“This is the set that completely changed my mindset about breaking the American record in the 500y freestyle,” Zane Grothe says. The world championship medalist who specializes in long distance freestyle, broke the 500 yard American record with a time of 4:07.25 at the 2017 USA Short Course National Championships and says the turning point was one single swim workout.
Breaking the 500 yard record is a career highlight for Grothe. “The biggest goal I had was to make an Olympic team and you only get so many opportunities to do that or at least try. I had just missed the team the year before in 2016 and then figured the next goal was to train another four years to make 2020; but, only a year and a half later, I broke an American record. I ended up breaking two records at that meet and it was extremely validating because there are plenty of Olympians we have over the decades that never break a record like that, an American record. To accomplish something even some Olympians don’t get to do, it was validating.” Watch Zane's record breaking perfomance here.
Five weeks before the competition, however, Grothe was still unsure he could even attempt such a feat. With a previous personal best of 4:12.98, breaking Clark Smith’s standing record of 4:08.42 seemed like a mammoth task. But after one specific swim workout he saw possibility: “It was the perfect set and I did really well on it. All it took was that one set and that one performance and I was convinced. I said: I need to seriously start thinking about the 500 and breaking that record. It was only about 5 weeks before the meet and that’s all it took.”
The main set that changed everything is a beast: 20 repeats of 150 yards. “Twenty is a lot!” Grothe says with a laugh. Designed to work on race paces, the challenging 3000 yard main setwill push any distance swimmer. “When it comes to the 500 and you’re doing pacing, if you can hit the 500 pace for the 150 then it gives you a lot of confidence that you can hold it through the race. It’s already hard enough to hit 500 pace for a 100 but the further you can go and hold that pace, the more you should be convinced you can get it done for a whole 500,” he explains.
When it comes to executing the workout, Grothe, who characteristically styles his hair in a mohawk for competition, recommends building and descending through the set. “Build on each 150. You want your back half to be as fast or faster than the front half. I usually think about each 50, going a little bit harder. If you’re new at it, and even at the advanced level, try to descend a little bit as you go. You want the descend to be small. If you can drop a second or two over the course of 5 or 10 repetitions, that would be great. What you don’t want to do it drop 5 or more seconds, then you started too easy.”
There is no doubt the set is challenging but that is exactly why it gave Grothe the confidence to not only attempt the record but break it so convincingly. “If you can work your way into hitting the pace you want to hit, then you are already finding the technique, rhythm, cadence, everything that is going to go with the race.” See a few versions of Zane's set below.
400 swim @ 5:30
4x100 swim @ 1:30
8x50 alternating kick and swim @ :50
4x75 build to threshold @ 1:15
8x25 @ :30 (fast start, fast finish, all easy, all fast)
20x150 @ 2:00 best average
300 warm down, no free, include kick and double arm backstroke
Total: 5000
400 swim
4x100 swim 20sec rest
4x75 build to threshold 20sec rest
8x25 @ :35 (fast start, fast finish, all easy, all fast)
16x150 @ 3:00 best average
300 warm down, no free, include kick and double arm backstroke
Total: 4000
400 swim
4x100 swim 20sec rest
4x50 build to threshold 20sec rest
8x25 @ :35 (fast start, fast finish, all easy, all fast)
8x150 @ 3:15 best average
200 warm down, no free, include kick and double arm backstroke
Total: 2600
200 swim easy
2x100 swim 30sec rest
4x25 @ :45 (fast start, fast finish, all easy, all fast)
4x150 @ 4:00 best average
200 warm down, no free, include kick and double arm backstroke
Total: 1300
Terms:
Best Average: Hold the fastest time/pace possible over the total number of repeats.
Build: Progressively get faster by the end of a repetition.
Descend: Progressively get faster over the set of repetitions.
