Weekly Swim Workout #13

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: The Grind

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

Warm Up

A mix of 75s for this week’s Warm Up.

The first four are just to get into the workout. Just swim them; nothing fancy.

The next four bring the legs into the workout by following a pattern of swim, kick, swim by 25.

The final four mix in some backstroke to encourage the opposite movement of your shoulders, followed by a 25 kick, followed by a light to moderate build on the final 25. Use the final four 75s to find your pacing (P500) so that you’re ready to jump into the Main Set.

Main Set

This workout is a grind.

The primary purpose is to help you zero in on your 500 pacing (P500), and then aim to maintain that pacing as the fatigue builds up throughout the Main Set.

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 of this set 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.

The basic pattern of the workout is as follows:

5 X 50 with an increasing number at P500
A decreasing number of 25s on a tight interval
4 X 50 kicking
1 X 100 fast

The focus of the 5 X 50s is to find your pacing each Round, especially after swimming a hard 100 at the conclusion of each Round. The final component of the workout ends with 5 X 50 P500 @ :40 and should be the target of the entire workout.

The decreasing number of 25s are designed to encourage smooth swimming after paced swimming. These will be touch-and-go, with the goal of continuing to find your rhythm in swimming.

The 4 X 50s kicking start hard with the majority being push board in the first Round. Hold your board perpendicular to the water—think snow plow—to create resistance against your kick. The purpose of this drill is to work on your power in kicking. As the Rounds progress, you will do one fewer push boardeach Round. Therefore, by the last Round, you will simply kick 4 X 50 with a board flat on the water. Use these to flush your legs and set up for the final two components of the workout.

The 1 X 100 fast is to build lactate prior to going into your P500 50s. Aim to hold consistent times for each 100 as you progress through the Main Set. Note that the 100 can be swam at any point within the given interval. In short, you just need to make sure that you start the 5 X 50s of the next Round by the time the interval runs out.

Warm Down

Backstroke and sculling for the Warm Down. The Main Set is freestyle focused. Therefore, use the Warm Down to work your shoulders in the opposite direction. Use the sculling to help you find the feel of the water and make sure to vary your hand position of the sculling throughout the Warm Down.