Training during the winter is tough. It's cold; daylight is short; and we tend to do a bit more of our training indoors, whether lifting weights, swimming, on the indoor bike trainer, or on the treadmill.
So, as a way to keep things interesting and keep myself motivated, I'm also looking for new and different workouts to try. Some I'll try once or twice and move on to others things, while I find myself regularly incorporating others.
This is the first in a series of postings I'm planning to do where I'll share some of my favorite swim, bike, run, and strength workouts I've picked up, modified from others, or came up with myself over the years.
Swim Session #1
I adapted this from Chris McCormack's "elevator" swim workout (which he's dubbed as one of his 12 all-time key workouts), but pared down the volume because it's still early in the season, and I've been doing shorter, but more frequent sessions. This type of workout is a favorite because it's a great combination of speed and holding race pace. Not to mention, because total volume is just under 2000 meters (in this variation), I find it's a great bang-for-your-buck workout that I can get done in about 40 minutes. There are endless varieties of the workout; and in addition to what I've posted below, I've also tried 4x50 / 1x200 as the basic structure, varying the speed on the 50's and keeping the 200'(s) at race pace. This can be adapted to be a great volume set, and what I've found is as I progress through the winter months and get closer to race season is I'll modify the "race pace" component of the sets, going more for 1 or 2x 200 meters.
300m warm-up
3x50m (all as fast as possible, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (2 fast / 1 easy pace, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (1 fast / 2 easy pace, with 10 second rest between sets)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (2 fast / 1 easy pace, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (all as fast as possible, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
100m cool down
Swim Session #2
This is a workout using 50 meter intervals, but the basic structure of the workout can be applied to a few different distances, whether the pool is configured in yards or meters. My favorites are to do 50's or 100's, either in yards or meters. It's also a good, standard workout to do periodically throughout the year to test your fitness levels. 50 meter intervals sounds fairly easy, but the trick is to do them as fast as possible, with only a very short rest between intervals (7-10 seconds is what I usually shoot for), and once you start to fall out off your goal pace, your body can't get any more benefit from the session. If you do them right, I find I'm in and out of the pool in about 30-35 minutes, but I feel as though I just put in a few thousand meters.
300m warm-up
50m intervals as fast as possible with 7-10 second rest between each (repeat until time falls more than 5 seconds outside of target pace)
100m cool down
So, as a way to keep things interesting and keep myself motivated, I'm also looking for new and different workouts to try. Some I'll try once or twice and move on to others things, while I find myself regularly incorporating others.This is the first in a series of postings I'm planning to do where I'll share some of my favorite swim, bike, run, and strength workouts I've picked up, modified from others, or came up with myself over the years.
Swim Session #1
I adapted this from Chris McCormack's "elevator" swim workout (which he's dubbed as one of his 12 all-time key workouts), but pared down the volume because it's still early in the season, and I've been doing shorter, but more frequent sessions. This type of workout is a favorite because it's a great combination of speed and holding race pace. Not to mention, because total volume is just under 2000 meters (in this variation), I find it's a great bang-for-your-buck workout that I can get done in about 40 minutes. There are endless varieties of the workout; and in addition to what I've posted below, I've also tried 4x50 / 1x200 as the basic structure, varying the speed on the 50's and keeping the 200'(s) at race pace. This can be adapted to be a great volume set, and what I've found is as I progress through the winter months and get closer to race season is I'll modify the "race pace" component of the sets, going more for 1 or 2x 200 meters.
300m warm-up
3x50m (all as fast as possible, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (2 fast / 1 easy pace, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (1 fast / 2 easy pace, with 10 second rest between sets)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (2 fast / 1 easy pace, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
3x50m (all as fast as possible, with 10 second rest between each)
1x150m (race-pace, with 20 second rest before next set)
100m cool down
Swim Session #2
This is a workout using 50 meter intervals, but the basic structure of the workout can be applied to a few different distances, whether the pool is configured in yards or meters. My favorites are to do 50's or 100's, either in yards or meters. It's also a good, standard workout to do periodically throughout the year to test your fitness levels. 50 meter intervals sounds fairly easy, but the trick is to do them as fast as possible, with only a very short rest between intervals (7-10 seconds is what I usually shoot for), and once you start to fall out off your goal pace, your body can't get any more benefit from the session. If you do them right, I find I'm in and out of the pool in about 30-35 minutes, but I feel as though I just put in a few thousand meters.
300m warm-up
50m intervals as fast as possible with 7-10 second rest between each (repeat until time falls more than 5 seconds outside of target pace)
100m cool down
****
Give 'em a try, and let me know what you think. If you have a favorite swim workout, post a comment below. I'd love to give it a try. Happy training!
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