Great Britain’s Jessica Learmonth is one of the top ITU swimmers in the world. She’s always in the front pack, and often emerges first out of the water, including at the World Triathlon Series Grand Final in Cozumel last fall. She recently landed on her first career ITU World Cup podium in Cape Town last month.
We reached out to Jess to hear about some of her favorite swim sets. She is a former national level swimmer, covering 60,000+ meters per week. Now, turning her focus to triathlon, she only spends around five hours a week in the water. Maximizing her time in the water has become the huge difference in her training.
Jess exits first out of the water in the Helix wetsuit at last year's WTS Leeds Triathlon
Long course set #1
5 x 100 free swim strong
100 kick with board
100 kick fly on back (no board)
4 x 100 free swim strong
100 kick with board
100 kick fly on back (no board)
4 x 50 free swim fast
100 kick with board
100 kick fly on back (no board)
I enjoy doing sessions off short turn around, on the 100s I’m only getting 5-10 secs rest, I love love love this type of session.
Short course meters set
16×25 – MAX
- 4 on 2:00
- 4 on 1:30
- 4 on 1:00
- 4 on :30
This is a nice easy sprint session for when you’re quite tired but want to get a bit of quality in. Once you do the last 4 off 30 seconds rest it seems like no rest at all, even though its loads for a 25meter sprint!
Long course set #2
- 4 x 50 off 45 secs 70-80%
- 4 x 50 off 60 secs 80-90%
- 4 x 50 off 75 secs 80-95%
50 drill recovery
- 3 x 100 off 1.30 70-80%
- 3 x 100 off 1.45 80-90%
- 3 x 100 off 2.00 80-95%
200 drill recovery
6 x 50 fast kick 25 / sprint swim 25
12 x 50 MAX long recovery
I do these types of sessions most weeks during the race season. I enjoy it as its quite short and sharp. I also like the hard kick straight into max sprints, the first sprint is pretty horrendous!
Learn more about Jess at jesslearmonth.com
Photos by Dave Tyrell
