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Open Water Swim Training – Day #20

In order to best prepare you for an open water swim you obviously need to compete in a few open water swims in advance to the BIG SWIM. You will need to be able to maintain your body heat, hydration and energy needs so don’t just swim a lot in the pool without researching your swim well. Remember to take into consideration water temperature, currents, potential storms or intense heat or cold temps for the day.

If the majority of your training is in the pool then you need to train as the previous workouts are written. You can’t train at one speed because that won’t be a reality in an open swim. Your legs need to be strong and your kicking abilities are more important than you can imagine. The variable speed training and tarzan swimming incorporated in the workouts are key to changing your swimming direction, finding out where you are in the water compared to your competition and navigating your course. The continuous heart rate changes in these practices will prepare you body for different energy needs in your race.

You need to understand pacing for your race and how to conserve your energy when needed. Race pace is a huge and essential part of the Faster Swimming programs. The beginning of the race is crazy until the field thins out and you can establish your pace then you need to be able to kick it in for the finish and Faster Swimming will prepare you.

You will need to rest for the big swim so understanding cycles of training will help prepare you for your competition.

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This is the fourth installation of the 15th practice session for our Open Water Swim Training example.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll post at regular intervals various days of the training.  The entire training session can be found in our 23 Week Training Session, which can be found here.

Day #20   Mid Distance and Open Water

Warm up:  12 x 50   25 kick / 25 swim  @ 75%

1-6 quick starts, 7-12 no grab starts

25 easy

Set #1  swim set

            32 x 25   descend 1-8 and repeat :05rest

2 x 200 with 6 fly kicks off each wall VS by 25   80% – 85%  :10rest

24 x 25 descend 1-6 and repeat :05rest

3 x 200 with 8 fly kicks off each wall   :15rest

VS by 25  80% – 85% with inc stk cnt by 50

16 x 25 @ 500 RP on :30

400 with 6 fly kicks off each wall VS by 50  80% – 85% with inc stk cnt by 100

1:00rest

8 x 25  @ 200 RP on :35

6 x 75 recovery on 1:10

Set #2  kick set  :10rest

            12 x 75  1-4 build within each 75, VS by 25  70% – 80% – 90%

5-8 VS by 25  80% – 100% – 80%

9-12 @ 95%

6 x 50   1-3 VS by 25  75% – 95%

4-6 @ 95%

25 easy

Set #3  

            6 x 50 no grab starts  25 tarzan sprint / 25  5 up tarzan 2 down easy

25 easy

Set #4  freestyle paddle swim set

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            2(8 x 200)  1st set all on 2:15 +/-

100 easy after 1st set

2nd set 1 on 2:20

2 on 2:10

1 on 2:20

2 on 2:05

1 on 2:20

1 sub 1:55

4 x 100 recovery on 1:35

Total yardage = 10,125

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