I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am a breaststroker. So lately, I have been working on just breaststroke during breaststroke. For this post, I will be explaining one of my favorite sets that I like to do for breaststroke. These pictures are of breaststroke just in case there are some nonswimmers that follow my posts.
So my favorite set would be 20 x 50’s. For you non swimmers, a 50 is two laps in a 25 yard pool, or one lap in an olympic length pool. Most of you are probably swimming in a 25 yard pool, so a 50 would be two laps for you, and that means you do two laps twenty times. This set is more of a pace set to build your endurance while getting ample rest, so I like to set the time interval on one minute, which means that you have one minute to do two laps.
Now in this set, I break up the 50’s in two five groups of four. the first 50 in the group of four is easy, or recovery. You should take it nice and slow, take a little break, and try to relax your muscles a little bit. However, you should still be giving maybe 70% of your effort. the second 50, you do one lap of easy with 70% of effort again, but on the way back, you should be sprinting, giving 95-100% of your effort. The third 50 is the exact opposite of the second 50; you do the first lap as fast as you can, giving 95-100% effort while you take the second lap easy, giving 70% of your effort again. The fourth 50 is going to be the hardest 50 because both down and back should be fast, meaning for two laps, you give 95-100% of your effort.
Now I like this set because there is a discrete 50 fast. when you write it out in simple terms, it goes like this: easy easy/easy fast/fast easy/fast fast. The slashes represent the end of two laps, but when you ignore the slashes, there is a broken 50 that many do not recognize. Broken 50’s are great for your endurance as well, but I’ll explain that another time. This set is not very difficult, but I love it because of the discrete 50 in the middle and because of the easy intervals. If done correctly, this set should help improve your stamina for whatever stroke you are doing.
With that being said, I am a breaststroker and I like to do this set as breaststroke, but because the interval is easy enough, you can essentially replace it with any stroke you want, freestyle, backstroke, or butterfly.
I hope you like this set and will consider this set the next time you are in the pool trying to work up your stamina in any stroke really.
Getting Back in the Pool 
