Week 24: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

[chucifer]

Week 24: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

This is the last week of Phase 3! For those of you who ran in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler this weekend, congratulations!

If you are just joining us, welcome! For those who have been to our sessions, we’re glad you’re developing your skills with us!. For those who are yet to join us, as long as you can swim a 200 without stopping, now is as good a time to join us as any! Our ‘Phases’ are merely periods in time where we add new skills to our quiver and regardless of the Phase we are in, we practice ALL of our skills at each practice.

As for an update on UDC, as of Friday morning, the UDC pool was still hovering around 73 degrees, which, while a little bit chilly if you stop for too long, is a swimmable temperature. We are in constant communication with UDC leadership, however, we would strongly encourage those affected to give the UDC POC, Jason Imperati, a call to file a complaint or to voice concerns regarding the pool temperatures. He may be reached at: (202) 274-6796.

By the end of this week you should have become somewhat comfortable executing two new skills learned in Phase 3: Alligator Eyes and Full on Sighting. The difference between the two skills is how far your face comes out of the water (half vs full) and while it may seem like a small difference, being able to bring your full face out of the water can both be far more difficult and far more effective in an open water race situation. Be sure to practice both where designated in the workouts. Don’t be worried about not being 100% comfortable with the skills just yet as each workout will give you an opportunity to practice!

Looking forward to Phase 4, we’ll be learning and executing some race preparation skills in addition to working on sighting, proper head position, pulling strength, hand entry, and body position! However, with that said, before we start Phase 4, please find a pair of old sneakers that you don’t use anymore and get ready to bring them to swim practice next week! All will be explained soon!

Lastly, in discussions with some swimmers about shoulder mobility I’d like to share a link for some pre-swim exercises that you can do to help improve your shoulder mobility. One of the biggest differences between swimmers who learned as children and swimmers who learned as adults is most often a lack of shoulder mobility for the adult onset swimmers. Compound this with common jobs of sitting at a desk with a lack of motion for hours each day and the result is a highly inflexible upper body. Start this video at 6:10 and with the last exercise, you can do it against a wall (aka Wall Angel) starting from a superman position: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5BuC-bZ9WQ

If you ever have any questions on your stroke and/or what you should or should not be feeling/seeing in correcting your stroke’s issues, 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/

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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:
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.**

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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)

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 times through:
400*** on 45s Rest (MOP: 300/BOP:200)
100 Build 75-90% on 20s Rest
50 @ 90% on 30s Rest

***#1: Pull w/Snorkel + Paddles @ 60%
#2: Swim w/Snorkel @ 60% Sight once per 25
#3: Build 60-90%
#4: Reverse Build 90-60%

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)

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:

5×100 @ TPace + 15s (MOP: 4x/BOP:3x)
100EZ 1 min rest

5×100 @ TPace +10s (MOP: 4x/BOP:3x)
100EZ 1 min rest

5×100 @ TPace +5s (MOP: 4x/BOP:3x)
100EZ 1 min rest

400 Pull w/Snorkel Sight Once per 50 (MOP:300/BOP:200)

Warmdown: 200

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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)

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

2 Rounds of: (MOP: 1.5 Rounds/BOP: 1 Round)

4×50 as 25 Hard, 25 EZ on 10s Rest
3×100 Descend 1-3 60-90% on 15s Rest
2×200 Pull @ 60%
1×300 Swim @ 80% with snorkel sight every 10 strokes

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:
500 @ 60% sight every 8 strokes immediately into 200 Swim @ 85%
Focus on maintaining form after every sighting

IM and Longer:
700 @ 60% sight every 8 strokes immediately into 300 Swim @ 85%
Focus on maintaining form after every sighting

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