Training Week Feb 2nd

Welcome to this week’s workout plan. Time to hit the next training cycle which is Technical Endurance! Let's jump into the pool!

Here the training plan for the week:

Check out the video walkthrough of the training cycle:

Welcome to this week’s workout plan. You can find more in depth explanations of this workout in the description and at myofit AI. Subscribe to the site to speak with me! Coach Nadi, your real-time coaching agent! Time to jump into the pool!

We are in week four of a 16 week training cycle leading up to the April swim meet. Time to hit the next training cycle which is Technical Endurance! You will still be working on breathing and body streamline positioning but we will alternate the drills throughout the week. At this point, you should feel fairly comfortable with understanding and making slight adjustments to your body position. The technical elements will soon be more complex so continue to focus on how your body feels as you increase speed. The psychological sustainment emphasis will be on mental persistence to push through tough training sessions. As always, these four skills complete the quadruple reinforcement model for swimming.

Week four shifts focus to technical endurance. This is a longer training block as we will move through four distinct technical elements in the next 6 weeks. Technical endurance involves a majority of swimming at specific race paces while focusing on one technical element. This week we will continue to work on breathing while any streamline adjustments should happen during warmup and prep sets. This week, we will use the 200 freestyle as the baseline speed and build to fast sprints at the end of the week. If you choose to do more non-free stroke work then those sets will be closer to a 100 pace. General conditioning was about getting the mind and body tuned to work together, technical endurance is about finding and pushing the breaking point of your stroke mechanics.  

Continue to perform the on deck exercises from the body streamline skill and make them a habitual warmup routine. The inhalation, exhalation breathing drill should be easier, faster, and deeper than last week. Try to complete three sets of 10 or even two sets of 15 swimming breaths before hopping in the water.

At this point you have four mechanical reinforcement drills in your warmup routine, two for streamline mechanics and two for breathing mechanics. Feel free to adjust the conditioning plan with the drills that you feel you need the most work on. You will also have more time to work on these items in the main sets, essentially the whole workout is now an opportunity to focus on tune your mechanics to event specific speeds.

A number of videos have been included in this playlist and at myofit AI. Watch examples of elite athletes during their breathing phases to better understand proper head position. There is an example for each stroke with a longer explanation of the breathing mechanics, adjustments, and training emphasis. Watching videos of elite athletes is the best way to visualize correctly completing a new skill. You won’t be perfect the first or second time, the goal is to become one percent better each session!

This week’s Psychological sustainment will address the fact that tougher training sessions are on the schedule. The journey to athletic excellence is rarely smooth; it is strewn with challenges and obstacles that can test even the most dedicated athletes. Encouraging persistence during these tough training periods can make all the difference in achieving long-term goals. Just like we talk about in the last section, persistence means understanding that you are improving one percent at a time because you are mentally focusing on a piece of the plan that directly improves your swimming technique. Of course you’ll lose focus every so often during a swim workout but as long as you have a specific mechanical emphasis, a specific goal time, and you take the time between sets to mentally reset then you will be building your swim skills and your mental persistence.

Here’s the week four conditioning plan. The full training plan is linked in the description. Throughout the week, warmups will incorporate the four MRDs you’ve already worked on. You may use fins for the MRDs but only beginners should use fins for the underwater breakouts. The week starts with 200 pace freestyle. This will be a bit faster than your previous VO2 max and 400 or 500 pace sets. As these are the main stress sets we will also aim for more 50’s at pace rather than 25’s. If 50’s are too hard, continue to do the sets with 25’s, nothing else should change as you should still be working on your technical items at a faster pace. For the second and third sets you will work even faster with 25’s at your 100 pace. Your mechanics will change at these speeds so find a target time you can maintain for 8-12 repetitions and focus hard on maintaining a good streamline and breathing pattern. Alternate the 100 sets with any stroke you feel comfortable with.

 Have fun! This week is about going faster and getting the heart rate up. This is why you did general conditioning the last three weeks, you are more mentally and physically prepared to handle tough sets. Stay persistent!