Posted on March 01, 2017 by Jenny Cromack
Now is the time of year where people may be starting to train for a triathlon, or perhaps you fancy adding a different element to your training by adding a weekly swim to your regime.
I thought I’d share a swimming workout with you, this is an adapted version of one of my triathlon training sessions which I use to work on my swimming endurance and technique. I use each section or interval to focus on one element of my technique such as breathing (essential I find when you’re swimming!), my hand entry, etc.
There are many benefits of swimming – it’s an ‘full body’ workout, working all muscles of the body, great for your cardiovascular fitness, a good fat burner (if you work hard enough). Personally, I LOVE doing my swim sessions at the end of a long training week as it really helps my muscles to recover.
Depending on your pace, this swimming workout should take around 50 minutes to complete. Swimming is a great workout, but like anything, you need to be working at the right intensity to get the results, plodding up and down the pool chatting to your friend isn’t going to cut it. Make sure you focus working at the intensity levels described below. You can choose any stroke you wish.
Intensity Levels
Level 1 = Easy
Level 2 = Moderate
Level 3 = Hard
Level 4 = Very Hard (100% effort)
Warm Up
5 minutes, Level 1, last 2 minutes increase to effort level 2.
Main Workout
10 mins, 50m at Level 2 with 10s rest between each 50m interval.
15 mins, 200m at Level 3 with 10s rest between each 200m interval.
10 mins, 100m at Level 3, with 10s rest between each 100m interval.
10 mins, 25m (or 50m if you’re fitter) at Level 4, 60s rest between each 25m/50m.
Cool Down
50-100m at Level 1.
Also use the static stretches from Alex’s recent blog, at the end of your cool down too.