How to plan a weekly training schedule?
gaedtke2
Milwaukee, WiMember
I am pretty new to swimming. I taught myself how to swim freestyle two years ago(I am 37) and have been hooked since. I have done two 2.4 mile ow races. Last summer I finished in 1:04 and the previous summer finished in 1:10...not super fast, but not bad. This summer I would like to step it up and do an 8mile ow race nearby.
Currently I have been doing about 20,000 yds per week. I don't want to do much more than that. From the swimsmooth website my css time is 1:34 per 100yd. For all workouts I do a 500yd warmup and 250 yd cooldown--except my straight swim day.
I have seen a lot of awesome workouts on the forum here, but I don't how often these workouts can be done. Are four days in a row of high-intensity workouts too much?
Here is my typical weekly training schedule. My goal is to keep or increase endurance, while gaining a little speed. Everyone's goal I'm sure.
Monday: ladder down from 17 lengths with 15 sec rest in between. pace of 1:40 til about 8 lengths, then down to about 1:34 and finishing with all out the last few lengths.
Tuesday: 18 sets of 200's with 30 sec rest in between. usually 3:15-3:18 throughout (1:38pace). going all out on the last set or two
Wed: maybe a 3 or 4 mile straight swim. pace of 1:43-1:45
Thursday: I will just "wing it" and not push too hard. I might do a pyramid of lengths 4-4-6-6-8-8-8-6-6-4-4-4-4-4 at pace of about 1:36 on the 100s and 1:40 on the 200s giving myself 15 sec rest in between.
Saturday: I will either do a ladder down from 11 or 12 at pace of about 1:38. Or about 13 sets of 200s at pace of about 1:38.
I know these times aren't great, but I have been checking my heart rate between interval and I am at about 140btm. A friend said I should try to train at 120 btm. Should I pay attention to this? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Comments
I've seen somewhere a starting point can be 3 sessions a week
I find myself that pending how the week go (like with all other commitments) and also the availbility in the pool.
. And if you have more time just throw in a session with 100s!
Taht I usually end up doing 3 sessions of no 2 with some occasional drills
In relation to gear, i only use a snorkel and pullboy, i've given up handpaddles.
Welcome to the Forum, @gaedtke2 !
Great that you have a goal. What's the swim?
That's a reasonable base volume for an 8-mile target swim. If you want to stick with 20K/week going forward, then you can try to increase the quality (technique + speed) of your swimming, within the 20K parameter you have set.
Not necessarily - but listen to your body.
Are you swimming by yourself, or with a team or training partners? Swimming with other people can provide "free" motivation when it might otherwise be lacking.
Endurance is increased by swimming more (volume), over a long period of time. Speed is increased by swimming faster (more challenging intervals) or by improving technique.
Sounds like a fun set! How do you know your per-100 pace on odd 13/17/etc lengths? Are you using a swim watch or something? Or just really good at math?
Why not do these on a set interval (or pattern of intervals), instead of 30 sec rest? Do you have access to a pace clock?
To each his or her own, but... I almost never swim long/straight swims in the pool. Just too boring. If I need a distance/aerobic workout, I'd much prefer 10x500 on a pattern of intervals, compared to the same distance straight.
Cool. This may be a good workout to integrate some drills / technique work. Or different strokes... or do you only swim front-crawl?
HR is worth paying attention to, if you want to, but it's strange advice to do all your training at the same HR. You should be training at different HRs, and try to learn what those various HRs mean (aerobic, anaerobic, V02 max, etc.). Lots of info online about "training zones." Even for marathon swimming it's worth doing some of your training at or near the anaerobic threshold.
A whole session of drills? Yikes. I'd rather integrate a little bit of drilling in each workout. And make sure you know exactly why you're doing each drill.
Wow! Thank you for all of your advice evmo.
I live in the Milwaukee area and want to do the Lake Geneva Swim for Freedom. It is a fundraiser for the Special Operations Wounded Warrior Foundation. It is an 8 mile-ish swim across Lake Geneva that can be done as a relay or solo. I would hope to finish in 4 or 4.5 hours.
**Are you swimming by yourself, or with a team or training partners? Swimming with other people can provide "free" motivation when it might otherwise be lacking
**
Right now I just swim alone, so motivation can be tough when there are 80yr olds swim jogging in the lane next to me.
**Sounds like a fun set! How do you know your per-100 pace on odd 13/17/etc lengths? Are you using a swim watch or something? Or just really good at math?
I wish I was good at math, instead I just use the Garmin Swimwatch.
There is a pace clock and maybe I will move to set intervals rather than set rest periods. I just found the rest period easier to keep track of.
I also only do freestyle.
Thanks again for your help
No kidding! Here is where the pace clock can become the motivator.
The pace clock is a little tricky to learn if you are mathematically challenged. This is my case for sure. To learn it the easy way, just start with using send offs on :15 increments. That means you won't have to be calculating weird intervals and you know the second hand will be at the top, bottom or side quarter minute positions. Easy, but sometimes not too challenging. Then you get motivated to figure out the intervals in between.
I have also done a total cheat sheet where I pre calculate the interval and write down each send off. It is a total mess and way too much work, but considering I still use my fingers to add, it probably is par for the course. It was great back in swim practice days when I could just wait for someone to go and that would be my cue. I'm like the illiterate guy pretending to read...
Once you do a bunch of sets that become your regular 'go to' sets, you will kind of know where on the clock you should be. This also is your race buddy, because you glance at the clock on your turn and you see if you are ahead or behind that darn second hand. It takes a while to learn how it all works together, but it's worth it.
The one thing I can't figure out is why they make the clock run faster on some days. Probably the same reason they make the pool go uphill both directions.
I'm not sure if the garmin swimwatch has the "rest screen" that the garmin 920 has, but if it does, you can set a "time since last interval start" on there and they use that for your sendoffs. So it'll show both how many seconds of rest you have had, and what your total interval is. I also have mine set to show my total yardage so I can quickly see how many whatevers I am into a long set (so when I have say 35x100 starting 900 into my workout, I know if I'm on 23 or 27 or whatever with quick easy math).
Signed,
can't see the pool clock