Swim on Your Own

So, today was my first swim on your own day. It was supposed to be the broken mile. That just sounds intimidating to me. After Wednesday's performance in the pool, I knew there was no way I'd be able to do that, so I needed something else. But, for those who are curious, here's the broken mile that was planned:

Swim - wu with drills and swim
Broken mile (11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 laps) with 10-15 sec rest in between

Knowing that was a crazy workout, I was supposed to email Coach L earlier this week. However, I forgot until about 2pm. Instead of hoping she'd get back to me in an hour, I looked on www.beginnertriathlete.com for some ideas. I love the internet! One of the threads had a wonderful suggestion of www.swimplan.com. So, I headed over there and registered for an account, hoping I could get what I needed. Sure enough, I did!

Warm up

8 x 25m Any Stroke (even pace), rest 0:10 / 25m

Swim your choice of stroke at a steady pace.

Build up (repeat 4 times)

1 x 25m Streamline Kicking, rest 0:10 / 25m

Freestyle kick with arms held out front in a streamlined position. Fingers overlap with one thumb lightly gripping the opposite hand. Lift your chin above the water to breath without turning your head.

1 x 25m Single Arm (arm by side) 6 x left, 6 x right, 6 x full stroke, rest 0:10 / 25m

Freestyle using one arm at a time, focusing on shoulder and hip rotation. Complete 6 arm strokes with the left arm followed by 6 strokes with the right arm. The non-stroking arm is held loosely by your side.

Core

2 x 100m Freestyle Swim, rest 0:20 / 100m

4 x 50m 50/50 Freestyle + Breaststroke, rest 0:20 / 50m

Swim alternate lengths of Freestyle and Breaststroke. If you prefer, you can split longer distances by units instead of pool lengths e.g. Swim 100 Freestyle followed by 100 Breaststroke.

4 x 50m Freestyle DPS, rest 0:20 / 50m

Freestyle swim with maximum Distance Per Stroke (DPS). Concentrate on long, efficient strokes and a high streamlined body position to reduce drag in the water. Count your strokes per lap and try to reduce.

Warm down

8 x 25m Easy Any Stroke, rest 0:10 / 25m

Swim your choice of stroke, at a slow, relaxed pace.

The workout wasn't easy, but it wasn't too hard. Always a good sign. I just realized that I was supposed to do the build up 4 times... oops. I thought I was missing something. Ah well, so instead of 1200m total, I did 1050m. Still a good bit.

Next week, I need to remember to email Coach L earlier in the week for different (lesser) swim workouts for both Wednesday and Friday.