Swim Training Plan: How to Train for Swimming, Week by Week

Swimming a lot is not the same as training. Training means each session has a job, and next week builds on this one. A swim training plan answers four questions: how often you swim, how long each session lasts, what each session is for, and how you move forward week to week. This guide goes through them in order and ends with a sample week.

Start from a goal

A goal tells you what to put in the plan. Keep it concrete and measurable:

• swim 1500 m without stopping
• bring your pace per 100 m down
• get ready for a triathlon or a masters event
• swim three times a week for the next two months

"Get fitter" is a fine reason to swim, but it is hard to plan around. Pick one thing you can check in a few weeks.

How often to swim

Two sessions a week is a realistic start for most adults. Three sessions give you room for different kinds of work: one easy and technical, one at a target pace, one longer. Four or more make sense once three feel comfortable and you recover well between them.

Regularity matters more than the total. Three sessions every week for two months will usually take you further than six sessions one week and none the next. Leave at least one easy day after a hard session.

For general health, WHO advises adults at least 150 minutes a week of moderate activity. Three swims of 50 minutes add up to exactly that.

How long a session should be

If you are starting out, 30 to 45 minutes is plenty, rests at the wall included. If you already swim regularly, 45 to 60 minutes is a common length.

It helps to think in metres and minutes together. The same 2000 m takes one swimmer 35 minutes and another an hour. If your average pace, rests included, is 2:30 per 100 m, then 1600 m takes 40 minutes (16 x 2:30). Plan the distance so it fits the time you actually have.

How a session is built

Almost every good session has the same skeleton. If the notation below is new to you, read how to read a swim workout first.

1. Warm-up. 200 to 600 m easy. Mix strokes, add a few drills and two or three short, slightly faster lengths at the end. The goal is to arrive at the main set ready, not tired.
2. Pre-set. A short block on one technical point: kick with a board, a drill, or pull with a buoy.
3. Main set. The reason the session exists. One clear aim: endurance, pace or speed.
4. Cool-down. 100 to 300 m easy, to bring breathing and heart rate back down.

Three kinds of main set

• Endurance. Longer repeats (200 m, 300 m, 400 m) at a steady pace with short rests. You should be able to hold your technique to the end.
• Pace. Repeats of 100 m or 200 m at a target pace with short rests, for example 10 to 20 seconds. This is hard but controlled work.
• Speed. Short repeats (25 m, 50 m) clearly faster than your usual pace, with long rests so each one stays fast.

In a week of three sessions, give each session a different main set. That way the week covers all three, and no single day carries everything.

How to use pace and CSS

Your pace per 100 m is the time you take to swim 100 metres. It turns "swim a bit faster" into a number you can check.

Critical swim speed, or CSS, is a reference pace worked out from two timed swims, a 400 m and a 200 m. Our article on critical swim speed explains the test, and the CSS calculator does the sums for you.

In general terms:

• Endurance sets sit a few seconds per 100 m slower than your CSS pace.
• Pace sets are swum at about your CSS pace.
• Speed sets are faster than CSS pace, with longer rests.

How many seconds slower or faster depends on the coach and the goal; there is no universal table.

A worked example: your CSS pace is 1:55 per 100 m. A pace set could be 8 x 100 m holding 1:55, with 15 seconds of rest. Written with a send-off, that is 8 x 100 @2:10, because 1:55 of swimming plus 15 seconds of rest is 2:10. If you cannot hold the pace past the third or fourth repeat, start a little slower next time, or retest.

A sample week

Three sessions in a 25 m pool, for someone who already swims 1500 m or more comfortably. The volumes are indicative: adjust them to your level.

Monday: technique and endurance (1800 m)

• 400 easy, mixed strokes
• 8 x 50 (25 drill, 25 freestyle), 15 s rest
• 4 x 200 freestyle at a steady pace, a few seconds per 100 m slower than CSS, 20 s rest
• 200 easy

Wednesday: pace (1600 m)

• 400 easy
• 4 x 50 kick with a board, 20 s rest
• 8 x 100 freestyle at CSS pace, 15 s rest
• 200 easy

Friday: speed and a longer swim (1900 m)

• 400 easy
• 8 x 25 fast, 40 s rest
• 3 x 300 freestyle steady, 30 s rest
• 4 x 50 pull with a buoy, 15 s rest
• 200 easy

If these totals are too much for now, start with the beginner swim workout plan and come back after four weeks.

How to progress week to week

Your body adapts to what you ask of it. To keep improving, the work has to change a little over time. The safe way to do that:

• Change one thing at a time. Add one repeat, or cut the rest by 5 seconds, or swim the same set a little faster. Not all three in the same week.
• Keep the steps small. Going from 6 x 100 to 8 x 100 is a step. Going from 6 x 100 to 12 x 100 is a jump.
• Plan an easier week. Many coaches drop the volume every third or fourth week, so the body can absorb the work.
• Retest. Repeat the CSS test every 4 to 8 weeks or so, under the same conditions, and update your paces.

Here is how one main set could move over four weeks:

1. Week 1: 6 x 100 at CSS pace, 20 s rest
2. Week 2: 8 x 100 at CSS pace, 20 s rest
3. Week 3: 8 x 100 at CSS pace, 15 s rest
4. Week 4 (easier): 5 x 100 at CSS pace, 20 s rest, then retest the following week

Write down every session: the date, the distance, the times of the main set and how it felt. After a month, that log tells you more than any single session.

Signs to ease off

• Your stroke falls apart in the second half of most main sets.
• You still feel tired from the last session when the next one starts.
• Your times get slower for a week or two without a clear reason.
• A shoulder or another joint hurts during or after swimming.

One or two of these means: add rest, cut the volume for a week, then build again. Pain that does not go away is a reason to see a doctor or a physiotherapist. If your times have been flat for weeks, read why lap swimming plateaus.

If you have a health condition

If you have a health condition, an injury, or you are pregnant, talk to your doctor before increasing intensity or volume.

A plan that adapts

SwimSensei builds a plan from your level, the days you train and your pool length (25, 33 or 50 m), and adapts it every week to what you actually swam. See how it works on the swimmers page and ask for early access.