Middle Distance Training

Former Member
Former Member
I wasn't sure if the Workouts forum was the best place to put this, so I put it here. I'll go ahead and ask my essential question: What's the best way to train as an all-around but especially middle-distance freestyle swimmer, in the pool and in the weight room? If you don't want to read my whole post you don't have to go any farther but I'm going to try to be pretty specific. A little background info: I'm a 17 year old male high school swimmer (rising senior) and I don't have any club swimming experience (I know my age might be a little weird for Master's swimming but this is the only really active swimming forum I could find). Compared to my fellow high school swimmers, some of whom have swum for club teams but stopped, I feel that I'm pretty good at the 200 and 500 freestyle (SCY). I don't think I've had enough training to really excel in any other strokes in the past, but I'll get more into that in a second. I've improved fairly consistently over my high school career especially in the 200 and 500, from 2:08 freshman year > 2:02 sophomore year > 1:56 junior year in the 200 and 6:04 freshman year > 5:37 sophomore year > 5:19 junior year in the 500. I think I can especially do well in the 500 because no one else seems to want to swim it. All 3 seasons we've done about 3000-4000 yards a day 5 days a week, and I never go to the gym on a regular basis. Some of my club team friends say they do 8 workouts a week for swimming including 2-3 sessions in the weight room, and I think if I try and do more than what I've done these past 3 years that I can maybe swim in college at a D2 or small D1 school. So basically my plan this summer is to try ramp up my swimming training for my senior year of swimming. The problem is I haven't been really able to find structured plans online for middle distance swimmers. My idea was to combine what I could find for distance and sprint training and do what I feel what helped me during the winter season to a larger extent, along with doing sessions with my high school coaches to work on technique and helping me structure my workout plan. The problem is that my coaches are a little busy with a summer league team they run so their assistance is sort of limited, and without their help I don't entirely trust myself with coming up with a workout, not being a real professional at any of that stuff. The other issue is I don't want to completely specialize in one stroke or event in the case that I do swim in college. But I also don't really know how to put well-roundedness into a workout plan let alone combine it with the middle distance training program I don't know how to design. Here's the general workout plan I came up with on my own just as a guide. I borrowed some ideas from various sources. For 12 weeks: Sunday: Rest Monday: AM- Rest, PM- Weight Room Tuesday: AM- Go for high volume, PM- Work on IM Wednesday: AM- Pace work (I feel that this really helped me during the season), PM- Weight Room Thursday: AM- Go for high volume, PM- Work on IM Friday: AM- Pace work, PM- Weight room Saturday: Rest I'm not too sure if that's a great plan, and I especially need help on what to do in the weight room, as I've never gone on a regular basis, although I do have a pretty good understanding of how to do most exercises. If you have suggestions on anything I've said please share, I would really enjoy as much input as I can get. Again, in case you don't want to scroll back up, my question was: What's the best way to train as an all-around but especially middle-distance freestyle swimmer, in the pool and in the weight room? PS- I don't really want to join a club team. I like not having a concrete schedule (despite what the plan I designed implies) but I think I have enough self-accountability and motivation to be able to carry the plan I outlined. EDIT: I also can work on technique with my high school coaches, so that isn't much of an issue for me either.
  • Wow, I was once looking for a swimmer like you. I've been swimming for 35 years but never swam on an organized team. In h.s. I was a distance runner. When I began swimming, I did it to be a distance swimmer (open water, triathlon). I only knew how to train for distance running, so that's how I went about training for distance swimming. I have never understood why an entire h.s. team does the same exact workout. Seems like any specializing is strictly forbidden. Fast-forward to several years ago when my daughter was on her h.s. swim team. The coach asked me if I'd like to be an unpaid assistant. And, like your team, no one wanted to swim the longer events. I told the coach that I could weed out one or two swimmers that I thought would excel at the distance events, and I would train them separately from the rest of the team. My swim coaching career lived and died right there. I mentioned my plan in these forums and was ridiculed here too for wanting to let a swimmer specialize in just one discipline. I guess that's what I get for trying to bring a running mentality into swimming. But, good luck with your plan. I think it's a great idea. Dan
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Thanks for the reply Dan. I'm still a little fuzzy on what I should be doing in the weight room. Should I be doing a sprinter workout 3 times a week? Or maybe a distance swimmer workout twice a week? A combination? I'm still not too sure what that would look like or what I would need to focus on.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    I wish I knew enough to really help you but I am fairly new to swimming and make up a lot of stuff as I go. I do know that the rest in the morning followed by weights pm and then high volume next am is a bad idea. Your body needs time to recover more than that. Maybe shift some of that around. Muscle is built during the rest (as opposed to being in the weight room). It sounds odd but it is true. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    I think swimming more often would be helpful, doing dry land post practice, supplemental to swim training and proportional to yardage. Otherwise, separate dry land sessions would take away from your swimming. Here's an example of Michael Phelps training from 2002 7 variable swim sessions 51,000 yards total / average 7300 yards a session / range 4500 to 9000 yards 4 post practice (after practice, not separate) 1) 30' running, 15' stretching 2) 500 abdominals + stretching 3) dryland wall sit 2' 3x8 pullups, assist if needed 2x15 dips, no weight pushups / 10x +5 clap (elbows in / elbows out / opposite / reverse opposite) ab wheel 2x15 3x10 ball squats 3x10 squat jumps stretching!!! 4) dryland medicine ball (repeat 3x) chest pass 10x behind head pass 10x right to right pass 10x left to left pass 10x between front pass 10x squat pass 10x dyna disk 3x30 seconds balancing each leg foam rolls 3x30 seconds ab wheel 3x25 stretching!!! Swimming Technique Jan/Feb 2003 "American Flyer" by Bob Bowman, with Michael Scott
  • Hi, It looks like you have a lot of motivation and great ideas. I want to chime in with one more suggestion. I think the easiest way to improve a 500 free in short course yards is to improve your turns including the streamlines off the walls. I realize you practice mostly on your own, but I would have a coach look at your turns every few weeks and identify any areas of improvement. Then when you practice, make sure every single turn, even in warmup, is the best you can do. Not lifting your head as you approach the wall. Pushing off the wall as hard as you can in a tight streamline. And executing streamlined dolphin kicks (also referred to SDK in some of the workout blogs on this website), working with your coach to figure out the optimal number to do in both practice and in a meet. You can do sets of 50s starting and ending in the middle of the pool that would require two turns and build athleticism by making yourself build speed without a wall push-off. Hope that helped and good luck!
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Hey Shera- I am planning to do sessions with my high school coaches just like you mentioned. Thank you for your input! But again, do dry land workouts after swimming replace weight room only days? Or should I do one or the other?
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 8 years ago
    Thanks for your advice. I am going to shift around my workout schedule to account for more rest before and after weight room sessions, maybe only doing 2 per week. I still have a few questions though- I see that in that Michael Phelps workout there no weight room specific workouts. Does that mean I should be relying on post-swimming dry land rather than weight room sessions? I was going to use this (www.bodybuilding.com/.../jasonlezak1.htm) sprinter workout program to build muscle and it seems to rely a lot on weight training in the gym. Is it necessary? Also, this is my new modified program that I came up with, with you guys' suggestions in mind. Sunday: AM- Weight room, PM- rest Monday: AM- Work on IM, PM- Go for high volume Tuesday: AM- Pace work, PM- Sprint/low volume with lots of active recovery: focusing more on recovery for Weight room tomorrow Wednesday: AM- Weight room, PM- rest Thursday: AM- Work on IM, PM- Go for high volume Friday: AM- Pace work, PM- rest Saturday: Rest After each swim session do a dry land segment. I tried to cushion weight room sessions with rest or an "easy" swim (maybe like some 25, 50, or 100 sprints with active recovery in between each one) that would be relatively low-volume and help my body rest to some extent while still getting in the pool. Also I kept in the weight room specific sessions for now... or should they be completely replaced by dry land?
  • Hi, I'm not qualified to give such advice. But I know of a great book, Complete Conditioning for Swimmers, that gets into such specifics. I think you will find it useful. It is by Dave Salo and Scott Riewald. It recommends a workout schedule at different stages of life, with specific exercises to boost strength/flexibility and prevent injury. My unsolicited .02 cents: Your workout schedule is very ambitious. I would make sure you had time for fun with friends doing activities that are different from swimming....soccer, basketball, dancing, frisbee, etc. Something you enjoy, whether or not you are good at it. Not only will it fill the important need for fun and socializing, especially important at your age, but it will also allow you to move in different ways, therefore boosting your athleticism and most likely your swimming performance....I know this is more advice that what you asked for, but hey, I'm a mom...can't help myself! (-: Good luck! Hey Shera- I am planning to do sessions with my high school coaches just like you mentioned. Thank you for your input! But again, do dry land workouts after swimming replace weight room only days? Or should I do one or the other?
  • Swimming is mostly a skill sport. Swim every day except Sunday, first. Then think about swimming doubles and dry land *after* swimming.