I’m starting a “power” phase of swim and run training which I plan to continue for a total of three weeks. The fourth week will be a recovery week. I’ll post more later about the reasons for trying this strategy, but for now I’m going to share a couple workouts I’m doing.
run
After a 15 to 20 min warm-up run do:
4 X 30 sec – all out – uphill
I’m going to continue doing tempo runs on the weekend and possibly adding Threshold runs on the track (3 x 1 mile at 10K race pace) once a week. This is all dependent on my knee and ankle holding up. If it gets cranky, I’ll have to back off and stick to my easier paced, morning runs only.
swim
You’re going to love this workout :- / It takes a lot of time and doesn’t yield a lot of yards, and can be hard on your shoulders, but doing it once a week for three weeks should pay off (if you don’t injure yourself).
| Running total | Running total | ||
| 400 swim | Warm-up | 400 | 8 min |
| 8 x 50 kick | With 20 sec rest | 800 | 18 min |
| 4 x 100 drill on 2:15 | Swim with hands in fists – not open | 1200 | 27 min |
| 20 x 25 on 1:00 | Lots of rest – go VERY hard | 1700 | 52 min |
| 100 easy | Backstroke and/or breast | 1800 | 54 min |
| 3 x 200 pull on 3:45 | Your arms should be toast after this set. | 2400 | 66 min |
| 400 | Warm down – mix in some backstroke | 2800 | 74 min |
I’ve done this swim workout two times now. Wow, is it hard if you do it all out. The first time I did it, I motivated myself by trying to keep a certain time for the 25′s. The second time I did it, I was trying to keep up with a slightly faster swimmer in the next lane. Both methods kept me going hard.
I assumed I’d be wasted the next day, but I felt pretty good and had a real nice swim. I did 3 x 400 at an effort I would do for a Olympic distance triathlon swim. I surprised myself times a bit faster than I would have expected.
I did the hill sprints workout a couple days ago and will repeat once a week for next two weeks. I’ll make a decision at that time whether to continue for a few more weeks. The key to this workout is the duration – Short – and intensity – All Out.
I found I absorbed the workout just fine. Despite what one might think, hill sprints don’t seem to be hard on the knees. Since you’re going up hill, there is little pounding, so this is an encouraging discovery.
I did the swim workout yesterday and agree it was a very good workout…especially for the arms. The 25m sprints is a lot different than what I usually do and the change was nice. It helped to have a friend with me to keep me motivated through the 25m sprints.
I feel better today than I thought I would. Going to do an easier swim today and see how sore I feel.
Awesome!