Making your own workout

I hit the pool this morning for some yardage.  It sure is hard to get out a warm bed knowing you will be standing on the edge of a pool in your speedo/jammers working in up the courage to jump in.

I've been very loose with my swim training.  I have not been dipping into the bag of workouts for a long time now.  Usually I think up a workout as I drive to the Y.

My first 1000 yards are always the same.  500 warm-up doing crawl, breast and back strokes.  Then 500 yards of drills.

The main set today was only 800 yards but the intensity was the focus.

The workout broke down as follows:

200 - 25 hard, 150 steady, 25 hard
200 - 50 hard, 100 steady, 50 hard
200 - 75 hard, 50 steady, 75 hard
200 -  200 hard






200 yards cooldown


I used this as a race simulation.  Short hard efforts act as the start of a race and the ending efforts would be surges to break away from a pack or catch a faster pack.

Because the time swimming hard increases the total time for each 200 should drop.

My 200's were: 2:59, 2:56, 2:51, 2:46. 

Boy did I feel it in my arms.  But the feeling told me that I was maintaining good form and catching a lot of water with each stroke.  The times reflect that also. 

Give this workout a try and let me know how it goes.