Today's workouts are aimed toward technique and learning how to feel more self-aware in the water. If your goal is to start bulking up yardage at the start of the New Year, using this week to hone in on good technique and and self-awareness of what your body feels like using different hand, forearm, torso, and leg positions.
I've included several workouts below to cater folks goals, swimming abilities, and time constraints. If you have questions about a workout, or would like more specific to your needs or abilities, don't hesitate to email hello@swimwildwaters.com. Although this week's workouts aren't written with drills, you're welcome to add some into your warm up, recovery, and cool down.
There are some sets with non-freestyle in some of the workouts. For those of you who know how to do other strokes, but don't like it, I recommend incorporating some IM or non-free, despite your objects. For those of you who only swim front crawl and don't know other strokes, you're approved to switch those sets to 100% freestyle. Varying your strokes, if you're able to, is a great way to add muscle strength to similar or adjacent muscle groups and give your shoulders a break from the freestyle arm motion.
On-Deck Warm Up
Regardless of your abilities, you should always warm up before getting in the pool. A quick full body on-deck warm up I like to do is:
2-3 minutes of shoulders - keep arms at or above shoulders like you're directing a plane to land. Watch this video for a full routine
30 seconds of giant hip circles or full body twists to warm up hips and back
30 calf raises, either raising heels off the ground together, or alternating feet
Deep breaths - in through the mouth, out through the nose
Note: several of these workouts have the term "base" to calculate your interval. You can determine your base interval with a test set (typically: 10 x 100 or 10 x 50 on the fastest interval you can maintain). Most swimmers do this test set monthly to recalibrate and maintain progress. Example: Suzy does a test set of 10 x 100 and is able to make all 10 on the 1:30. She knows she wouldn't have made them on the 1:25, and she would have gotten a lot of rest on the 1:35. For a set where the interval for a 200 is defined as base + :10, her interval is calculated as finding the base interval for a 200 (3:00) and adding 10 seconds, so it would be 3:10. More info and a pace chart available through USMS.Â
Short Workout
WARM UP
300 easy swim, your choice
SET 1
8 x 50 on rest :10
Odds: freestyle or backstroke kicking
Evens: butterfly kicking
SET 2
4 x 100 on rest :05 - this is deceptively tricky! You’re going to go as slow as possible, taking as few strokes as possible, expending as little effort as possible to complete the distance. You’re getting very little rest…. Buuuut you shouldn’t be getting too tired 😛
SET 3
4 x 100 on rest :15 pull with paddles and buoy, descend 1-4
Cool down: 100 easy
Total: 1600
Medium Workout
WARM UP
500 SKIPS (100 swim, 100 kick, 100 IM, 100 pull, 100 swim)
SET 1
4 x 300 on rest :20 as
100 drill (catch up, straight arm pull, 6 kicks/1 pull, your choice on what you feel like you need to focus on)
100 build
100 IM
SET 2
8 x 50 on rest :10
Odds: freestyle or backstroke kicking
Evens: butterfly kicking
SET 3
4 x 100 on rest :05 - this is deceptively tricky! You’re going to go as slow as possible, taking as few strokes as possible, expending as little effort as possible to complete the distance. You’re getting very little rest…. Buuuut you shouldn’t be getting too tired 😛
SET 4
4 x 200 on rest :15 pull with paddles and buoy, descend 1-4
Cool down: 100 easy
Total: 3400
Long-ish Workout
WARM UP
1000 SKIPS (200 swim, 200 kick, 200 IM, 200 pull, 200 swim)
SET 1
6 x 300 on rest :20 as
100 drill (catch up, straight arm pull, 6 kicks/1 pull, your choice on what you feel like you need to focus on)
100 build
100 IM
SET 2
12 x 50 on rest :10
Odds: freestyle or backstroke kicking
Evens: butterfly kicking
SET 3
4 x 100 on rest :05 - this is deceptively tricky! You’re going to go as slow as possible, taking as few strokes as possible, expending as little effort as possible to complete the distance. You’re getting very little rest…. Buuuut you shouldn’t be getting too tired 😛
SET 4
8 x 200 on rest :15 pull with paddles and buoy, descend 1-4, 5-8
100 easy cool down
Total: 5100
Loooong Workout
WARM UP
1000 SKIPS (200 swim, 200 kick, 200 IM, 200 pull, 200 swim)
SET 1 (pre-set)
4 x 100 on rest :05 - this is deceptively tricky! You’re going to go as slow as possible, taking as few strokes as possible, expending as little effort as possible to complete the distance. You’re getting very little rest…. Buuuut you shouldn’t be getting too tired 😛
SET 2
6 x 400 on rest :15 as
100 drill (catch up, straight arm pull, 6 kicks/1 pull, your choice on what you feel like you need to focus on)
100 IM
200 build free
SET 3
12 x 50 on rest :10
Odds: freestyle or backstroke kicking
Evens: butterfly kicking
SET 4
2 x [
400 negative split free on :20 rest
200 IM on :15 sec rest
100 drill (your choice of stroke) on :10 rest
100 GOLF (reduce your stroke count per length by 1 stroke rest :05]
SET 5
8 x 200 on rest :15 pull with paddles and buoy, descend 1-4, 5-8
Cool down: 200 easy choice
Total: 7800
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