Courtesy of Sharon van Rouwendaal under French coach Philippe Lucas*.

How does an Olympic 10 km marathon swimming champion train?

Through killer workouts at a killer pace at killer intervals with a killer mindset.

And occasionally a set of 20 x 200m butterfly.

“The first and last 200 in 2:28 and 18 others at 2:32 at 3:00…physically the hardest set I’ve ever done with Philippe Lucas,” described Sharon van Rouwendaal, the 2016 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim gold medalist from the Netherlands.

Follow her on Twitter at @SvRouwendaal and on her website.

* He was selected as FINA’s Open Water Swimming Coach of the Year for 2017.

Copyright © 2008-2017 by World Open Water Swimming Association