Week 27: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

[chucifer]

Week 27: Coach’s Notes, Upcoming Events, and Workouts of the Week

First of all, congrats to all who raced this weekend! A number of MSP swimmers ran the National Women’s Half Marathon and the North Face Endurance Challenge. Great job on a beautiful weekend to be outside!

Secondly, the UDC pool is still hovering at 74 degrees. The MSP is looking into other options for our AM swimmers! Don’t worry! We haven’t forgotten about you! In the meantime, please bring the workouts below to your individual swim sessions!

Thirdly, great job to everyone who swam the bench marking time trials. We had 16 retests and 9 new tests! Out of the retests, 69% got faster! That’s some great work and I believe that if the UDC pool were swimmable, we would see an even greater percentage! If you swam the time trials and would like to see where you stack up with your peers, check out the spreadsheet below!

Threshold testing time spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1miz2skr2KbpwW9of_sVPEnV3jR5AZEIXWDOVL1oGpGw/edit?usp=sharing

Lastly, a few reminders:

We are continuing to do ‘Deck Ups’ and as detailed previously the goal of this skill is to help acclimate you to the rigors of getting out of the water and into a vertical position to mimic transitions in a triathlon. We would like you to, when directed, to get out of the pool (in a safe manner) at the end of the interval, stand up, and touch something a few feet away, then return to the pool safely. Remember, Do NOT, under any circumstances, jump into the water with a swimmer coming into the wall inside the flags. As always, our coaches will be guiding you through these workouts so please listen to them closely when Deck Ups come around! Further, please be sure that when someone else is getting out of the water, if you are behind them, to give them enough space in case they don’t make it out of the pool completely!

With the region’s outdoor triathlon season starting, many of the swims are requiring wetsuits. If you haven’t had a chance to practice swimming with your wetsuit on, please come to practice ON FRIDAYS to gain familiarity with swimming with a wetsuit. Knowing how your body position changes with a wetsuit on is very important for those looking to maximize your race experience. If you would like to join us with your wetsuit, please arrive extra early so that you have time to put on your wetsuit. We expect that you will be ready to go when the practice starts. Please don’t forget any tools you might need to help you put your wetsuit on or to prevent chafing!

With all of the sighting and Deck Ups, please be kind to your shoulders! Shoulder mobility and strength exercises can greatly help prevent injury! These skills are strength dependent and as such, if they become too much for you, please let a coach know! We understand the challenge and don’t have a problem giving you an adjusted exercises to better suit your needs!

Questions? 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:
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.**

Shoulder Mobility: 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

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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:

400 Deck Up at every 100. No Stopping (MOP:300/BOP:300)

2×200 #1: Pull with Snorkel; #2 Pull (MOP:2×150/ BOP:2×100)

4×100 Threshold + 10s (MOP:3×100/BOP:4×50

400 Steady @ 70% (MOP:300/BOP:300)

2×200 Descend 70-85% (MOP:2×150/ BOP:2×100)

4×100 Threshold Pace + 10s (MOP:2×150/ BOP:2×100)

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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:

300 Pull w/Skl & Pad (MOP:200/BOP:100)
400 Deck Up at every 100 (MOP:300/BOP:200)
500 @ 75%; Last 100 Hard (MOP:400/BOP:400)
500 Sight every 10 strokes (MOP:400/BOP:400)
400 Pull (MOP:300/BOP:200)
300 Build 75-90% (MOP:200/BOP:100)

200 Warmdown

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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:

Main

2×400 on 1:00 Rest (MOP:2×300; BOP: 2×200)
#1: Deck Up every 100. Keep Swimming!
#2: Pull with Paddles @60%

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)

4×50 @ Wilson: All Out on 30s Rest (BOP: 2×50)

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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