Workout Wednesday - Christmas Day Special

It's Christmas, and there's no way you could have gotten out and swam this morning.  And if you somehow did find a pool that was open, you should go home now and spend time with your friends and family!  But, like a lot of athletes I know, you're itching for a workout and can't wait for the aquatics center to open up on the 26th.  So, what to do?


As I'm working on a blog post covering pre-season training, and the need to focus on speed endurance and speed, I thought I would whip up a simple set to focus on this.  First, a refresher on two of your energy systems:

Anaerobic Glycolysis Energy System.
  • Uses glycogen to generate energy.  glycogen is a carbohydrate that is stored in your muscular system.  It's broken down when energy demands are high.
  • This pathway provides energy for high intensity activities lasting from 10 seconds to 2 minutes.
Aerobic Energy System
  • Uses oxygen in the process of generating energy.
  • Used when activity lasts longer than about 2 minutes.  It’s also used for activities shorter than one minute, but the contribution is very small.
Energy production can be held for a long period of time in the aerobic system.  But the intensity of work must be reduced.

So, to work the anaerobic/aerobic system, you need to build a main set that is between 600-2000 yards or meters in distance, lasting approximately 8-40 minutes.  You'll prescribe between :15 and :50 rest between each effort.

Good examples of a anaerobic/aerobic system based set are:

6 x 200 on :30 rest.
or 
10 x 100 IM on :45 rest.  

Of course a better way to structure this workout is to determine a firm sendoff.  If you know your athletes base 100 time, you can target an effort, say 200's at a 1:10 pace, and with :30 rest you could write the workout to fit your individual athletes.

So......need a good set for Thursday?  This is SCM and is about 1:15 in duration.

Warm up:
300 swim
200 kick
200 pull

8 x 75 build up on 1:30
.
Main set
6 x 200 on 2:50
1:10 pace target. (Adjust this send-off on the base time of you or your athlete - you want about :30 rest)

4 x 150 pull on 2:30
Easy / Moderate effort.
.
Cool down
200 easy.

3,900 yards

We here at Podium Training Systems hope you have a wonderful holiday.  Cheers!