ramp it up in the winter when it gets cold, and you are not spending long hours on the bike.
Remember, this article is about how to swim fast, not how to swim, period!
STRUCTURE
Jumping into the pool and swimming laps until you’re tired or bored just became how you used to swim. You’re now going to graduate to structured workouts, like real swimmers use. Almost every swim workout you do should be structured, and each week should include workouts that target various systems like an aerobic workout (longer), a muscular endurance workout (mid- distance and moderate hard).
The exceptions to pure structured workouts are steady open water endurance swims or non-stop simulation swims in the pool, and those are structured in the sense that they’re included in the top-level organization of your training.
A typical swim workout should include the following components (example provided)
• 10-15 percent easy warming up (4x100 easy on 20 seconds rest)
• 10-20 percent drills and kicking (8x50s as alternating 1 drill, 1 kick on 15 seconds rest)
• 40-70 percent main set (6x200 on 30 seconds rest or 12x100 on 15 seconds rest)
• Optional additional drills
• 5-10 percent cool down (100 easy)
The main set is the meat and potatoes of the workout. Each main set should have a specific training goal: endurance work (longer swim intervals), speed work (short, fast intervals) or muscular endurance work (medium length intervals at moderate-hard effort levels).
If you’re training for an Ironman, doing nothing but long, slow intervals will prepare you to swim – albeit long and slow. Short and fast will help you become a faster swimmer, and that speed does flow through to longer distances in swimming.
Marty Gaal, CSCS, is a USA Triathlon coach who lives in Cary, N.C. He and his wife Brianne coach triathletes through their company, One Step Beyond. Marty has been swimming in ocean competitions since 1986 and racing triathlon since 1989. One Step Beyond recently produced the Powerstroke®: Speed through force and form freestyle technique DVD, intended to help new to intermediate triathlon swimmers become faster and more powerful in the water. You can read more about their coaching services at
www.osbmultisport.com and the DVD is available at
www.powerstroke-dvd.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108