your 100 times get faster, the 50 times get slower, in 5 second increments. The fastest 100 and fastest 50 should be at the fastest interval you can make. The slower ones will give you more time to rest.

Our coach is just full of fun workouts like this one :eek:

Ha - nice - it might just work.

i just swim ridiculous numbers of laps, once in a bit i do some intervals. i know i could be doing something more constructive but i like just going long in the pool.

Mmmm I have lots of swim workouts in my head.

I always do the same warmup - I like it and it get me into the groove on good body position and rotation. I never use any sort of board, buoy, etc....

200swim
200 drill (50 kick on side, 50 kick 8 kicks per side then rotate, 50 3 strokes then 8 kicks, 50 breathe every stroke every side)
100 swim

Some main sets:
I like 800s. They are a good set to train for Olys.
3-6x800 on 12 min :-)

Sometimes I'll do 500s or 300s instead.

200s seem to go in their own category - its a tough distance for me.

100s and 50s are speedwork. Some days during race season I'll do whole workouts of these, during the rest of the season I'll just tack a few on to the end of a workout or do them between long intervals just for fun.

Today I did:
500 warmup (usual set)
4x{
800 on 12 min
100 fr on 1:40, in at 1:20
100 IM on 1:40, in at 1:25
100fr on 1:40 in at 1:20
}
4x50 on 1:00, in at :35
200 backstroke cool down
100 free cool down
=4500
1 hour 15 min

well today i swam a 4x500m but my work out looked the same.

water, arm, wall, bottom, water arm wall bottom :)

Very good new article on insidetri by MarkyV on swimming -- including info on swim sets leading up to a half IM.