You’ll find this week’s sessions here. We’re going to focus on 2 things this week, and these are things that work in tandem, so, one set of drills accomplishes both ends. I want you to learn both how to swim straight when you have no prompt (i.e., a line at the bottom of the pool) and I want you to be able to breathe whenever you want on whatever side you want. I want you to know how to miss a breath and not panic. And I want you to be able to get that breath back just by moving to the other side. I’m not a big one for hypoxic sets, but I do want you to know what hypoxia feels like. You’ll see one set this week that prescribes specific breathing patterns, and I want you to become proficient at moving from one breathing pattern to another.
This also helps you swim a straight line. If we can make you equally breath-capable, left side or right, this will help you swim a straight line.
For those of you who missed the beginning of this challenge, you can start now. Here are the workouts to date:
when i made my big move from average swimmer to good swimmer one characteristic of that 9-month period was a number of days where i swam twice. maybe 3 or 4 days a month i swam twice in a day. that’s a very good way to get better.
I’ve jumped into this challenge late. I’m only on week two.
Question about the two minute base. Does that mean taking a :20 (or so) per 100? In other words, I’d have to swim 400 yds in 6:40 in order to be able to take 1:20 rest and leave on 8:00. Is that correct?
I need to improve my swimming. I need to approach it like I do my running and marathons. You have to put in the miles/laps. I like to build my stamina in running … so now I am building my stamina in swimming. 3 weeks ago I upped my swimming to 4 days a week and started each session with 1000m continuous swim.
Then I found this. Not sure how I had missed it the first several weeks.
I believe Dan knows what he advises. So I am doing them without questioning. Sometimes I struggle with terminology … but hey, that is what google is for. Every day I do his plan. M-F … 3:40am … I am in the water and I do all 5 of them each week. Trying to also swim a long, continuous swim either in the pool or lake on the weekend.
I very much appreciate his taking the time to post these.
Agree with all the other comments, thanks Dan for putting this together. I got back into the pool after a few years off and despite my strength improving over the last few weeks my stamina has stayed the same - I realised that I was leaving too long between reps to catch my breath rather than doing it “on the top/bottom” or much shorter gaps in between.
I’m only a few weeks in but that has improved me already, and the fact that I just have to get in the pool and swim what I’m told without thinking makes it easier also.
the fact that I just have to get in the pool and swim what I’m told without thinking makes it easier also.
This. I stood at the end of the pool this morning. 3:40am. My training partner was a no-show (he worked late into the night). I thought … “I don’t really want to swim today”. The ‘Demons of Doubt’ started working in my head. Then I thought … ‘don’t think … just do the workout’. I did. Week 6 – 4th Workout. Less than an hour later I was done. Time to go run.
It helps to have a set plan laid out. I don’t have to rationalize or question it. I just follow it. I needed that little boost to get over the ‘reluctance hump’ this morning. Dan’s plan provided that.