A Guiding Principle

At Steele Coaching, we believe in deliberate practice: being systematic, purposeful, and attentive to details.

When you do this, you focus your attention on specific goals that will improve your overall performance.

Deliberate practice opens the door for you to focus on the process rather than the outcome.

When you do this on a regular and consistent basis, the outcome takes care of itself.

We help you focus on the little things so that you can improve your performance and finally achieve the BIG things.

Weekly Workout: Build-An-IM

Note: the workout is 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 10–15 minutes of easy swimming where you focus on easy freestyle swimming (50 freestyle) followed by a 25 stroke drill and a 25 stroke build. The 25 drill and 25 build should be done in IM order as you cycle through the 100 each time. The goal of the Warm Up is to focus on form while also building in some faster swimming. Distance is irrelevant at this point — listen to what your body needs to wake up and set you up for the 200 IM time trial.

Set Your Target Time

Nothing complicated here: just a fast 200 IM to set a Target Time that will be used throughout the Main Set.

Be sure to swim a 100 easy after the 200 IM to reset before the Main Set.

Main Set

The pattern of the Main Set is as follows for each Round:

2 X 50 drill @ 1:00
2 X 50 kick/hypoxic training @ 1:15
12 (-2 by Round) X 25 @ :15/:45
1 X 200 Build-An-IM @ 4:00

The Main Set is comprised of 6 Rounds with the goal being to match your 200 IM Target Time each Round on the Build-An-IM.

For the drill and kick/hypoxic training, Rounds 1–2 are butterfly, Rounds 3–4 are backstroke, and Rounds 5–6 are breaststroke.

For the kick/hypoxic training, after the :10 wall kick, immediately push off and do a strong underwater kick to the 12.5 yard mark (halfway). Swim an easy 25 freestyle (halfway to halfway), and then fight to dive back under at the 12.5 mark and return to a strong underwater kick.

Use the 25s each Round to set up for the Build-An-IM. The odd 25s are on the :15, with the purpose being a fast 25. The even 25s are on the :45, with the purpose being to actively recovery.

Build-An-IM
Each Round, progressively add in an additional 25 of a 200 IM. The goal is to match you Target Time each Round.

Warm Down

Cycle through freestyle, backstroke, and kicking for at least 10 minutes to begin the recovery process.

Weekly Swim Workout #5