6 Week Swim Challenge - Workout Wednesday

A Change of Pace

This is one of my favorite workouts because I think it’s important to be able to change your pace in an open water swim race or triathlon swim. Sometimes, you just need to swim hard for one to two minutes in order to catch the feet in front of you so that you can catch the draft, work less while swimming faster. And sometimes, you might find yourself swimming along side another and decide that it would be more efficient to ease up and draft off of them rather than expending more energy swimming side by side. Additionally, I’ll give you an easy way to either add more distance or take some off.

Warm Up

4 x 75 as 50 Fr, 25 Choice (Anything but freestyle: Fly, Back, Breast, Kick, Drill, Pull, Paddles)
3 x 100 as 50 Fr, 25 Drill/Swim, 25 Fr
(Drill/Swim = take the essence of a drill you are working on and incorporate it into your regular swim. For example, let’s say you are working on Finger Tip Drag, simply swim Freestsyle incorporating Finger Tip Drag. Or if you are working on the One Goggle in the Water Drill, just make sure that while swimming normally, you are keeping the low goggle in the water.)

Main Set

4 x 25 Fr :15 - Fast through FORM more than through effort.
4 x 50 Fr :20 - Fast through FORM more than through effort. Note swim times.
REST 1 minute
3 x 300 Fr :30 as
100 @ Moderate Effort (Think Long Distance Pace/Effort)
100 @ Threshold Effort (The Fastest Consistent Pace/Effort you can sustain)
100 @ Recovery Effort (keep swimming while you recover) Teach yourself to recover after a hard effort while still swimming. Note how long it takes you to regain your breath/strength/form.

Cool Down
300 Easy. Make 100 yards something other than Freestyle.

Total = 2100 Yards or Meters depending on your pool.

Looking for a workout more in the 1500 range?
In the Warm Up, change the 75’s to 50’s as 25 Fr, 25 choice and only do 2 x 100
Just do 2 sets of the 300’s in the Main Set.
Drop the Cool Down to 200.

Looking for a workout more in the 3000 range?
In the Warm Up, do 6 x 75 and 4 x 100.
In the Main Set, do 4 x 300. Repeat the 4 x 25 and 4 x 50 Fast through Form at the end of the Main Set.
In the Cool Down at 50 easy.