Weekly Swim Workout #1
A Guiding Principle
We are firm believers in deliberate practice: being systematic, purposeful, and attentive to details.
When we do this, we can focus our attention on specific goals that will improve our overall performance.
Deliberate practice allows us to focus on the process rather than the outcome.
When we do this on a regular and consistent basis, the outcome takes care of itself.
Weekly Workout: 8 Fast 100s
Note: workout listed above; what follows is the why / purpose as well as descriptions of workout components and drills
Warm Up
Aim to get in at least 10 minutes of easy swimming where you focus on rotating the arms forward (freestyle) and backward (backstroke) while also waking your legs up. Distance is irrelevant at this point — listen to what your body needs to wake up.
Pre-Set
Mix in a small amount of stroke work (IM order) to focus on short efforts of fast swimming with perfect form. The fast 25s repeatedly spike the heart rate (HR) and then we use the easy 25 freestyle to start bringing the HR down.
The descending 50s and 25s are designed to find the feel of certain paces.
Main Set
Note: for all drill work, we recommend using a swim snorkel so that you can isolate your focus on the purpose of the drill and eliminate imbalances that occur when breathing.
Round 1: Scare Yourself
Hip Rotation Kick Drill: keep your hands at your sides (by your hips) and simply kick a 50 while focusing on rotating your body—driven by your hips—from left to right. Take note of how your shoulders follow what your hips do.
Fast 100s: Scare yourself a bit on these first two 100s.
“Can I keep this pace up for the whole workout?”
“Shoot, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do 8 of these.”
Allow yourself to go all out early on and trust that your body will recover as you move through the set.
Note: Between 100s, we recommend active recovery: easy swimming/sculling until the start of the second 100.
Round 2: Allow Yourself to Fail
R/L Drill: 12.5 kicking on your right side—right arm out front in streamline position, right hip to bottom of pool, right shoulder to bottom of pool, and head down in streamline position; 12.5 kicking on left side—similar to above. Follow the same pattern on the second 25.
Fast 100s: Pushing to failure is okay. It’s easy to hold back and save up for the end. When we allow ourselves to fail, we help set goals for what we want to try to achieve the next time that we do a workout. It’s better to leave some workouts knowing that you left everything out there rather than leaving knowing that you could have done more.
Round 3: Stay in the Moment
1/10 Drill: similar to the above drill, you’ll kick 10 times on your right side, take a stroke and then kick 10 times on your left side. Cycle through this pattern for a 50 with a focus of driving the rotation from your hips.
Fast 100s: You should be tired by this point and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the work in front of you. Try diverting your attention from the task at-hand by simply focusing on one 100 at a time. Tell yourself…
“Just this one!”
…when the quit-mentality hits.
Round 4: Don’t Let “Them” Beat Your
3/10 Drill: similar to the above drill; however, you’ll take three strokes focusing on hip rotation and then pausing on the third stroke to kick 10 times on that side.
Fast 100s: If doing this workout with a partner or with a group, don’t let the person next to you beat you. If you’re doing this workout by yourself, don’t let them—the 100s—beat you. It’s only two and you’re done. Take them one at a time. You can always do more than you think you can.
Warm Down
Aim to get in at least 10 minutes of easy swimming where you focus on rotating the arms lightly forward (freestyle) and lightly backward (backstroke) while flushing the junk out of your legs by kicking easy.
