The day before my Master's Swimming, I try to spend some time coming up with workouts that are new/exciting/different/challenging/technique-enhancing, etc. Then I type it up, print it out, and take it to the pool with me on Saturday morning. Except every now and then it doesn't make it into the swim bag and I get to the pool realizing that my nice pre-planned workout is now residing on the dining-room table. At times like these, I just have to pull something out of my head and hope it works out okay.
Yesterday was just such a day, but the main set I came up with on the fly ended up being a pretty darned good one if I do say so myself. Although it was 2200 yards, they seemed to zoom by, and in a pretty challenging manner. In the workout, instead of doing an interval by the clock, we did them by breaths instead. So a "9 breath interval" meant to take 9 breaths as the interval at the wall, then leave on the next set.
The skill we were working on was body position, using two drills. The first was to use zoomers (small fins) and kick face down in the position that you're in when gliding in the crawl stroke. One arm extended in front of you, and for the drill the other hand is resting on your thigh, body slightly turned toward that open side. The arm in front is holding a pull buoy. This keeps you from sculling that hand to maintain balance in the water or to push yourself up to breath.
The second drill is called a "Rollercoaster Kick" and I gleaned this from a video taken of the Auburn swim team. You kick on your back, but both hands are over your head as if you're on a rollercoaster (you know how you put your hands up), so they're not together and not streamlined. The aim is to keep your hips up and bellybutton dry. This really works on your balance in the water.
So here's the workout:
Warmup:
300 Swim
4 x 50 Body Position Kick (w/ zoomers and holding pull buoy)
200 Swim
4 x 75 (50 Rollercoaster Kick, 25 Swim)
200 Swim
Main Set (All distances ending in 5 are HARD, all distances ending in 0 are moderate)
200-175-150-125 9 breath interval
50 Rollercoaster Kick
175-150-125-100 7 breath interval
50 Rollercoaster Kick
150-125-100-75 5 breath interval
50 Rollercoaster Kick
125-100-75-50 3 breath interval
50 Rollercoaster Kick
Cool Down:
4 x 150 Pull
200 EZ
4200 Yards
4 comments:
that looks like a pretty damn good workout for "on the fly"...and thanks for sharing the roller coaster kick. Imma have to try that!
we do the body position kick in our sessions without the zoomers and pull bouy. We call it streamline kicking but the idea is to keep in the position that makes it easy to roll up to breath. The rollercoaster kick sounds similar to a dolphin kick I often do on my back or our catch up backstroke drills where one hand continuously reaches for the sky until the next one rotates back around and catches up. Nice scramble for not having a plan in hand.
I've never tried the catch-up backstroke drill, thanks for mentioning that!
Just stumbled across your blog and am headed out the door to do this swim workout! It's the perfect mix-up I've been needing the pool!
Post a Comment