Swimming workouts often use words such as easy, moderate, strong, and hard instead of giving an exact speed. These describe how much effort you should be using.
Your pace will be different from another swimmer's. It will also change as your fitness improves.
Effort is how hard the swimming feels. Pace is how fast you are actually swimming.
The two are related, but they are not the same. A pace that feels easy for 25 yards may feel hard if you try to hold it for 500 yards.
For most workouts on this site, matching the intended effort is more important than hitting a specific time.
As a simple guide, you can rate effort from 1–10:
1–2: Very easy
3–4: Easy
5–6: Moderate
7–8: Hard
9: Very hard
10: Maximum effort
You do not need to assign a number to every repeat. The scale is simply a way to understand the difference between effort levels.
Easy swimming should feel relaxed and controlled. Your breathing should stay comfortable, and you should feel as though you could continue for quite a while.
Warm-ups, cool-downs, recovery swimming, and some technique work are usually easy.
Moderate is a steady working effort. You are swimming with purpose, but you are not struggling to maintain the pace.
This is a common effort for endurance work and longer repeats.
Strong means faster than your normal steady pace while remaining controlled. You should be working, but you should not be sprinting.
The goal is usually to hold good speed and technique rather than simply swim as fast as possible.
Hard swimming requires a high level of effort and is difficult to maintain for long. Your breathing will be heavier and your muscles will fatigue more quickly.
Hard does not automatically mean all-out.
Fast means clearly faster than your normal training pace. How fast depends on the length of the repeat and the instructions around it.
A fast 25 may be close to a sprint. A fast 200 still needs enough control to finish the full distance.
Sprint means very high or maximum speed over a short distance.
If a workout calls for a sprint, the intention is different from simply swimming hard. Sprinting is usually reserved for short repeats with enough recovery to swim them well.
Controlled means you are deliberately holding something back. You may be swimming quickly, but your pace, breathing, and technique should remain under control.
A strong but controlled 50 should be fast without becoming an all-out sprint.
The pace you can hold depends on the distance. A hard 25 will usually be much faster than a hard 200. Both can feel hard, but the longer repeat requires a speed you can sustain to the finish.
Think about the entire repeat before you start. The goal is usually to finish the distance at the intended effort, not to swim the first part as fast as possible.
For steady repeats, try to start at a speed you can maintain through the finish.
If you are swimming 4 × 100 at a moderate pace, the first 100 should not be dramatically faster than the fourth. Small differences are normal, but the set should feel reasonably consistent.
If you repeatedly start fast and slow down sharply before the end, your starting pace is probably too fast.
Common signs include:
Your stroke becomes much shorter or less controlled.
You slow dramatically before finishing.
You need much more rest than expected.
The first repeat feels manageable, but the remaining repeats become much harder than intended.
Slow the beginning slightly and see whether you can hold the pace more evenly.
A 50 followed by 10 seconds of rest is different from the same 50 followed by 45 seconds of rest.
Short rest periods make it harder to recover between repeats. Longer rest allows you to swim the next repeat with less accumulated fatigue.
Follow the listed rest when practical. If you need substantially more rest throughout the workout, reduce the speed or adjust the set.
The same workout will not always feel the same.
Sleep, stress, illness, previous exercise, and time away from swimming can all affect how hard a pace feels.
If your normal moderate pace feels hard on a particular day, slow down. The effort level matters more than forcing your usual speed.
One difficult swim is not unusual. Pay more attention when normal workouts feel unusually hard across several sessions.
Faster is not always better.
Easy swimming has a purpose. Moderate swimming has a purpose. Hard and sprint work have their own purposes.
If every repeat becomes a race, you lose those differences and make the workout harder than it was designed to be.
Use the effort described in the workout rather than worrying about another swimmer's speed.
Easy should feel relaxed. Moderate should feel steady. Strong is faster but controlled. Hard is demanding. Sprint is very fast and usually short.
Choose a pace you can hold for the distance you are swimming. If you repeatedly fade before the end, start a little slower.