Week 22: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

[chucifer]

Week 22: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

Welcome to Week 22, the start of the second half of Phase 3 of our program!

This week we are continuing to develop our open water swimming techniques and skills by building on the Alligator Eyes technique we have practiced the last 3 weeks. While we will still have some Alligator Eyes drills scattered in our warmup, we will start to incorporate some Full Sighting in our main sets. The difference between the two techniques is in the height out of the water we should be lifting our heads when sighting. With Alligator Eyes, we press slightly down with the leading hand while taking a stroke AND while we are looking forward to allow ONLY our eyes to come out of the water. The whole head does not come out of the water. However, with full sighting, we press down a bit harder and bring our whole face (including chin) out of the water.

It may seem silly to bring our whole face out of the water in a pool, however, when we race in open water, we will not have the luxury of wave cancelling lane lines and gutters. To effectively sight in varied water conditions, we need to be able to put ourselves in the best position to sight as few times as needed. The reason for this is that each time we sight, we throw off our body’s balance in the water. This causes drag and slows us down. This is a good time for me to remind you that when you finish sighting, we then immediately return our head to the proper swimming position (looking down). For the full steps on Alligator Eyes and Full Sighting, please see the section after these Notes.

With all that said, we will be gently working this skill into our workouts so as to not stress your backs with too many new movements. However, to help yourself prep for this new motion, we STRONGLY recommend performing some general core workouts throughout the week. The section after these Notes has our current recommendation on core workouts. Once we get to Phase 4 in Mid April (Race Prep Phase), we will be doing a LOT of sighting because it’s something that should be second nature to us open water swimmers and something we can execute in our sleep with as little disruption to our stroke as possible. If you’re thinking about starting the core workouts later… think again.

If you have any questions, feel free to post on our Facebook page (link below) or, as always, you may ask a coach or email us at masters@dctriclub.org

Happy Swimming!
-Your MSP Coaches

For day to day announcements and interaction, we use Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/groups/212967452505458/

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Core Exercises: Currently we are prescribing a total (not all at once!) of 3 minutes of front plank and 3 minutes of superman exercises three days a week. If you can’t hold a front plank for a minute, go for 30 seconds. if 30 seconds is too much, go for 15 seconds and repeat that until you get up to a total of 3 minutes

How to do a front plank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7IuxfKFDzE (If you would like an easier version, try a high plank by supporting yourself with your hands. For an even easier version, plank from your knees)

How to do a superman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6PJMT2y8GQ

Sighting Steps:
There are multiple times that you can sight, but effectively, the best time to sight is right at the moment when one of your arms is right at the beginning of the catch. Once in that position, in one fluid motion, pull hard and *slightly* downward and lift your whole head out of the water, not just your eyes.
Once your head comes out of the water, take a quick mental snapshot of what you’re seeing and immediately put your head back down into the water with your nose pointed down. Do NOT keep looking forward with your head in or out of the water. If you do so, you create a severe amount of drag and can slow your momentum down significantly.
Once your head is back in a normal swimming position, review your mental snapshot to see if you are able to identify what you saw. If the answer is yes, then continue swimming. If the answer is no, repeat the sighting steps until you understand what you’re seeing.
As for adding breathing to this motion, you can breathe before or after your sighting. I recommend sighting first, then turning your head and breathing in as you lower your head into the water. I recommend this method because it limits the lateral motion that can happen with your head if you breathe then try to lift your rotating head to sight.

Recommended Gear: https://www.swimoutlet.com/dctmasters/ **Please come to practice with a swimmer’s snorkel and paddles. Please use resistance cords at home or right before practice.**

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Upcoming Events:
Mid-East Regional Club Championships: May 20th at Bear, DE: https://www.beartriathlon.com
Club NTP/ODP/HIM Goal Races: July 7th & 8th, Williamsburg, VA http://www.rev3tri.com

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Workouts of the week:

Monday

Pre-Workout: 3×30 Resistance Cord Pulls. Bring your cords to the pool, get there early and crank through these before the workout.
Warm Up:
300 EZ (BOP: 200)

4×100 with Snorkel as 25 Superman Kick, 25 Alligator Eyes every 6 strokes, 25 Catchup Drill, 25 Swim on 20s Rest (MOP:3×100; BOP:2×100)
**Superman Kick should have arms fully extended with hands shoulder width apart, fingertips below wrists below elbows below shoulders
**Alligator Eyes Drill: press slightly down while taking a stroke while looking forward to allow your eyes to come out of the water. Immediately return to proper swimming head position
**Catch up Drill should be done VERY SLOWLY and with a focus on hands entering in front of the shoulder and pulling straight back. Breathe every stroke.

Pre Main: 4×50 Descend on 10s Rest

Main
Main 1
4×400 all on 40s rest (MOP: 3x; BOP: 2x)
#1 Pull with Snorkel + Paddles @ 60% Focus on Head Position and Hand Entry
#2 Swim with Paddles @ 70%
#3 Swim Reverse Build 85-60% Sight once every 50
#4 Swim Build 60-85% Sight once every 50

Main 2 (MOP: 2×50/300/2×50; BOP: 2×50/200/2×50)
4×50 25 Hard, 25 EZ on 15s Rest
400 Steady Effort @80%; Last 100 Hard; on 1’ Rest
4×50 25 EZ, 25 Hard on 15s Rest

200 Warm Down
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Wednesday
Pre-Workout: 3×30 Resistance Cord Pulls. Bring your cords to the pool, get there early and crank through these before the workout.
Warm Up:
300 EZ (BOP: 200)

4×100 with Snorkel as 25 Superman Kick, 25 Alligator Eyes every 6 strokes, 25 Catchup Drill, 25 Swim on 20s Rest (MOP:3×100; BOP:2×100)
**Superman Kick should have arms fully extended with hands shoulder width apart, fingertips below wrists below elbows below shoulders
**Alligator Eyes Drill: press slightly down while taking a stroke while looking forward to allow your eyes to come out of the water. Immediately return to proper swimming head position
**Catch up Drill should be done VERY SLOWLY and with a focus on hands entering in front of the shoulder and pulling straight back. Breathe every stroke.

Pre Main: 4×50 Descend on 10s Rest

Main: Challenge Set! (aka: The David)

4 rounds of:

100 EZ 15s Rest
XXX Build 60-90% Sight once per 50 20s rest
100 EZ 15s Rest
100 Hard 90%+ 25s Rest

The XXX starts at 100 and increases each ‘round’

Try to finish all 4 by the end of the practice!

200 Warm Down

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Friday
Pre-Workout: 3×30 Resistance Cord Pulls. Bring your cords to the pool, get there early and crank through these before the workout.
Warm Up:
300 EZ (BOP: 200)

4×100 with Snorkel as 25 Superman Kick, 25 Alligator Eyes every 6 strokes, 25 Catchup Drill, 25 Swim on 20s Rest (MOP:3×100; BOP:2×100)
**Superman Kick should have arms fully extended with hands shoulder width apart, fingertips below wrists below elbows below shoulders
**Alligator Eyes Drill: press slightly down while taking a stroke while looking forward to allow your eyes to come out of the water. Immediately return to proper swimming head position
**Catch up Drill should be done VERY SLOWLY and with a focus on hands entering in front of the shoulder and pulling straight back. Breathe every stroke.

Pre Main: 4×50 Descend on 10s Rest
Main

500 Pull 60% with Snorkel & Paddles (MOP:400; BOP:300) 30s Rest
100 Hard @ 90% 25s Rest
400 Pull 70% with Paddles Sight once per 50(MOP:300: BOP:200) 30s Rest
100 Hard @ 90% 25s Rest
300 Pull 80% no toys (MOP&BOP:200) 30s Rest
100 Hard @ 90% 25s Rest
200 Build 60-90% Sight once per 50 30s Rest
100 Hard @ 90% 25s Rest
100 EZ 20s Rest
100 Hard @ 90% 25s Rest

200 Warmdown

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Longer Distance Swimmer Added Set: Add to any day after the main set. This is NOT a replacement for the main set.

HIM:
200 Swim@85% immediately into next part
500 Pull@60% w/Snorkel. NO Paddles.
Focus on form and proper head position and hand entry.

IM and Longer:
300 @85% No Gear 20s Rest
700 Pull@60% w/Snorkel. 20s Rest
200 @85% No Gear
**Try to keep rest minimal between sets. Just enough time to throw on gear and get a swig of water.

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