Swimming training plan

[David Novo]

I'm currently following Alertdiver's swimming plan but I feel its time to raise the bar a bit. Any ideas on improvements?

200m freestyle warm-up swim
5 x kick against the wall with fins for 45 seconds with 15 seconds rest
8 x 50m swim with 15 seconds rest between each
100m easy swim
4 x 50m kick with fins (interval is 1:15)
4 x 50m freestyle with fins (interval is 1:00)
200m easy warm-down swim

Thank you in advance.

 

[jonhall]

1300 meters (not counting the wall kicks) is a pretty good distance. If you're breezing through that, congratulations!

First of all, that was a sample workout from Alert Diver. It is important to change it up a bit or you'll become bored doing the same thing over and over. Things you could do might include:

- Increase the distance of the warm up and cool down swims. Increase the distance of the overall workout.
- Change the distance of your swims or kicks. Instead of only 50's, include 100's.
- Swim/kick faster.
- Change your stroke/kick
- Increase drag. Wear a tshirt/sweatshirt while swimming.
- Shorten your rest interval or timed interval. Timed intervals are the tougher of the two if training on your own unless you have a clock you can easily see or have plenty of time left in the interval to check a timepiece. I once watched some Indiana University swimmers doing 100 yard kicks on a 1 minute interval. It was pretty impressive.
- Don't forget your arms - maybe do some intervals only doing pulls. Put a kickboard or pull buoy between your legs.
- I know the purpose of so much kicking is to simulate diving, but if the kicking is on the surface that doesn't really happen (maybe for snorkeling.) Maybe include some underwater swims - such as some 25's where you swim underwater as far as you can before surfacing and kicking the rest of the way to the wall.

Good luck!

 

[David Novo]

1300 meters (not counting the wall kicks) is a pretty good distance. If you're breezing through that, congratulations!

First of all, that was a sample workout from Alert Diver. It is important to change it up a bit or you'll become bored doing the same thing over and over. Things you could do might include:

- Increase the distance of the warm up and cool down swims. Increase the distance of the overall workout.
- Change the distance of your swims or kicks. Instead of only 50's, include 100's.
- Swim/kick faster.
- Change your stroke/kick
- Increase drag. Wear a tshirt/sweatshirt while swimming.
- Shorten your rest interval or timed interval. Timed intervals are the tougher of the two if training on your own unless you have a clock you can easily see or have plenty of time left in the interval to check a timepiece. I once watched some Indiana University swimmers doing 100 yard kicks on a 1 minute interval. It was pretty impressive.
- Don't forget your arms - maybe do some intervals only doing pulls. Put a kickboard or pull buoy between your legs.
- I know the purpose of so much kicking is to simulate diving, but if the kicking is on the surface that doesn't really happen (maybe for snorkeling.) Maybe include some underwater swims - such as some 25's where you swim underwater as far as you can before surfacing and kicking the rest of the way to the wall.

Good luck!

Thank you.