this is the 3rd time, i believe, we’ve hosted the guppy challenge. we debuted this challenge a couple of years ago, and it seemed to hoist a lot of people up over a hump in their swim. let’s hope we can do some good.
first things first: if you’re a member of a master’s swim team, swim with this team a couple of days a week. do these workouts i’m recommending another couple of days a week, or as many days per week as you want to be in the pool. or, twice in one day in the pool if you want. you might think this is absolutely out of the question, but, once you start improving, and you really catch the swimming bug, you’ll be looking for opportunities to jump in the pool and improve. that might include both a morning and evening swim from time to time. up to you.
**basic theme: ** for the next few weeks, we’re going to do two things: fix technical problems, and then once a week do a long swim that will build your endurance more than you think one swim capable. what i don’t want is for you to go out there and kill yourself in the pool. your problem is not that you aren’t swimming hard enough, and you being more and more gassed after every set isn’t going to make you faster. rather, we have to fix technical problems, and then we need to improve your endurance. none of this involves you getting your heart rate to new heights.
**nomenclature: ** a “leave interval” is typically the metric denoting how much time you get to rest when you swim sets. by this we mean that you “leave” the wall every so often. the swim + the rest equals the leave interval. so, let’s say you were swimming repeat 100 yards, as in, 10 x 100yd. let’s say you were capable of swimming 100 yards, all out, in 1:45, but you could swim it pretty easily in 2:10 or 2:15. we might say that a good leave interval for you is 2:30, meaning that you would “leave” at 2:30, 5:00, 7:30, 10:00, etc., until you had completed 10 of these 100s. in this case, you’ll get 15 or 20 seconds rest between each of your 100s. a leave interval is sometimes referred to in 100 yard (or meter) terms. so, if you were doing a “ladder” set that consisted of swimming 100yd, followed by 200yd, 300yd, 400yd, and then back down, 300, 200, 100, you might say that you’re “leaving” on the “2-minute base.” this means you swim your 100yd, maybe you finish that swim in 1:40, you rest 20sec, then leave at 2min. then you swim the 200, say, in 3:35, and then you leave at the 4-minute point. if you’re leaving on the “2min base” then your leave interval for 200yd is 4min, your leave interval for 300yd is 6min, and so forth.
default set: i’ve got just a basic default set for you. it’s your meat and potatoes set, at least for awhile. it’s 500 yards long, and it’s got a little bit of everything in there that’s going to give you fits. this is pretty much a warm-up set that you’re going to do over and over for awhile, and it’s this:
150 yards, then 100 yards, then 50 yards, swimming freestyle. these 300 yards are to be conducted on a “leave interval” that grants you about 30 seconds of rest between the 150 and the 100, 20 second rest between the 100 and the 50. if you can handle a leave interval on the 2min base, that means you swim the 150, and then when the clock hits the 3min mark you commence swimming your 100yd and then when you finish, and 2 more minutes have expired, you swim the 50.
if you can’t quite make the 2min base, fine. if you were able to swim on the 2:20 base, then you would leave on your 100yd swim when the clock strikes 3:30. by the way, we call that leaving “on the bottom.” even if there’s a digital clock, swimmers will still say, “let’s leave on the bottom.” this is because digital clocks are still fairly new to us oldsters, and we’re used to those large-faced round clocks on the pool deck with a big hand that strikes “30” when that hand is pointed to the bottom of the clock. anyway… if you add 2:20 to 3:30, your next “leave”, for your 50, is “on the :50,” that is, when the clock strikes 50. then you swim your 50yd swim and you’ll have 1:10 in which to complete your 50yd swim + your rest.
most of you, try to stick to either a 2-minute leave interval, or a 2:20 leave interval. these are convenient intervals for this, because, in each case, we will move to the next phase of this set “on the top.” i’ll let you figure out why we call it that.
after the 150/100/50, on the top, i’d next like you to kick. just a 50. with a kickboard. and with your fins if you need them. i want these 50s to be kicked on the 4-minute base, which means you will finish the 50, plus the rest, in 2 minutes; or the 6-minute base, which means you’ll finish the 50 kicking, plus the rest, and be ready to go again, in 3 minutes. you should not require a lot of rest after 50 yards kicking. while your legs will have gotten a pretty good workout, this won’t be a taxing workout aerobically. so, try not to end up with more than 30sec rest after your 50 yards kicking.
more on this 50yd kicking. i’d like you to scissor kick (flutter kick, the kick you use in freestyle), for the first length, and then dolphin kick back. if you cannot dolphin kick yet, fine, dolphin kick back until you completely stall and fail, and then scissor kick the rest of the way back. use fins if this is just too hard.
after your 50yd kick, on the next top, i want you to swim another 50. but now, i want you to do this 50 semi-catch-up.
then i want a 50 with 1-arm pulling, 25yd per arm.
finally, another 50yd kicking.
that’s 500 yards total. lather, rinse repeat. i want you to do this set over and over, as many times as you are comfortable doing it, until you feel as if you just must get out of the pool. if that’s 2 times thru, 1000yd total, that’s okay. if it’s 3 times thru, better yet. if you can handle this 4 times thru, better yet. no real need to go crazy. 4 times thru is as much as you need to do. slow and steady wins this challenge. just try to get thru at least 2 cycles.
your last workout of the week, i want you to do this set once, as a warm-up, and then i want you to swim a straight 1000yd. you can swim this for time, but i’m not interested in how hard you swim. just do the swim. start as slow as you need so that you can stay strong thru the whole swim. at the end of this 1000yd you may exit the pool. if you feel really invigorated and you want to swim more, do our default set one more time.
if the above constitutes 3 swims for the week, fine. if it constitutes 6 swims over the course of the week, also fine. up to you. just to recap:
default set:
150yd/100yd/50yd, on the 2min, 2:20, or 2:40 base.
50yd kicking, scissor out, dolphin-then-scissor back, with kickboard, with fins if needed, on whatever base needed, leave in soonest top.
50yd semi-catch-up, no fins, leave on soonest top.
50yd one-arm pull, no sculling with off-hand, with fins if needed, leave on soonest top.
50yd kicking, scissor out, dolphin-then-scissor back, with kickboard, with fins if needed, leave on soonest top moving right into this set all over again.
meters: what if your pool is meters? if it’s short course meters, just the same workout, but your leave intervals might need to be a little longer, as in, if you’re swimming yards on the 2:20 base you’ll probably need to swim meters on the 2:40 base. if you’re swimming “long course meters,” that is, the long way in a 50 meter pool, when you’re halfway across then start doing one-arm pulls with the other arm. if you are in a long course pool, and you can’t see the pool clock from the other end, just leave about when you think it’s time. you’ll get the hang of it.
filming: we aren’t going to need this right away, and it’s not a prerequisite that you ever do this, but, it would be nice if you had a buddy come to the pull with you at some point. yes, i’d like to see your stroke. however, better yet is for you to see your stroke. once we begin actually talking about how to fix your stroke, i want you to know what your own stroke looks like. just on top of the water, and then play this back for you without you ever leaving the pool. i want you to see what your stroke looks like, immediately, immediate feedback, so, you swim up and back, stop, watch the replay on the tablet, note whether the changes you’re seeking are with effect, swim another 50, get filmed, and so forth. there is a cheap online tool called ubersense (for iOS, there are other similar Android programs), we use it in bike fitting, i think it can easily be used in swimming, and in this case, we can employ a split screen, where the stroke i want you to exhibit is on one side, your own stroke is next to it. or, there is your bad stroke, next to it is your better stroke.
for now, your workouts are these above for week-1, commencing monday, post your success and struggles here on this thread.
