Swimming the complete range of swimming strokes is a great way to enhance your feel of the water, which will benefit your freestyle and open water swimming. This workout is perfect for Ironman and Olympic distance triathletes or people doing longer ocean swims.
Each Saturday I will post a Swim Session, most weeks I will load three options up for you to do. Option A is for swimmers who are after a workout between 1,000 & 2,000 metres. Option B is for swimmers who are after a workout between 2,000 & 3,000m and Option C will be greater than 3,000m.
Option A
- 200m WU;
- 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
- 8x 25m IM 20sec RI;
- 8x 25m F/S 10sec RI;
- 8x 25m IM 20sec RI;
- 8x 25m F/S 10sec RI;
- 200m CD (1,600m)
Option B
- 400m WU;
- 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
- 8x 50m IM 20sec RI;
- 12x 25m F/S 10sec RI;
- 8x 50m IM 20sec RI;
- 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
- 200m CD (2,500m)
Option C
- 1,000m WU;
- 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
- 8x 50m IM 20sec RI;
- 12x 25m F/S 10sec RI;
- 8x 50m IM 20sec RI;
- 8x 50m (25m Drill/25m Swim);
- 12x 25m F/S 10sec RI;
- 200m CD (3,400m)
Start the workout with a Warm Up (WU) covering 200m (Option A), 400m (Option B), or 1,000m (Option C). During the warm-up feel free to stop and stretch as needed. It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.
Next up is a set of eight repetitions of 50m Drill/Swim, where you do a drill for the first 25m of the repetition and then normal swimming for the next 25m swimming. Feel free to use fins whilst doing the drill/swim set. Do the drills below, twice through:
I wrote an article about Swimming Drills previously. Click here to read it and watch the videos of how to do the respective drills.
Take your fins off for the next sets.
The next set is made up of eight repetitions of either 25m (Option A) or 50m (Options B and C) Individual Medley (IM) order with a 20-second Rest Interval (RI) between each rep. Start off with Butterfly which I know not all of you will be able to do, but I strongly suggest you attempt it regardless. Swim as far as you can doing butterfly, even if it is only a few strokes, prior to reverting to freestyle. Keep attempting it each time Butterfly or IM is in your programme and you will get better and will eventually be able to swim a length. Next up do a rep of Backstroke, then a breaststroke rep, and then Freestyle, all with 20 seconds Rest Interval (RI) between. Then it’s back to attempting (or doing) Butterfly and repeating the process so that you’ve swum a total of eight reps.
The next set is either eight (Option A) or twelve (Options B and C) reps of 25m Freestyle, done with a ten-second Rest Interval (RI) after each rep.
Next up you repeat the Individual Medley (IM) set you did previously. Either eight 25m reps IM for Option A, or eight 50m reps of IM for Options B and C.
If you are doing Option A, the next set is repeating the set of eight 25m Freestyle reps from earlier in the workout. For Option B, you repeat the set of drills/swims from earlier in the workout. And for Option C, you repeat both the set of drill/swim and the set of twelve 25m Freestyle reps.
Then it is time for a 200m Cool Down (CD). Unlike the previous sets which have to be freestyle, the cooldown (like the warm-up) can be any stroke you wish to swim. You can also stop and rest after any length. I encourage you to stop and stretch during the cool-down.
If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi Coaching.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729.
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