Mike Alexandrov’s Favorite Breaststroke Set
Energy systems training for swimmers can be a lot of fun and it is addicting. Many American swimmers have lost their childlike joy over training in the past decade or so. So, hopefully, this sample Olympic breaststroke set will bring back some of your “inner kid.” It is from 2005; but Olympic training doesn’t really change all that much. As you read it, pretend you are Michael Phelps. His favorite set is about 4,400 yards.
Each 100 is a race. He is a 9.0 swimmer.
0 100s.
This is a demanding set, but it is also fun. Your 400 pace times will be:
{1}. 0 = 3:07
{2}. 8 = 3:16
{3}. 6 = 3:25
{4}. 4 = 3:33
{5}. 2 = 3:42
{6}. 0 = 3:51
THANKS
TO HIS EXCEPTIONAL BREASTSTROKE, MIKE ALEXANDROV IS ONE OF THE 100 FASTEST MEN EVER IN THE 100-METER BREASTSTROKE.
Why does he swim so fast? One of the reasons, he says, is that he did things differently. He didn’t just jump in the pool and do whatever he could for the first fifteen yards. He practiced technique.
He started slowly and had a purpose, which, in his case, was to learn how to move fast underwater. You’d be hard pressed to find this tidbit of wisdom in a book. But in Alexandrov’s case, he learned to swim fast by reading a speedbook: Peter Andrew’s Secrets of the Fastest Swimmers.
There were other differences, of course. He wasn’t just a top performer, he was an obsessive one. When he first made the Olympic team, Alexandrov did a lot of research and turned up the unexpected. “Some Olympians work out three hours a day, but they’re not all that fast. Why?”
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