A variation of this practice will run on Tuesday October 6th in the 50 meter pool at UIC.
Like last week, we’re working on feeling our T-pace and working at a faster pace. This time, we’re going to be working a pace that will push you up toward your anaerobic threshold (heart rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 180). Here is the morning practice for the Level 3A’s (the fast folks):
• 400 FR @ 5:20– Hold T-Pace (or 3 x 100 pace if you don’t know)
• 2 x 50 Kick @ :55 – Fast kick
• 2 x 100 FR @ 1:20 – Hold 4-5 seconds faster than T-Pace
• 400 FR @ 5:20 – Hold T-Pace
• 2 x 50 Kick @ 1:00
• 3 x 100 FR @ 1:20 – Hold 4-5 seconds faster than T-Pace
• 400 FR @ 5:20 – Hold T-Pace
• 2 x 50 Kick @ 1:05
• 4 x 100 FR @ 1:20 – Hold 4-5 seconds faster than T-Pace
Hopefully you did your T-Swim last month (and put forth a good effort), so you have a pace that is an accurate reflection of your current fitness level. We’ll do 3 x 100’s in Warm-Up #2 if you didn’t, but it’s still better to have your baseline pace be from a 20 or 30 minute swim.
We’ll go through cycles of a longer swim, here a 400, where you are trying to simply hold your T-Pace throughout. This intesity should be light. The Level 3’s will follow the 400’s with 2 x 50’s kick, starting at a fast interval and getting slower. The kicks are in there to sustain the intensity and to get your legs warmed up for the 100’s. The 100’s are going to be at 4-5 seconds faster pace than your T-Pace, but held on the same interval. We’ll go through 3 cycles of that with the number of 100’s going from 2, to 3, to 4 at the end of the set. The set’s designed to be pretty challenging.
The Level 2’s and 1’s will follow a similar pattern, but they will do drill/swim 50’s to reset their balance and length after the high intensity swims. The pattern for the 2A’s are shown below:
• 2 x 50 Drill/Swim
• #1@ 1:30: Side Balance
• #2 @ 1:00: FR – Swim long and balanced – very easy pace
To get the whole workout for Level 3, 2, and 1, you can go to the Sample Practices page of our website and follow the link for the 10/07/09 practice.
This practice should be pretty challenging, so have fun with it and go to work (or bed) knowing that you put forth a great effort.