As we begin to move through the early stages of the Summer Long Course Season; our focus has primarily been on aerobic and anaerobic development.
Our collectively philosophy as a coaching staff believes firmly in establishing great training capacity for all of our athletes. This requires our workout volume in the beginning months of the season to be relatively high; which usually translates well later on in the championship or “utilization” phase of our season. In the US, this usually culminates in the last week of July and the first two weeks of August.
The idea behind this main set is to work on even splitting on the first 2 repeats of the 1600’s; while working on building the effort and descending numbers 3-4 to fast as possible. Throughout numbers 1-4 we will be looking for correct technique and consistent pace across all 4 strokes; as well as working on a goal set number of kicks off each wall.
Coach Mike Murray sent us more thoughts on this special workout after their highly successful season. Below is an “updated description” for this session.
This is a “once in a season set,” that we use with great caution, however, we believe that it strengthens the athletes ability to handle training volume, perfect stroke technique and repetitive movement that improves the elite level fitness required to be successful at the national level.
This workout was part of the huge success that this national training group had, which led to a top 8 finish at the 2018 Open Water Nationals in the 5k, as well as a 6th place finish at the 2018 Phillips 66 USA National Championships in the 400 IM.
The principal idea is to have the athletes work on specific endurance across all 4 strokes in the IM and descend their time and effort on longer IM repeats (6 x 1200 IM) which is 300 yards of each stroke.
After reviewing some old training logs from the legendary books of Coach Dick Shoulberg at Germantown Academy Aquatics, I decided that we should let our national level swimmers try this; truth be told, only 2 of our swimmers completed this workout and did it correctly; i.e. descending effort and time throughout the 6 repeats.
I truly believe that workouts like this, used sparingly, help led one of our athletes to a top 30 FINA world ranking in the 400 IM long course meters.
Workout PM
| Yards | Set Description | EGY | WORK | STK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1800 | 2-2-2 Kicking off all walls ***Warm-up:*** 1x{1 x 500 on 6:30 200 Free-100K-200IM w/fins {1 x 300 on 4:00 K/S-IM-focus on 6K off walls w/fins {3 x 200 on 2:35 50 Kick-100IM-50K Desc 1-3 w/fins {4 x 75 on :55 Free, Maintain Speed on SR w/fins {4 x 25 on :20 Butterfly; work UW’s w/fins |
– – EN1 EN2 EN2 EN2 EN2 |
– – A A A S A |
– – FRM IM IM FR STK |
| 100 | 1 x 100 on 3:00 Recovery/Drill w/Purpose | REC | D | CH |
| 7200 | ***Main-Set:*** 1x{6 x 1200 on 15:30 IM; 1-2 @ RED; Desc 3-4 @ BLUE |
– EN2 |
– S |
– IM |
| 100 | 1 x 100 on 3:00 Recovery/Drill w/Purpose | REC | D | CH |
WORKOUT TOTAL: 9200
Additional Comments:
This is not something that I would advocate doing more than 1-3 times throughout the course of a year long training program. As a reminder, this workout was really specific to a group of national level athletes and one world class swimmer (only do this set with trained, actively fit athletes on your team). You have to work up to this level!
This workout was provided by Islanders Aquatics Co-Head Coach Michael Murray.
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