This past week at the pool I was asked twice about my swim parka (everyone wants to know what the “UNAT” on the back of my jacket stands for…) and it made me think I should start posting my swim workouts to my blog in case any other swimmers out there are bored of their current workouts and looking for something new to do. We have a lot of regulars at my pool, but no masters team in our area. All of them are good swimmers, and appear to put in nearly as many miles as most members of masters teams do. I have hopes of expanding “Team UNAT.”
I also added a new page to my blog, intended to help other “unattached” swimmers find resources, learn more about US Masters Swimming, and get inspired (Go Team UNAT!).
This week I’m planning on swimming (at least) five workouts. I picked out the following five workouts from my copy of Swim Workouts in a Binder and adapted them to the distance and strokes I want to swim.
If you are a beginner (or a faster / more experienced) swimmer, you can easily modify these workouts and adapt them to your capabilities / available time and desired distance. For example, you can decrease (or increase) the number of repeats of the main set, or you could decrease (or increase) each interval distance by half (50s become 25s, 200s become 100s, etc.). You can also adjust the interval times (more rest / less rest). Or, instead of using a “swim interval” you could use a “rest interval.” (To learn more about the difference between a swim interval and a rest interval, check out my resources page.)
As always, each workout will be preceded by my usual warm-up:
400 swim (free)
4 x 100 individual medley (fly / back / breast / free) on 2:00 swim interval (SI)
4 x 50 free descending (each one faster than the previous) on 1:00 SI
And I’ll finish each workout with my usual cool-down:
either 50 backstroke / 50 elementary backstroke (100 yrds)
or 100 backstroke / 50 elementary backstroke / 2 x 25 underwater swimming, no breath (200 yrds)
Here are the five workouts I picked for this week…..
Monday (Middle Distance, 13b):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
5x:
4 x 100 (odds moderate, evens fast)
odd sets (1, 3, and 5) free on 1:45 SI (or :20 RI), even sets (2 and 4) breaststroke on 1:55 SI (or :20 RI)
cool-down (200 yrds)
Total = 3200 yrds
Tuesday (Individual Medley, 2b):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
2 x 50 free (build) with :15 RI
100 IM with :30 RI
200 free with :30 RI
2 x 50 free (build) with :15 RI
200 IM with :30 RI
200 free with :30 RI
2 x 50 free (build) with :15 RI
300 IM with :30 RI
200 free with :30 RI
400 alternating 25 free / 25 breaststroke
100 fly kick on back
100 breaststroke kick
100 cool-down
Total = 3200 yrds
Wednesday (Distance, 8a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
2 x 400 free with :20 RI
2 x 300 free with :20 RI
2 x 200 free with :20 RI
2 x 100 free with :20 RI
4 x 50 breaststroke on 1:00 SI
cool-down (200 yrds)
Total = 3400 yrds
Thursday (off?)
Friday (Sprint, 3a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
2x:
200 free on 3:30 SI (or :20 RI)
100 free on 1:45 SI (or :20 RI)
50 fast on 1:00 SI (or :20 RI)
100 free on 1:45 SI (or :20 RI)
3 x 50 fast on 1:00 SI (or :20 RI)
100 easy on :20 RI
5 x 50 fast on 1:00 SI (or :20 RI)
200 kick (breaststroke)
100 cool-down
Total = 3200 yrds
Saturday (Stroke, 8a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
3x:
200 alternating 25 breast / 25 free with :20 rest interval (RI)
200 alternating 50 free / 50 breast with :20 RI
200 free with :20 RI
200 breast with :30 RI
cool-down (100 yrds)
Total = 3500 yrds
Sunday (off… and set up next week’s workouts…)
Happy swimming!
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