Up-and-Down Pyramid

About 1,300 m, 30 to 40 minutes. The best first structured session for someone used to swimming straight lengths, because the shape is easy to remember without a card. Warm-up: 300 easy, mixing strokes. Main: 50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50 freestyle with 15 to 20 s rest after each. Cool-down: 200 easy. Swim the climb at a comfortable, steady effort and pick up the pace on the way down, so the final 50 is the fastest of the set. Swimming the pyramid twice turns it into a 2,100 m session; adding a 300 at the top makes it 1,600 m.