In The Swim Of Things

With my first race of the season just around the corner on June 13th, I've decided to amp up my game and start working on my swim. Also, after reading momontherocks.com, I'm very glad my race season doesn't start until mid June, while Omaha's started early May. I don't like cold water, and my tri pals were in really cold water last weekend. Even with wetsuits on, I salute their bravery.

Last year I really focused on endurance, and got myself running. A lot. I can pull out 8 miles no problem, but I was disappointed in my swim time. I alternate timing workouts with distance/endurance, and here's a good one I did yesterday, If anyone is looking for a good swim workout. Also, after I did this, I ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes doing 30 sec. sprints every 2 minutes. It was a good day.

So without further ado...

200-400 easy freestyle (by the way, 4 laps equals 100 yds. That means you are swimming between 8 and 16 laps for the warmup. I go for the higher end, and by easy, I mean do it easy. This took me 8 minutes to do. That's a good amount of time for a warmup).

4x50 kick (easy 25, strong 25)
8x50 (count your strokes on the first 25 and drop by 2 the second 25. OR you can bastardize this as I have because I'm trying to make my breathing more efficient by increasing lung capacity and count how many strokes you take before you breathe and then drop that by 2 on the second 25)
4x50 (build)
2x100 moderate with 10 s. rest
4x75 (25 easy, 25 drill, 25 sprint) 15 sec. rest
6X 50 (25 stroke, 25 free) 10s rest
8x25 (alternate easy and strong) 10 s. rest

100-400 easy cool down

Total yardage= 2100-2600

I'm no good at math, but this equates to just over 100 laps. 72 laps is equivalent to 1 mile, so this is slightly over 1 1/4 mile. This workout also burned 613 calories, 45% of which were fat calories.

Happy Swimming!