Workout of the Week (WOW!): Kick boredom to the curb!

Goal: In order to mix it up a bit this longer session contains some kick and non-freestyle. The goal of your swim coach should not be to bore you, right?

The kick helps your triathlon in myriad ways, not least ankle flexibility, leg strength and loosening out sore limbs from running and cycling. In terms of swimming, it will help your stroke balance, forward propulsion and streamlining by keeping sinking legs afloat.

Working “off strokes” will give your shoulders a break and allow a fuller body workout. Breaststroke will work the pecs a bit more, backstroke allows your shoulders to rotate in the opposite direction than freestyle – reduce the RSI!

"Kick Butt", from Teeejayy's Flickr

“Kick Butt”, from Teeejayy’s Flickr

Warm up (600):

200 freestyle, every 4th length backstroke
200 freestyle pull, every 4th length kick
200 freestyle drill, every 4th length breaststroke

Main set (1800):

400 free – negative split, aerobic pace
8 x 50 kick, 10 seconds rest, descend #1-4 fast
300 free – descend 100s 1-3 smooth pace
6 x 50 pull, 10 seconds rest, descend #1-3 fast
200 free – descend 50s
4 x 50 non-freestyle, 10 seconds rest, build each 50.

Drill set (600):
3x (3 x 50 drill + 1 x 50 swim):
1) Catchup (kick hard)
2) 6 kick: 1 pull
3) Scull, no kick.

Cool down: 100 breaststroke/backstroke – alternate 25s

Total: 3,100

Workout of the week – an engaging, long, non-boring session

Goal: I always hated long, boring, never-ending sessions as a swimmer and I refuse to give long, boring, never-ending sessions as a coach. Nevertheless, sometimes long swims are needed as a challenge, for the distance swimmers (triathletes) and to build the aerobic base.

I’d much rather swim in an infinity pool than swim for infinity during a long, boring set (Source: lovethesepics.com)

This session is straightforward: a series of 5 mins skill work + 10 mins application/continuous swimming.

Of course practicing your skills should always be continuous and non-stop. Relentless, even.

Warm up:
5 mins - choose your own warm up. Practice what you are going to do on race day to warm up. I want my swimmers to be self-sufficient. Swimming should be cerebral, not ‘switch off, jump in, take instruction’.
10 mins - continuous swim. Count your lengths. How many can you do? Don’t stop on the walls.

5 mins - Drills as 25 drill + 25 swim, practicing your sighting.
10 mins - Swim with plenty of sighting practice – at least every second length.

5 mins - Drills as 25 drill + 25 swim. Drill – catch-up.
10 mins - Count your strokes regularly. Keep your stroke long and smooth and maintain your technique as you get tired.

5 mins - Drills as 25 drill + 25 swim. Focus on aggressive hand entry leading to hip rotation.
10 mins - Swim hard. Swim further than each of the previous efforts. A good fitness test and practice pushing the pace while tired.

Total: 1 hour of good, continuous swimming at varied effort levels, good skill work and

Commitment to Practising One’s Technique

Two thoughts came to mind while watching this video:

1) She has great dedication, practicing her dance moves while waiting for a bus. Her focus is also admirable, not worrying about the views of others while she perfects her moves. This single-mindedness is required to achieve your goals.

2) This would be a great way to pass the time on pool-side while my swimmers do long distance sets.

Workout of the Week (WOW!): Say NO to Freestyle

Goal: An opportunity to work on your ‘other strokes’. Too often triathletes slog up and down on long distance freestyle. There are benefits to be had from working the other strokes and your kick – not least eliminating boredom!

Let’s make swimming fun: join the movement!

Warm up: 400 swim/300 pull/200 kick/100 IM

Main set: 4 x (200 freestyle bilateral breathing + 5 x 50 kick, drill, swim, build, fast – IM order @ 15 secs rest between each swim) extra 15 seconds between each set.

You will likely be out of breath after the stroke work. Keep the freestyle steady pace but focus on keeping your stroke and pace together – do not use it as a warm down before the next stroke set.

Cool down:

200 easy

Total: 3,000

Workout of the Week (WOW!): Cutting your interval

Goal: For the main set, the interval for each 100 gets progressively tighter. It should be a struggle to make the last couple. Can you keep your stroke together and push through when it starts to hurt?

Warm up:
300 swim
200 pull
100 kick
50 build

8 x 25 1-4 as build each length; 5-8 as build strong to fast

swimming workouts and cutting your interval time

Main set: Sample set for someone who might normally hold 100s off 2:00. Adjust as you wish, but make it tough!

5 x 100 @ 2:05 / 2:00 / 1:55 / 1:50 / 1:45
100 easy non-freestyle swim
5 x 100 @ 2:00 / 1:55 / 1:50 / 1:45 / 1:40

Cool down:
100 easy swim
5 x 50 drill/swim by 25

Total: 2,300

WOW! Workout of the Week: Start fast and settle

Goal: Main set includes fast swimming at the start of each rep, to replicate the start of a race when you tend to start hard to get in position and the adrenaline takes over. Start fast and settle into a good pace with good technique. Control your stroke and your breathing. You could throw in some sighting practice for extra brownie points.

Warm up:
150 swim + 100 kick + 150 pull + 100 drill
4 x 25 build each 25

Main set:
6 x 150:
1-3 as 50 fast + 100 steady, aerobic pace (not warm down pace!)
4-6 as 100 fast + 50 steady, aerobic pace (not warm down pace!)

Cool down:
400 pull
300 50 drill + 25 swim
200 25 swim + 25 kick on side
100 Easy swim

Total: 2,600

Where to next?

Post #101: Where to next?

Thank you

Thank you for reading my blog, I hope you find it useful. To the 500+ of you, whether you came here via Facebook or Twitter, or subscribed directly. thanks for reading, and for all the emails and comments. It can be hard work keeping on top of a semi-regular posting schedule with the day job, but it keeps me honest and researching various topics. The summer season kicks off shortly and I’ve been planning my sessions and building a shortlist of topics to post on. This is fun for me as I learn as I formulate ideas, but I should really start with you dear readers:

What would you like to see here? What aspects of swimming and triathlon concern you most? What is not covered elsewhere? What do you like or dislike and want to see more or less of?

Let me know by voting in the poll above or in the comments: any and all suggestions, requests and feedback gratefully received! Thank you again for reading. It’s been a real thrill engaging with you, seeing the stats grow and hopefully helping you all along the way.

31 Easy Tips to Sporting Excellence #31: Don’t forget to have fun along the way

“31 Easy Tips to Sporting Excellence” is a series of holistic triathlon tips that will help you achieve your goals. The little things that give big results, the “20″ part of the 80:20 rule.

Today is the final tip in the series, #31: Don’t forget to have fun along the way

As you storm through your daily practices, grit your teeth during those cold, long winter runs and push yourself to master that impossible drill remember to have fun along the way. Sure, we want to win and to achieve our goals, but remember why you are doing this in the first place.

Remember your goals and why you set out on this path. Remember the initial enthusiasm of your first few days in the sport. Be like a kid who has just discovered a new activity.

Enjoy your progress. Sure it’s tough, and some days we’d rather stay in bed, but enjoy the progress. Enjoy each second you get faster, how much stronger you feel or each pound you lose. We all have plenty of bad days, so make sure you enjoy the good ones when nobody can stop you.

Enjoy the bad days too. They are the ones that put ‘money in the bank’ for race day.

Some days we’ll finish last, bonk or lose half an hour fixing a stubborn flat. Who cares – we will learn what to improve or change for next time.

On race day smile, enjoy the race and thank the volunteers. Encourage your rivals as you run past them with ease. Everyone gets a kick out of a bit of encouragement. We all contribute to race day atmosphere and the camaraderie is one of the best elements of triathlon.

Support your team mates. Enjoy their progress as well as your own. We’re in it together.

Enjoy your improving fitness levels, your increasing strength, your toned muscles, your knowledge about obscure bicycle parts and your new-found energy levels.

Enjoy it all, especially the tough parts, and remember to smile throughout Chrissie Wellington! We should all take a leaf out of her book.

Smile like Chrissie Wellingotn

Train hard, have fun.

The “31 Easy Tips” Series:
#1: Drink Water First Thing in the Morning
#2: Write Down Your Goals (Now!)
#3: Ask an Expert
#4: Start Stretching
#5: Track your progress towards your Goals
#6: Take a Cold Shower
#7: Incorporate Drills into your Workouts
#8: Superfoods for Superperformance
#9: Get Some Rest
#10: Cross train
#11: Reward Yourself
#12: Don’t Breathe in the Pool
#13: Take a Bath
#14: Do Squat!
#15: Get Yourself a Mentor
#16: Do Yoga
#17: Be on Time
#18: Leave Your Bucket of Troubles at the Door
#19: Stay Healthy!
#20: Do LESS Freestyle
#21: Grind it Out on the Foam Roller
#22: Engage Your Core
#23: Don’t Break the Bank!
#24: Be Persistent and Patient (Like Skyscraper Builders)
#25: Kick!
#26: Sprint!
#27: Race-day training
#28: Visualize Victory
#29: Invest in Recovery
#30: Perform HOT by warming up

31 Easy Tips to Sporting Excellence #30: Perform HOT by warming up

“31 Easy Tips to Sporting Excellence” is a series of those tips that will kick your performance to the next level, without any inordinate expenditure of time or money. How are you going to reach your goals?

Today’s tip to enhance your performance is #30: Perform HOT by warming up

Warm up like the pros before your triathlon practice or ironman training

Many of the athletes I interact with take a warm-up for granted, if they do one at all. They loiter on poolside chatting before swim practice and stand still awaiting instructions before run training.

Look at your favorite pro sports team or athlete before they compete or train. Look at the focus and attention they put into warming up. There are many theories on how to warm-up but the benefits of warming up before intensive exercise are well-established:

  1. Injury prevention
  2. Warmed muscles can contract and relax at faster speeds
  3. Improved range of motion
  4. Increase the heart rate to exercise levels
  5. Improve blood flow and oxygen utilization of muscles
  6. Mentally prepare for the workout
  7. Faster recovery post-workout

It is worth investing time in a good warm-up. An extra five minutes of quality warm-up can help you perform far better in practice and lead to much improved racing times.

Of course, a warm-up does not have to take a long time – focus on quality and tailor it to the practice ahead, e.g. if you are doing some sprinting make sure you build into speed work during the warm-up.

Warming up can include high quality technique work in the form of drills, which over the long term will improve efficiency…all while you warm up for the day’s session!

Have I made my point about quality above all? :)

Many warm-up options exist:

  • Jogging: light jogging as a gentle warm-up
  • Technique drills: e.g. single leg cycling on a bike trainer, pull and kick in the pool
  • Dynamic stretching: As opposed to static stretching where you hold stretches these are movement-based, e.g. arm swings, lunges, leg kicks, squats
  • Higher-intensity work: build into faster work in order to get your body used to higher intensity, e.g. 25m sprints in the pool, gradually increase your reps from 90 to 100 rpm on the bike, fast feet and build to sprint while running

Sample elements of warm-ups:

  • Cycling: Light pedaling, gradually increasing rpm’s. Can include single pedal drills practicing good technique and posture (alternate left and right for 5 minutes total). Spin up cadence pyramids (increasing from 80 rpm-100/110 rpm and reduce back down).
  • Run: light jog for 5 mins, introducing dynamic stretching (butt kicks, lunges, hip activators, squats, “fast feet shuffle”) and then adding short runs of increasing speeds building from medium to fast to sprints over short distances.
  • Swim: Initial aerobic swims (e.g. 3×200 swim, pull, kick) then drills (eg 8 x 50) and into sprints (4 x 25 build each length to fast + 4×25 increasing speed with #1 fast and #4 fastest).

Tailor your warm-up to what makes you feel good. Ultimately a warm-up  is subjective and you should include those exercises that prepare you to perform well in training.

As the season progresses, refine the warm-up and keep in mind what you will do to warm up on race day. What will give you confidence to go out and dominate the race? It all adds up to stronger performances in training throughout the season and ultimately on race day – all for a little focus during a warm-up.

How do you warm up?

The “31 Easy Tips” Series:
#1: Drink Water First Thing in the Morning
#2: Write Down Your Goals (Now!)
#3: Ask an Expert
#4: Start Stretching
#5: Track your progress towards your Goals
#6: Take a Cold Shower
#7: Incorporate Drills into your Workouts
#8: Superfoods for Superperformance
#9: Get Some Rest
#10: Cross train
#11: Reward Yourself
#12: Don’t Breathe in the Pool
#13: Take a Bath
#14: Do Squat!
#15: Get Yourself a Mentor
#16: Do Yoga
#17: Be on Time
#18: Leave Your Bucket of Troubles at the Door
#19: Stay Healthy!
#20: Do LESS Freestyle
#21: Grind it Out on the Foam Roller
#22: Engage Your Core
#23: Don’t Break the Bank!
#24: Be Persistent and Patient (Like Skyscraper Builders)
#25: Kick!
#26: Sprint!
#27: Race-day training
#28: Visualize Victory
#29: Invest in Recovery