Weekly Swim Workout #10

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: Five to 5(00)

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

Warm Up

Use this week’s Warm Up to focus on fast swimming to set you up for your Goal Intervals. Strive to find your pacing in the Warm Up so that you have a feel for the pacing that you want to hit. There is lots of easy swimming in the Warm Upto get your body ready for today’s set; however, there is also focused swimming to help set you up for success.

Use this week’s Warm Up to get your mind ready for the task at-hand rather than just aimlessly wandering through 1000 yards of swimming.

Main Set

The Main Set includes five Rounds of the following pattern:

4 X 50 drill
1 X 50 kick
4 X 25 swim
1 (+1 by Round) X 100

Part 1—4 X 50 Drill
Freestyle 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.

On Round 5, you’ll cycle through the paddle/fin pattern from Rounds 1–4.

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.

Note: It’s easy to rely on swimming tools — pull buoy, snorkel, fins, paddles, etc. — because they can 1) make you swim faster and 2) make swimming feel easier. Remember that these are tools and should not be used as crutches to create a false sense of swimming efficiency and speed. Like all aspects of swimming, be purposeful with your tools.

Part 2—1 X 50 Kick
Grab your kickboard and go! Each Round you’ll do one 50 kick and aim to get faster each Round. Given the time interval—1:30—don’t hold back early on. Get your legs into the set in Round 1, and then strive to find ways over the course of the five Rounds to get faster and faster.

The purpose of this component of the Main Set is to build up fatigue and lactate in your body as a way to encourage you to fight through the physical discomfort that comes with this—fatigue and lactate—when you get to your Goal Interval

Part 3—4 X 25 Swim
These start hard and then get easier throughout the Main Set. Round 1 starts with 4 X 25 all hard so that your body gets used to fast swimming as well as to increase your heart rate before you go into your first Goal Interval. Each successive Round removes one hard 25, which gets replaced with one easy 25. By the time you get to Round 5, you’ll do 4 X 25 easy as a way to set you up for the final Round of Goal Intervals.

These 25s are designed to set your mind and body up for the last part of each Round: Goal Intervals

Part 4—Goal Intervals: 1 (+1) X 100 
This is the primary focus on this week’s workout. Figure out your Goal Interval by taking your P500 pace (your 50 pace for your goal 500) and multiply it by two. Then, add around 5 to 7 seconds to that time.

So, if a swimmer has a goal 500 time of 5:00, their P500 is :30, they would multiply that time by two—1:00— and add 5 to 7 seconds: 1:05–1:07. For this set, this swimmer’s Goal Interval for each 100 would be 1:05 or 1:07 with the goal being to hit their goal pace for each 100.

Each Round, you’ll add an additional 100 so that by the time you get to Round 5, you’ll complete 5 X 100.

Warm Down

Given the intensity of this week’s Main Set, give yourself 15 minutes of easy “playful” swimming to Warm Down. There should be no structure here with the purpose being to “play” with the water. In other words, strive to find a “feel” for the water.

Kids learn so much about life and their environment when they engage in play. We can use this “mentality” to our advantage when we chase after our goals. “Play” throughout this week’s warm down—try things with your arms, dive up the water and move your body in different ways, try different strokes, etc.—to learn more about swimming, your body, and how your body moves through the water.