Better-than-nothing workouts

I'm a swimmer going about 3000 yds per workout in an hour and have triathlon ambitions -- came across this workout book by Gale Bernhardt. Amazon.com: Swim Workouts for Triathletes: Practical Workouts to Build Speed, Strength, and Endurance (Workouts in a Binder) (9781934030752): Gale Bernhardt, Nick Hansen: Books#_ I was getting bored with my own workouts and also needed to fomulate a training plan with some periodicity, so started using it around 9/1. It's a spiral bound book with 80+ workouts and waterproof, although I keep it in a zip lock bag by the poolside. The workouts on each book page are split between 1hour on the right side of the page (generally about 3,000 yds) and a half hour on the left side of the page (ithink generally about 2200+ yards). She recommends the half hour workouts for those with only 30 min. or beginning. The workouts are numbered and categorized to meet specific period training objectives. Obviously you can very the workouts to suit your own RIs, other strokes, and drill. I'll sometimes repeat a portion of the main set if i have time to get up to 4,000 yds. Can't quite hold her RIs for the whole main set (especially if i add kick and stroke) and so it is taking me about 70 -75 min. You can use the page right side on days when you have an hour and the page left side when you just have 30 min. The workouts seem challenging and well designed and the book is holding up fine too. I could probably pdf a few pages and send them if you want to see it or the amazon site might let you preview. Hope it helps.

One additional thought. Clearly these workouts are designed for fitness and endurance swimming - not sprinting, so you have to add those sets yourself. There are sprint workouts and sets, but i don't think nearly enough for a typical sprinter.

I would suggest looking through the blogs available here and changing them to fit your time frame. Even if you take a small set from a couple of them to suit your needs. You will find a variety ideas. Good luck!

Look in the workouts section & cut those swims into what will fit your time. Keep swimming ALL OF IT COUNTS.

Hi, everyone, I work full time and have a baby at home and so getting to my masters practices has become impossible. I don't want to stop swimming, so I am going to try going at lunch, which only gives me about 30 minutes to swim. Not enough to be in great shape or really improve, but better than nothing, right? Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for the best types of workouts to do when you only have half an hour? Btw, I am a mid-level masters swimmer who used to swim 90 minute 4,000-yard-ish workouts 4 days a week pre-baby if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance! And any other moms of babies or young toddlers out there? I swim on my lunch and I get about 42 minutes in the water. There's actually a lot you can do. Be sure to do a minor warmup, something like 500-600 y/m or so. Then mix it up with different types of sets. Some recovery, and some intense stuff. A typical lunchtime workout for me would look like this: 2x150m swim 2:45 interval 1x200m kick 25fly/25free 2x150m pull 2:45 interval 4x50m on 1:00 #1&3 hard pull #2&4 catchup drill pull ^^All this is the warmup 1000m Now the main set would be something like this on a recovery day: 3x200m on 3:30 interval. get faster on each 3x100m on 2:00 interval working the turns 300 cool down Or something like this on a intensity day: 6x100 on 1:30 interval, in by 1:20 2 min rest 6x50 on 1:00, in by 35. 4x25 on :45 sprint 200 cooldown Once a week I throw a serious kicking effort set in there for 400-600m. Tone these down in distance and interval to match your available time. You'd be surprised what you can do on a lunch hour.

HI! I know how it is. I have a houseful of kids. My youngest is three. I've been able to get away for longer workouts for a while, now, but it hasn't been that long since the days of half-hour-swim-sneaked-in-before-baby-needs-mama-again. I definitely think it's better than nothing. Those swims felt fantastic to me! You appreciate every second. What I did most often was instead of doing sets with intervals, just swimming straight through, and incorporating fast swimming into it. Like, alternating hard-easy or hard-moderate by 25's or by 50's. Or the first length of every 100 all-out. Or doing a Build-Up (increasing speed) length. Or build up each 100 or 200. Another option: swimming a half-length As Fast As Possible every hundred (or whatever). I found this to be the most satisfying way to use the time I had, and maintain some semblance of conditioning and strength. Also, once every couple of weeks I tried to do a few AFAP swims--25's, 50 & 100. And instead of resting at the wall, I would just swim slow.

8x50 @ 2:00 First 4: descend to what you can hold for the second half of the set. This is the warm up. Last 4: fastest average.

I would do a warm-up of about 200 yards and skip any kicking or pulling and go right to a hard set. 1. Shortest interval - do 12x100 or 6x200 allowing only 10-15 secs rest for the 100s or 15-25 for the 200s and go for best average time. 2. Descending sets of 3 100s (easy/medium/fast) - 15 secs rest average on 1:45. 1:40, 1:35 or whatever intervals allow that. About 12 of these are enough if you push yourself hard enough on the 3rd one. I have always thought this is one of the best sets for bang for your buck because you go through most all of the energy systems. 3. Sprint day - I like to do a 1/2 length base set where I do hypoxic 8x100. Then 8x25 or 4x50, do the IM strokes. Could sub some hard kick set or lactate tolerance if that is your thing or whatever you need for race prep. I am a father with kids now 5 and 7 with two working parents and this is how I roll. Rotate these sets and you can become a mediocre at best Masters swimmer like me. If you can get one day on Sunday or somewhere where you can do a long aerobic set that would be ideal.

Hi, everyone, I work full time and have a baby at home and so getting to my masters practices has become impossible. I don't want to stop swimming, so I am going to try going at lunch, which only gives me about 30 minutes to swim. Not enough to be in great shape or really improve, but better than nothing, right? Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for the best types of workouts to do when you only have half an hour? Btw, I am a mid-level masters swimmer who used to swim 90 minute 4,000-yard-ish workouts 4 days a week pre-baby if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance! And any other moms of babies or young toddlers out there? Hi there - My "baby" is now 4 and I get to leave her at pre-school or the childcare now :banana:, but there was a time I was sneaking in 40-45 mins in the evenings as that was all the time I had. I was also getting back into swimming after about 3 years off due to work/baby/moving. So I would just swim a certain distance and then try and beat it the next time I went. Then I started to get really fancy and do some IMs along the way aiming to keep the same distance as I did on freestyle. I guess it depends a bit on what you want to get out of it - the swim as far as you can approach is great for maintaining endurance and feel for the water but not so good if you want to sprint!

I guess it depends a bit on what you want to get out of it - the swim as far as you can approach is great for maintaining endurance and feel for the water but not so good if you want to sprint! That's my thought, too. Is your main goal to stay in shape or is it to stay fast? If it's the former, I'd suggest as much aerobic work as possible. If the latter, then you'd want a totally different approach. Much more technique focused with lots of short, fast swims. Here's another thought. What do you consider to be your weakness? Do you have a stroke that needs work? Could you improve your kicking or walls? This would be a good opportunity to focus on these kind of things that might be neglected a little bit when you are doing team workouts.