Weekly Swim Workout #8

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: Descending 200s

Note: the workout is listed above; what follows is the why / purpose as well as descriptions of workout components and drills

Warm Up

The pattern of the Warm Up is kick, IMO drill, freestyle. As you cycle through the pattern, add a 25 to each cycle.

The Warm Up is a great place to focus on form over function because your body is not tired and you can set up good habits. Use the drill portion of the Warm Up to bring your attention to your form on each of the four strokes.

Pre-Set

The Pre-Set is designed to draw your attention to your kick timing. When swimming freestyle, you should aim for a 6-beat kick: complete 6 kicks per stroke cycle. The first kick—ONE—is a strong down kick that should be timed with the opposite arm entry. For example, the right leg (ONE) would kick down as the left arm enters the water. Kicks 2 and 3 are lighter kicks and the the fourth kick—FOUR—is a strong down kick that, like above, should be timed with the opposite arm entry. So, in the example cycle, the left leg (FOUR) would kick down as the right arm enters the water. Similar to above, kicks 5 and 6 would be lighter kicks.

So, with the drill of the Pre-Set, simply focus on your counting while kicking. Focus on a strong down kick with your right leg (ONE) followed by two lighter kicks and then a strong down kick with your left leg (FOUR) followed by two lighter kicks.

Drills are a great place to overemphasize an aspect of your stroke to help understand what you are aiming for when swimming with perfect technique.

For the Underwater Flip Turn, dive under the water at the flags and aim to complete your flip turn completely submerged at the 25 mark. The purpose of this drill is to help you identify where there are dead points—components that make you slow down by creating drag—of your flip turn. When you get to the 50 mark, complete a flip turn while focusing on tightening your flip turn based on what you identified as drag points on the underwater flip turn.

Main Set

The Main Set includes four Rounds of the following pattern:

4 X 50 paddle/fin drill
4 X 25 progressive build
1 X 200 descend by Round
1 X 50 reset
5 (-1 by Round) X 50 P500

4 X 50 Paddle/Fin Drill
This is more of a cognitive drill to focus on kick timing and connection points. The paddle and fin are used to emphasis where you focus should be.

Opposite Side: When you are wearing the paddle/fin combination on opposite sides (e.g., Right paddle and Left fin), you want to make sure that your right arm (paddle side) is entering the water when your left leg (fin side) is engaging in a strong down kick.

Same Side: When you are wearing the paddle/fin combination on the same side (e.g., Right paddle and Right fin), you want to make sure that your right are (paddle side) is starting the catch as your right leg (fin side) is engaging in a strong down kick.

If you have a Finis Swim Snorkel, we highly recommend that you use it for this drill. The snorkel allows you to isolate parts of your stroke that you are working on while maintaining your body position.

4 X 25 Progressive Build
These 25s are designed to set you up for a strong 200, which follows. Each Round you’ll add 5 seconds to the interval. For a progressive build, each 25 should get stronger as you cycle through the four.

1 X 200 Descend by Round
The first 200 in Round 1 should start around 85% effort and then each Round should build from there. The 200 in Round 4 should be close to 100% effort.

1 X 50 Reset
This should be a super easy recovery 50. If you want to bank time to set you up for the P500 50s, which follow, get your time on the 200 from above and then go right in an easy 50.

Use this 50 to bring your heart rate down so that you can hit your goal time on the P500 50s.

5 (-1 by Round) X 50 P500
In distance swimming, it’s easy to focus on your 100 times — it makes logical sense. However, when swimmers do this, they often slip into pacing that is slower than their goal pace. By the time they hit the 100 marks, they’ve fallen too far off their pace.

Therefore, the focus the P500 50s is “feeling” your goal 500 pace (P500) for 50s. For example, if your goal 500 is 5:30, you would want to hold :33s for the P500 50s.

Know your P500. Find it early and settle in to an decreasing number of 50s per Round. After your strong 200 from above, these 50s should feel more cruise control.

Warm Down

A 10 minute Warm Down cycling through a 25 kick, 25 double-arm backstroke, and a 25 backstroke. Since the Pre-Set and the Main Set include a lot of freestyle, the Warm Down is designed to include a lot of backstroke so that you do something different—opposite—with your shoulders.

Be sure to use the Warm Down to find your form — be mindful of your technique at all points of your workout and fight to maintain it, even when tired. Muscle memory is key to efficient and effective swimming.