“If you swim at the same pace every day,” Ms. Lepinski said, “you won’t get as much benefit.” For one thing, she added, interval training is more fun. “And two, just challenge your heart a little better.”
Mr. Ksebati and Ms. Lepinski said a good workout for beginners or intermediates is 1,000 to 1,500 yards, or 20 to 30 laps, which should take about half an hour. Start with a short warm-up, perhaps a 4×50 at an easy pace, to get your heart rate up. You can mix different strokes, doing breaststroke or backstroke instead of freestyle for a bit of variety. Then do a 4×25 using a plank to activate your legs.
Then comes the main set, or most of your training. If you’re working on speed, do 8×50 (eight laps with a rest after each lap) at a fast pace. If you want to increase endurance, try a moderate-paced stair climber, ascending then descending the length of your intervals: 1×50, 1×100, 1×200, 1×100, 1×50.
Finally comes the return to calm, another 4×50 swimming at a relaxed pace. You can take a longer break (a minute or two) between your warm-up, main set, and cool-down.
It’s a bit confusing at first, but once you learn the lingo, you can follow just about any swim workout. Want even more structure or a goal to work toward? Apps like MySwimPro provide personalized training plans, or you can find your US Masters Swimming equipment. (In the swimming world, “masters” just means adult.)
Above all, enjoy the process. For many swimmers, the water is not just a place to exercise, it’s also a sanctuary. “It’s hard to be thinking about the stress of the world when you’re thinking, ‘When’s my next breath? Where is the end of the pool? What set am I on?’” Lepinski said. “When we dive under water, the world disappears.”
