Getting to travel as much as we do we get to "taste" a lot of workouts from clubs all over the country...plus on occasion I come up with something to toss at the workouts I coach.
For those lucky enough to swim with me Saturday (I'm coaching) here's the main set:
SCY
800 negative split (get 400 split) @1:00 rest
6 x 100's @ 1:20
400IM
100 kick for time
400 negative split (faster than 2nd 400 of the 800, get 200 split) 1:00 rest
5 x 100's @ 1:15
200IM
100 kick for time (different stroke)
200 negative split (faster than 2nd 200 of 400)
4 x 100's @ 1:10
100IM
100 kick for time (different than first two)
Swam the Thursday morning workout at NOVA witb Coach Ahelee on deck.
SCY
10 minute choice warm up
2 x (200 free pull, 100 back swim, 4 x 25's choice) 15 sec rest interval
Main
4 x "choice" swims @ 3:30 (most swam a 200) as follows:
#1 fast 1st 50
#2 fast turns
#3 fast last 50
#4 all fast
4 x 25's @ :40
odds' easy to fast, evens fast to easy
4 x "choice" swims @ 2:30 (most did 200's, Laura & I did 100's)
- same as above
4 x 25's same as above
4 x "choice" swims @ 1:30 (most did 100's, Laura and I did 50's)
Sunday workout at BEST (no longer to be refered to as "Brophy" after they pulled funding from the clubs) with Coach Rankin on deck.
SCY
30 minute open swim/optional warm-up
2 x the following
1 x 100 (25 right arm, 25 left arm, 25 drill, 25 swim) @ 1:50
4 x 25's stroke @ :35
4 x 50's (25 stroke/25 free) @ :50
1 x 150 choice @ 2:30
5 x 300's free (pull or swim) @ 4:15 descend 1-5
150 easy recovery kick
5 x 200's free/IM/stroke (swim or pull with paddles, or paddles & fins, no buoy) @ 3:15 descend 1-5
150 easy recovery kick
5 x 100's swim stroke or IM @ 2:15 descend 1-5
easy 100 choice
3 fast 50's from a dive swam as part as 3 person relay teams...continuous relay for 450 yds.
5 x 300's free (pull or swim) @ 3:15 descend 1-5
...
5 x 200's free/IM/stroke (swim or pull with paddles, or paddles & fins, no buoy) @ 2:15 descend 1-5
Out of curiousity, how many people were making 300s on 3:15 and 200s on 2:15? Those are tough intervals!
Mid-season we try and do a variation of the speed curcuit that a number of college coaches I know run. Having access to the toys makes a big difference but if your creative you can get by with very little.
Warm-up = use a pre-meet warm up with a mix of drills, speedplay, etc. no more than about a 1000.
Decide on the number of stations and intervals/reps. Laura and I have done this on our own in a single open lane.
Some basic gear: fins, paddles, bungee, parachute, old pair of tennis shoes, kickboard. If you have access to power racks even better.
Our Monday sprint circuit:
Station #1 = 4 reps on the "bucket rack" w/ 30 sec rest between each
Station #2 = 4 x 25's underwater @ 1:00
Station #3 = 4 reps on bungee cord w/30 sec rest
Station #4 = 4 x 25's underwater
Station #6 = 4 reps on bucker rack using fins/paddles 30 sec rest
#7 = 4 underwaters
#8 = 4 reps on bungee w/fins & paddles 30 sec rest
Other possiblities are doing kick only work on the racks, or using a board nelp verticlly in water wearing sneakers, etc.
Out of curiousity, how many people were making 300s on 3:15 and 200s on 2:15? Those are tough intervals!
My bad...I changed to the correct intervals. This was quality work with lots of rest.
Swam the morning workout with Sierra Nevada Masters coach Steve on deck.
SCY
Warm-up
6 x 100's choice @ 2:00
Swim
3 x (4 x 50's) IM rotation @ 1:00 as follows:
#1 fly/back
#2 back/***
#3 ***/free
#4 free/fly
Kick
3 x 200's @ 3:30
#1 free
#2 IM
#3 choice
Swim 3 x the following:
3 x 100's fast
3 x 50's recovery @ 1:00
Round #1 100's are free, IM, free. Interval = 1:45
Round #2 100's are IM, free, IM. Interval = 1:30
Round #3 100's are IM, IM, free. Interval = 1:15
* Note, the interval was supposed to be 1:45 on all but two lanes made this change.
Pull
3 x the following:
1 x 150 @ 2:15 cruise
2 x 100's @ 1:30 build
3 x 50's @ :45 fast
I have had endless discussions with masters swimmers who compete and want more "race-ready" training from the teams they workout out with. I feel the pain as a coach of trying to cater to specific workout needs/wants from my swimmers and ultimately hav to "settle" on what works best for the entire team. Having said that, I have a bias in that I think that all masters swimmers benefit from a workout program that follows that of a competitive swimmer:
- Cycling training into 3-4 monts "blocks" of periodization is key. Fitness swimmers, multi sport athletes, etc. need to understand that advancing their conditioning comes from building up and on all phases; endurance, interval, speed/power, rest/taper.
So how do you do this when your team trains generic middle distance freestyle workouts?
1) Talk with the coach and explain to them you want to train for a spcific target event/date. That may be a local, regional or national meet...an open water event, or a tri...or if you don't compete a target date on the calender.
2) Adapt the workouts to suit this program
Case in point is I worked out with a large team yesterday and since I'm 3 months out from nationals and doing more power/speed work and less aerobic base building (plus I like to do a lot of kicking which few teams do) here's what I did:
Warm-up
600 choice (swim, pull and kick)
Main #1 Swim: 10 x 200's as follows
3 @ 2:45
3 @ 2:40
4 @ 2:35
* I swam the first 3 focusing on technique at about 70% effort
* I pulled the next 3 with buoy, large TYR paddles @ snorkel and descended -3
* The last 4 I pulled with the same gear except the snorkel (I have a restrictor cap on it and its pretty tough on longer/hard swims) and tried to hold them all under 2:05
Main #2 Pull: 12 x 100's free as follows:
1-4 = 3 cruise @ 1:35/1 fast @ 1:15
5-8 = 2 cruise @ 1:35/2 fast @ 1:15
9-12 = cruise @ 1:35/3 fast @ 1:15
* I kicked 75's (with board, no fins) and did the first 2 rounds (8 total)
* I then moved to an open lane and with small (Han's) paddles and Z2 fins did 12 x 25's @ :35 fast/no breather to 15yds then cruise to wall. These were 3 blocks of 4; 1 free, 1 fly, 1 back (I chose to leave out the "evil" stroke so I could bail and go eat some killer vietnamese food with friends across the street!).
Paul:
I'd appreciate your comments on the following main set today for a Fast Friday:
12 x 50 on 3:00 fast, from the blocks, alternate free and stroke. We broke after 6 and took 100 easy, then re-started.
We had 2 to a lane today, so we alternated swimmers on the 1:30. It was fun to cheer for lanemates and catch times for the alternate group. We're lucky in that we have full use of a 10 lane SCM pool, and had blocks available for anyone who wanted to step up. I alternated free and ***, and did a block start each time.
Obviously too many repeats for an all-out effort each time, so I tried to back down to a 200 pace on the second run-through, then bring the last couple 50s in as strong as possible.
In retrospect, I felt like I spun the first few repeats. I was pretty well done by the mid-set break, and concentrated on not getting sloppy on the second round. I think the early spinning cost me a lot of energy. I was about 2 - 3 seconds off my free pr, and 3 - 4 off my *** on the first repeat, then slowly lost a bit on each until I was about 2 seconds slower than my first 2 50s, until bringing it back at the end.
I'm thinking it might have been better to try and build 50s 1 - 6 to an all out effort in each stroke, then started back over at 6 - 12.
Any thoughts -- from anyone, actually -- on how to best work a set like this are greatly appreciated. I love fast sets, but feel like I kind of blew this opportunity today.
