Saturday Swim Session: Build 1–3 × 100m

The Build 1–3 × 100m workout develops pace control, speed and the ability to change intensity while maintaining good freestyle technique. Swimmers repeatedly progress from steady to hard to maximum effort before resetting. Choose from three workout options of 1,700m, 2,500m or 3,400m to suit your training volume.

Being able to hold a steady pace is important, but swimmers and triathletes also need the ability to change gears without losing their technique.

This week’s Saturday Swim Session develops that skill with a simple repeating progression over 100m intervals:

Steady → Hard → Maximum Effort → Reset

Rather than swimming every repetition at the same intensity, you progressively increase your pace across each group of three 100s before returning to steady and starting again.

Three Speeds, One Simple Pattern

The main set consists of 12, 18 or 24 × 100m, depending on which workout option you choose.

Each group of three follows the same pattern:

100m Steady – controlled swimming at a sustainable pace.
100m Hard – noticeably increase your speed and effort.
100m Maximum Effort – your fastest technically sound swimming.

Take a 30-second Rest Interval after every 100m.

After the maximum-effort repetition, don't keep pushing. Reset to your steady pace and begin another three-repetition build.

Why Practise Changing Pace?

Open-water swimming and triathlon don't always allow you to settle into one perfectly even pace.

You might need to accelerate around a buoy, respond to another swimmer's surge, bridge across to a group or increase your effort to find better feet.

This workout gives you repeated opportunities to practise those changes while developing your awareness of what different swimming intensities actually feel like.

The challenge becomes greater as fatigue develops. Can you still produce three clearly different speeds towards the end of the workout?

Choose Your Workout

Option A – 1,700m
300m WU; 12 × 100m Build 1–3 (30sec RI); 200m CD.

Option B – 2,500m
500m WU; 18 × 100m Build 1–3 (30sec RI); 200m CD.

Option C – 3,400m
800m WU; 24 × 100m Build 1–3 (30sec RI); 200m CD.

That gives you four, six or eight complete Build 1–3 sequences.

Don't Make Everything Hard

One of the biggest mistakes with this session is swimming the steady 100m too quickly.

If your first repetition is already hard, there's nowhere meaningful to build.

Be disciplined enough to make the steady repetition genuinely steady, then increase your effort on the second 100m before producing your maximum effort on the third.

When you reach those maximum-effort repetitions, swim as fast as possible while continuing to swim with good technique and staying consistent with your pace.

Your goal isn't one spectacularly fast 100m followed by increasingly slower efforts. Aim to maintain the quality of your maximum-effort repetitions throughout the session.

Can You Keep Changing Gears?

The real measure of this workout isn't simply your fastest 100m.

Can you repeatedly progress from steady → hard → maximum effort, bring the intensity back down, and then do it all again?

If you can maintain clear differences between those three intensities while preserving your freestyle technique as fatigue accumulates, you've nailed the purpose of the session.

👉 Read the complete workout and my coaching advice:
Saturday Swim Session: Build 1–3 × 100m