The 60-second rule

I used to treat the log like a second training session. Every 50 of warm-up, a paragraph about the lane next door. That lasted nine days. Then I wrote nothing for a month and “caught up from memory.” I invented a better week than the one I swam.

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is blunt: swimmers who drown the page in detail quit, and the detail drowns the few things that matter — effort out of ten, what you held on the quality, one thing to try next time. A transcript of the whiteboard is a photocopy.

Sixty seconds is a constraint. If it does not fit in the changing room, it will not fit in February.

3
Lines: main set, how it felt, one cue — the whole entry
60s
Long enough to be honest, short enough you will still do it wet
1
Cue for next time. Two cues is a programme rewrite; leave that to the coach

The three lines that matter

Swimming World’s journaling guide starts where every useful notebook starts: what was the set? Then how did you feel? Then what will you try when it comes around again. I stole that shape and made it smaller.

Line 1 — the main set. Repeats, distance, stroke, send-off, and what you held. “10×100 free @ 1:30, 1:16–1:18, last three 1:20.” That is a session. “Did 5k” is a weather report. If you only remember the last repeats, write those — they are the honest ones.

Line 2 — how it felt. One sentence, maybe a number out of ten. Heavy legs, catch grand, 7/10. Tight shoulders after yesterday’s bands. Not a diary of the argument in the car. Match the feel to the set. “Tired” after sitting out the quality is not the same tired as holding threshold.

Line 3 — one cue. The thing you will actually try on Thursday. Do not breathe into the flags. Six fly kicks off the wall. Look at the tiles on kick. If it was a recovery night and the point was to keep it easy, write “no cue — that was the point.” A blank third line on a hard night is the bit you will regret.

A full 60-second entry

Tue 12 Aug · evening · 25m

Main set: 10×100 free @ 1:30. Held 1:16–1:18, then 1:20 on 8–10. Made every send-off.

Feel: 7/10. Catch grand; legs went on 7.

Cue: Last 15m of each 100, do not breathe into the flags.

That is the whole job. I built Finzy for those three lines — main set, how it felt, one cue — so the log lives on the phone already in your bag, not in a notebook that stayed in the wet kit. It will not analyse the session for you. It will still be there in March.

What to skip

Skipping is the skill. SwimSwam’s log advice is to write how you did, not a novel of the practice, and to do it immediately. The rest of the board is noise unless something unusual happened — you sat out fly kick, you were pulled for a time trial, the set changed mid-rep.

Don't do this

Do not reconstruct every warm-up 50, stroke rate on every repeat, or a food diary for a Tuesday that was just a Tuesday. Do not back-fill Friday from memory on Sunday. You will write the week you meant to swim.

Skip the comparison to lane 4 as the whole note. Skip the mood essay. Skip copying the coach’s full programme “for later” — you will not read it, and they already have it. A one-line metre total for warm-up and swim-down is enough. If you wear a watch, steal the distance and still write the three lines. Metres without the main set makes two different weeks look identical.

If you are chasing a time, the log is not the place to rewrite the season. Put the goal where it belongs — see goal setting for swimmers — and keep tonight’s entry to the set you actually did.

Useful vs useless: a worked table

Same Irish club nights. Same swimmer. The left column is what I used to write. The right column is sixty seconds. Names and times are examples, not a squad average.

Session Useless line 60-second log
Threshold Hard session, felt tired 10×100 free @ 1:30. Held 1:16–1:18, last three 1:20. Heavy legs. Cue: last 15m, don’t breathe into the flags.
Kick Did kick. Legs dead 8×50 kick @ 1:10, board. Held 48–50. Hips dropped on 6–8. Cue: tighter kick, look at the tiles.
IM IM was messy 6×100 IM @ 1:50. Free/back grand; breast ~2s slow; fly first 25 rushed. Cue: fly, 6 kicks off the wall.
Aerobic Easy 5k ~4,800m. Main: 8×200 @ 3:10 held 2:48–2:50. Kept it easy as asked. Cue: none — that was the point.
Sat out quality Grand training Showed up. Sat out 8×50s after warm-up (shoulder). Easy 1,200 after. Cue: tell coach before the set, not during.

The useless column is not lying. It is just not a record. In March, “IM was messy” will not tell you whether breast or fly leaked. The 60-second column will.

The test

Read the line in three weeks. If you cannot tell which set it was, or whether you made the send-off, it was a useless line. Rewrite it as main set, feel, cue — then stop.

Irish club sets: same template, different board

A typical week in a 25m leisure centre is not mysterious. Tuesday threshold, Wednesday kick, Thursday IM, Saturday if there is no gala. You do not need a new format for each. Same three lines, right numbers.

Main set / threshold. This is the one coaches will ask about. Write the send-off and the split between first repeats and last. “Held 1:16 then died” is a conversation. “It was hard” is not. If the set was 5×200, write the 200s, not the paddles before it.

Kick. Board or vertical. The useful bit is whether the hips stayed up and whether you made the interval when the legs went. A 5:45am kick set you finished is different from one you remember finishing. Write the send-off. Write where it got sloppy.

IM. Do not write “IM.” Write which stroke leaked. Breast two seconds slow every 100 is a pattern. Fly rushed off the wall is a cue. “Messy” will not change Thursday.

Aerobic / recovery. The trap is racing an easy night so the log looks impressive. Write that you kept it easy — or that you did not. That mush shows up later as a stuck clock, not a talent problem.

Do this on doubles

Log both sessions, even if the morning is three lines. “AM: 8×50 kick @ 1:10, hips gone on 7–8. PM: threshold as above.” Two short entries beat one merged “trained twice” that you cannot unpack.

What coaches actually look at

They already wrote the whiteboard. They do not need it back. Poirier-Leroy tells the Ledecky story for a reason: at NCAP, Yuri Suguiyama read her comments, not a photocopy of practice. The comments told him how she was reacting — the part a coach cannot see from a busy eight-lane deck.

In an Irish club, your coach is watching twenty people and a clock. They saw that you made most of the send-offs. They may not remember whether 8–10 were a fight, whether breast leaked, or that you slept five hours. Bring that. Do not bring a manifesto about the programme.

What they scan, if they scan anything:

  • Did you do the set as written, or a quieter version?
  • Where did it fall apart — last repeats, a stroke, off the wall?
  • Does “hard” match the times, or were you living in medium?
  • When the same 10×100 comes back in a fortnight, did the hold change?
  • One cue you are taking into the next quality night.

What they skip: warm-up poetry, the other squad’s set, and any sentence that starts “I think we should.” A log is evidence for a conversation, not a licence to rewrite sets.

When to write it

SwimOutlet’s practical rule still holds: log while it is fresh. For me that was the changing-room bench, phone in a towel, before anyone asked “how was training?” By the car park the times had already rounded themselves kinder.

Pick one hook: after the towel, after the shower, or in the passenger seat before the engine starts. A steamed-up note with three lines beats a beautiful template you open on Sundays. If you want an app that is actually a log rather than a results board, we compared the field in best swimming apps for 2026. Finzy’s job there is the same three lines you would write on paper.

Main set, how it felt, one cue. If it takes longer than drying your hair, you are writing the wrong log.

The 60-second checklist

Use this until the three lines are automatic. Then ignore the list and keep the habit.

  • ✓Write it before you leave the building — changing room or car, not after dinner.
  • ✓Copy the main set: repeats, distance, stroke, send-off.
  • ✓Write what you held, especially the last repeats.
  • ✓One sentence of feel, optionally a number out of ten.
  • ✓One cue for next time — or “none, recovery” if that was the point.
  • ✓Skip warm-up detail unless you sat something out or the set changed.
  • ✓If it was a double, two short entries, not one merged “trained twice.”
  • ✓Do not back-fill from memory. Missed a night? Start at the next session.

Parents: ask “what was the main set?” not “how was training?” If they can answer with a send-off and a hold, the log is happening. By early teens they should type it themselves.

Three lines. Sixty seconds. The swimmers I knew who got quietly better could tell you, without drama, what they held on Tuesday and what they would try on Thursday.

FAQ

No. Warm-up and swim-down can be a one-line total. Write the main set as it was on the board — repeats, distance, send-off — plus what you actually held. That is the session you will want next month.
Write it on deck, still wet, or in the changing room before you talk to anyone. A steamed-up phone note with 1:16–1:18 then last three 1:20 is more honest than a reconstructed 5,200m at home. If you only remember the last repeats, those are the ones worth keeping.
Yes — same three lines, different numbers. Kick: send-off, what you held, where the hips dropped. IM: which stroke leaked. Threshold: first repeats versus last. The template does not change because the whiteboard did.
No. Those lines are true and useless. Swap them for the set, a pace, and one sentence of feel. Tired after 10×100 held 1:16 is a different night from tired after sitting out the quality. Your future self cannot tell them apart from “tired”.
If they want it, yes — as evidence, not a second programme. Coaches already know the whiteboard. They read whether you made the send-off, where it fell apart, and the one cue you are taking into Thursday. Leave the set-writing to them.
Write that it was easy on purpose. Note the main aerobic piece and that you did not race it. “Easy 5k” hides whether you actually kept it easy. A recovery night with no cue is a complete log, not a failed one.