Week 23: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

[chucifer]

Week 23: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

Note: This is also not an April Fool’s post

Swimmers, welcome to Week 23! Before we delve into some discussion points, I just wanted to remind everyone (again) that there is NO AM swim tomorrow morning. Andre, the pool manager, will not be available and AM swims will continue on Wednesday. Speaking of the AM sessions, unfortunately, as of Friday morning, the UDC pool was still hovering around 75 degrees, which, while a little bit chilly if you stop for too long, is a swimmable temperature. Hopefully, the broken part in the heating system will be fixed shortly and we can get back to business as normal. If you’re curious about the daily temperatures, Andre does update the Aquatics website with the current pool temperature found here: http://www.udcfirebirds.com/information/CampusRec/aquatics

As of last week, we have completed 5 months of our program. For those of you who have been with us through the last few months of this season, thank you and we hope that you have learned something to better your swimming experience. Recently, we have had a good number of new swimmers join us and I just want to remind everyone that our workouts are written to improve your technique, strength, and endurance and to do that, we use specialized tools in the form of a Swimmers Snorkel, Paddles, and Resistance Cords. If you’d like a crash course on how these tools help, check out our very first post from the beginning of this season: https://www.facebook.com/groups/212967452505458/permalink/326856217783247/ Also, check out our third post from this season for links on how to use these tools: https://www.facebook.com/groups/212967452505458/permalink/331301314005404/ If you don’t have any of these tools, check out our recommended gear link here: https://www.swimoutlet.com/dctmasters/

This week, I’d like to focus on something a little less physical and a lot more mental: Upping your awareness game. Swimming is a difficult to achieve balance of strength, endurance, and technique. One of the great aspects of swimming with a team is that you get like minded people to push you to swim faster and to swim longer AND you have coaches to help guide you through technique issues. However, having someone watching you on deck telling you what is wrong won’t make you instantly a better swimmer. For that to happen, you need to up your awareness game and constantly evaluate your efforts in making those corrections with every stroke by finding a cue to let you know you’re on the right track.

The great thing about being immersed in water is that the water will tell you what you’re doing wrong, the trick is finding out how to ‘listen’ for those cues. The most common cues that we can identify are where the water creates pressure zones because our limbs are trying to move through it. Let’s take the Superman Kick Drill as an example. As written, this drills asks us to kick on our stomachs with our arms outstretched, shoulder width apart, elbows pointed out, with our fingertips below our wrists, below our elbows, below our shoulders. If this is done correctly, by virtue of our body position while kicking steadily, we should feel a slight pressure on the tops of our fingertips. If, instead, we feel pressure on the bottoms of our fingers or on our palms while doing this drill, then we know that something is not correct. The same goes for swimming with a snorkel. If we see our hands pulling across our face instead of straight back from the entry point in front of our shoulder, we know that something is not correct.

Every issue in swimming has a cue, if you’re aware of it. So as we tackle our sets this week, let’s turn up our awareness game.

If you have any questions on what you should or should not be feeling/seeing in correcting your issues that we have discussed with you, please feel free to ask a coach.

If you’re still confused after that feel free to post on our Facebook page or, as always, you can 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/

—

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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.**

—

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

—

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)

200 with Snorkel as 2x(25 Superman Kick, 50 Alligator Eyes every 6 strokes, 25 Swim)
**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

Pre Main: 6×50 Descend on 10s Rest (MOP/BOP: 4×50)

Main
Main 1
6×250 all on 25s rest (MOP: 6×200; BOP: 6×150)
#1 & #2 Pull with Snorkel + Paddles @ 70%, Middle 50 Hard
#3 & #4 Swim @80%
#5 EZ Alligator Eyes every 8 Strokes
#6 Build 70-90%

Main 2 (MOP: 12×50; BOP: 8×50)
16×50: Odds: EZ Sight every 7 strokes; Evens: Hard on :15

200 Warm Down

—

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)

200 with Snorkel as 2x(25 Superman Kick, 50 Alligator Eyes every 6 strokes, 25 Swim)
**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

Pre Main: 6×50 Descend on 10s Rest (MOP/BOP: 4×50)

Pre Main 2: UDC:50 Fast for time!/Wilson:100 for time! (Get your time!)

Main 1: Challenge Set! (“Katie”)
UDC: 32x25s on :35 OR Wilson: 16x50s on 1:00
Alternative Interval time: 10s Rest
Goal time: ½ your prep set time!

Instructions:
When you miss the first time, keep going and give yourself 5 extra seconds of rest each time.
When you miss the 2nd time, give yourself and give yourself another 5 extra seconds of rest each time
When you miss the 3rd time, give yourself as much rest as you need after each interval.

Main 2: (MOP: 400/300/200; BOP: 300/200/100) on 40s Rest
500 Pull @ 60% Skl + Pad; Alligator Eyes every 8 strokes
400 Swim @ 70% Skl
300 Build 70-90%; Sight once per 50

Warmdown: 200

—

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)

200 with Snorkel as 2x(25 Superman Kick, 50 Alligator Eyes every 6 strokes, 25 Swim)
**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

Pre Main: 6×50 Descend on 10s Rest (MOP/BOP: 4×50)
Main

4×200 on 30s Rest (MOP:3×200; BOP: 2×200)
#1: Pull with Snorkel and Paddles @ 60% Alligator eyes every 8 strokes
#2: Pull with Paddles @60%
#3: Pull @ 80%
#4: No Gear @ 85%

6×100 Descend 1-3, 4-6 @ 60-90% on TPace +15s (MOP: 5×100; BOP 4×100) Try for three distinct speeds.

8×50 as Odds: EZ Sight once every 8 strokes; Evens: Hard on 20s rest (MOP: 6×50; BOP: 4×50)

8×25 (4×50 @ Wilson) All Out on 20s Rest (BOP: 4×25 or 2×50 at Wilson)

200 Warmdown

—

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

HIM:
100 Swim@85% immediately into next part
500 Pull@60% immediately into next part
100 Swim@85%
Focus on form and proper head position and hand entry.

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

[Author]

Posts